Photo by Craig Weston
Tournament Host Tiger Woods Highlights Star-Studded Field
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Tiger Woods will make his season debut at one of his favorite venues in golf—and the world will be watching.
The 15-time major champion and tournament host is starting in his first official PGA TOUR event since 2023’s Masters, and while he has never won at Riviera Country Club, Woods knows how to play the historic course, where he made the cut and tied for 45th last February.
Genesis Invitational is the first of the TOUR’s three player-hosted invitationals (the other two are the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March and Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament in June). Woods’ presence and Riviera’s spongy Kikuyu greens have attracted a stellar field, featuring 10 of the world’s top 11 players and nine of the top 10 in the FedExCup standings.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is coming off a third-place finish at last week’s Phoenix Open and will be confident after taking 12th at Riviera last year. Reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland is making his third start in 2024, and he placed in the top five in two of his three previous starts at Riviera.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is making his second TOUR start this year after a tie for 66th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. McIlroy has finished as high as fourth in eight starts at Riviera.
Phoenix Open winner Nick Taylor will try to ride his momentum into this week after vaulting to No. 28 in the World Golf Rankings and jumping 51 places in the FedExCup race. Twice a runner-up in majors (2018 British Open and 2019 Masters), fifth-ranked Xander Schauffele tied for 33rd at last year’s Genesis with No. 6 Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in June at nearby LA Country Club.
No. 7 Patrick Cantlay returns after taking third-place as does No. 8 Max Homa, a Burbank native who won the Genesis in a playoff in 2021 and took second last year, two shots behind winner Jon Rahm.
Others include ninth-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick; No. 10 and 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman; 11th-ranked Ludvig Aberg (second at Pebble Beach two weeks ago); and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.
Among those who received sponsor exemptions are Will Zalatoris (fourth at Riviera in 2023); two-time Genesis winner Adam Scott (who has missed one cut in his 15 starts); Gary Woodland, who was ninth at Riviera in 2023 and had brain surgery late last year; and Chase Johnson, a Kent State graduate and a Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipient.
The winner of this week’s four-day stroke play event receives 700 FedExCup points and a check for $4 million.
Riviera is a par 71, and Lanny Wadkins set the event’s 72-hole record of 264 there in 1985. The 18-hole record of 61 has been achieved twice—by George Archer in round three at Rancho Park in 1983 and by Ted Tryba in the third round at Riviera in 1999.
Previously called the LA Open, the Northern Trust Open, the Nissan Open and the Genesis Open, this is one of the oldest events on the PGA TOUR. The event made its debut in 1926 at LA Country Club and has since been played at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana; Wilshire Country Club in Hancock Park; Hillcrest Country Club in Cheviot Hills; Riviera and Griffith Park’s Wilson Course.
Riviera has hosted it 60 times and continuously since 1999.
Weather permitting, the first round is Thursday, February 15, the second round Friday, February 16. Players who make the 36-hole cut will continue through the third round Saturday, February 17, and final round on Sunday, February 18.
Should two or more players be tied after 72 holes, a sudden-death playoff will follow, beginning at the 18th hole.
Coverage will air Thursday and Friday on the Golf Channel from 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the Golf Channel and 12 to 4 p.m. on CBS; and Sunday from 10 a.m to 12 p.m. on the Golf Channel and 12 to 3:30 p.m. on CBS.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
