As the PGA TOUR season builds momentum and starts the build-up to the first major of the year at The Masters, DraftKings Sportsbook brings a wide variety of ways to get in on the action each week. This week’s Signature Event, The Genesis Invitational draws a strong field, but to a new location since the event had to be moved from Riviera Country Club to Torrey Pines. Plenty of exciting storylines are in play, so let’s find some matchups to attack in this week’s 3-ball picks.
If you’re not familiar with the term “3-balls,” let me give a quick rundown. First, their location: each week, 3-balls are available in the matchup section of the tournament page. Each of the selected “tournament trios” pit three selected players head-to-head for the entire tournament. They are a great balance between getting plus-odds and still having a manageable matchup to analyze and break down. Picking the winner out of the entire field is extremely tough, but in these 3-balls, you just pick a winner from the three players in the prop.
This week, there are six 3-balls available, including some of the biggest stars on the board. It should be an action-packed week, and you can get all the info on course, format and field this week in Geoff Ulrich’s Cheat Sheet.
Ludvig Aberg (+165)
This fun tournament trio features Aberg, Sungjae Im (+175) and Tommy Fleetwood (+180). The biggest question in this group is how healthy is Aberg after a brutal bout of the flu that slowed him down at the Farmers here a few weeks ago and forced him to withdraw after just one round of the AT&T Pebble Beach.
Aberg started at Torrey Pines red hot before getting sick. He opened with a 63 on Thursday, (albeit on the North Course), and said after that he loved “any golf course when it looks like this, when you have the views, and Torrey Pines is a really, really cool place.” Earlier in the week, he said that San Diego was his “favorite place in the world.”
If he’s healthy, he should be able to out-duel Fleetwood and Im. Im finished T4 at the Farmers a few weeks ago but only finished T33 at Pebble Beach and T57 at TPC Scottsdale the last two weeks. He hasn’t had the best West Coast swing, while Fleetwood has only plyaed one event on the PGA TOUR this season, posting a T22 at Pebble Beach.
The odds would be much heavier in his favor if it wasn’t for Aberg’s illness, so I’ll take on that added risk to get a top golfer on one of his self-proclaimed favorite tracks.
Min Woo Lee (+180)
For the second week in a row, I’m grabbing Lee at +180. Last week, he paid off by beating Si Woo Kim and J.J. Spaun, and this week he’ll face tougher competition against Sam Burns (+165) and Russell Henley (+180). I said last week that I’m backing the 26-year-old Australian to have a big year on the PGA TOUR, and this week sets up well for him to get another 3-ball win at great odds.
Lee finished T12 last week in Phoenix, building on his strong T17 at Pebble Beach in his first PGA TOUR start of the season. After those two finishes, he has finished T27 or better in eight consecutive events worldwide since losing at the Presidents Cup last fall.
Sam Burns is actually the favorite in this group, but he missed the cut in his last two trips to Torrey Pines and hasn’t played here since 2022. He did notch three top-30 finishes to start the season but had a rough weekend in Phoenix and finished T49.
Henley is actually the threat I’m more worried about taking down Min Woo Lee. Henley is a very consistent ball-striker and posted a top-15 finish in the 2021 U.S. Open, the only time he played this track in the last ten years. Henley followed up a top-ten in Hawaii with a top-five at Pebble Beach, so his form is strong, but I think Lee’s is slightly better and he brings a higher ceiling.
Lee is the only one in this trio that has played this rack since 2023, and he made the cut finishing T43 last year. I think he’ll keep riding high and bring home another 3-ball win this week.
Rory McIlroy (+175)
Three of the biggest names in golf go head-to-head-to-head in this 3-ball with McIrloy facing Scottie Scheffler (+110) and Collin Morikawa (+285). It’s worth noting that Morikawa was Geoff’s pick to win the whole tournament in his cheat sheet, and getting him at such long odds in a tournament trio is definitely notable. However, I’m going with Rory since he has been in such good form and should be able to tame Torrey Pines, especially if the weather gets rough as expected.
Rory won at Pebble Beach in his first PGA TOUR start of the season after a T4 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour. In November, he won the DP World Tour Championship after posting four top-25 finishes in his four previous events.
While he hasn’t played at Torrey Pines since 2021, when he did play at this course, he found plenty of success. He made the cut in all four of his career appearances, with three top-tens, including a T7 at the 2021 U.S. Open.
Morikawa missed the cut here in 2024 but finished in the top five in his previous two trips to the venue, but he has only played once since The Sentry.
Scheffler finisehd in the top 20 in each of his last two trips to Torrey Pines but never in the top five, and he hasn’t played here in three years either. He’s the best golfer in the world, so picking against him is always high-risk, but he hasn’t shown his best form in a T9 and T25 in the last two weeks after returning from hand surgery.
Both Morikawa and Scheffler bring obviously high ceilings, but I like Rory the best of the group to take home the win in this 3-ball this week.
