For the second week in a row, the PGA TOUR has a Signature Event lined up in California. After an exciting week at Pebble Beach, where Collin Morikawa broke through for his first win since 2023, the PGA TOUR is returning to The Riviera Country Club for this season’s Genesis Invitational.
The par-71 track is one of the most well-known in the regular rotation, and it’s one of the most demanding due to its narrow fairways, winding holes, and difficult recovery shots. The Poa Annua greens and Kikuya rough present a difficult challenge every year, even though there’s no water in play anywhere on the course.
Unlike last week, this week’s Signature Event does have a cut. The 72-player field will be reduced to the top 50 and ties after the second round, along with any player within 10 shots of the lead at that point. All four rounds will take place at The Riv, which will be hosting the event after a one-year hiatus due to the California wildfires in 2025.
Last year’s Genesis Invitational was at Torrey Pines, where Ludvig Aberg got a big win to close out the West Coast swing. The last time the event was at this course, Hideki Matsuyama triumphed in 2024 after a blistering nine-under-par in the Final Round.
Along with course history and current form, Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green are the key stats to target this week — along with players who putt well on Poa Annua greens and rank highly in Scrambling.
Below, I have featured three of my favorite DraftKings bargain plays for The Genesis Invitational, which all cost less than $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $1M Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Top DraftKings PGA TOUR DFS Bargain Plays for the Genesis Invitational
Nick Taylor ($7,400)
Nick Taylor has started the season strong with four straight top-30 finishes. He has positive Strokes Gained: Approach in five of his last six rounds and ranked sixth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and T7 in GIR% last week at Pebble Beach. Taylor’s putter hasn’t been on board for yet this season, but his Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green numbers indicate he’s a solid value play this week at a course that emphasizes second shots.
The 37-year-old Canadian has plenty of experience at The Genesis Invitational, and he has made the cut in eight of his 10 career appearances. Last year’s T9 at Torrey Pines was his best finish in this event, but he did notch two finishes in the top-26 while making the cut in seven of his last eight appearances at this venue.
Tony Finau ($6,800)
Tony Finau got the final sponsors’ exemption for this Signature Event, but he has enough course history and has flashed some recent form that could be an indication that the veteran is ready to keep rolling at The Riv. Dating back to 2018, Finau has played the whole weekend in eight straight editions of The Genesis Open. He finished runner-up in 2018 to Bubba Watson, and he lost in a playoff to Max Homa in 2021. Overall, he has six top-20 finishes at the event. He finished T5 last year at Torrey and was the top 20 in 2023 and 2024.
Finau’s recent form is shaky, but he has shown a few very positive signs recently. He missed the cut in three of his first four events of the season, but he finished T11 at Torrey Pines and 18th last week at Pebble Beach. At Pebble, he opened with a 64 and closed with a 66, but struggled in the two rounds between. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, though, and this week’s Poa annua greens are similar to what he faced on the Monterey Peninsula. He still needs to clean up his consistency — especially of the tee — but Finau is building some momentum coming to one of his best courses.
Tom Hoge ($6,300)
Hoge is a boom-or-bust bargain flier, but he brings enough upside to consider at this price — especially since the cut is a little less severe this week based on the format. Hoge is coming off a top-15 finish last week at Pebble Beach, where he ranked eighth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and fourth in proximity. He finished with a 68 on Sunday, giving him three rounds under 70 on the week — and his second top-15 finish of the season — after a T8 at The American Express.
Despite his sometimes inconsistent iron play, Hoge has finished T14 and solo-eighth in the last two Genesis Invitationals held at Riviera. If he can build on the momentum he gathered at Pebble Beach, he could end up being a key salary-saver this week. All he has to do is make the cut and finish in the middle of the pack to be a strong option if you spend the saved salary on the right stars to pack around him.
