DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: Genesis Invitational Pro-Am Cash and GPP Strategy

This article is part of our DraftKings PGA DFS Picks series.

THE GENESIS INVITATIONAL

Purse: $20M
Winner's Share: $4M
FedEx Cup Points: 700 to the Winner
Location: Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Course: Riviera Country Club
Yardage: 7,383
Par: 71
2025 champion: Ludvig Aberg (Torrey Pines)

Tournament Preview

The Genesis Invitational has always been one of the most anticipated tournaments on the entire PGA Tour calendar. The crown jewel of the West Coast Swing. Not because it's a Signature Event -- after all, that just started two years ago and it's been getting elite fields forever. And not even because of tournament host Tiger Woods, though it would certainly ratchet up the interest level exponentially if he were playing (he's not).

No, it's in large part because of the course.

This is the 100th year of existence for famed Riviera, a 1927 George Thomas design that has stood the test of time, technology and anything else that golf and golfers have thrown at it. The tournament itself is now officially a centenarian, going back to the 1926 Los Angeles Open.

But Riviera almost met its match last year. The venerable course was in grave danger. In the end, it was spared, unlike large parts of Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga that were leveled in the catastrophic and deadly Palisades Fire.

After a one-year detour south on I-5 to Torrey Pines, the Genesis Invitational is back home.

When we last saw Riviera in 2024, Woods was in the field, albeit for only one round, a 1-over 72, before withdrawing. Now, the 50-year-old Champions Tour-eligible Woods is on the mend from his umpteenth back surgery and will be on the grounds solely in his capacity as host of the tournament that benefits his foundation.

But, as is the case for every time the Tour comes to Los Angeles -- Signature Event or not -- the field is loaded.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, 2024 champion Hideki Matsuyama and the entire top-10 in the world rankings -- including last week's winner, Collin Morikawa -- headline the 72-man field.

At Woods' insistence, the field will have a cut, as will Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus' upcoming Signature Events. But the cut is weird, and possibly won't be much of a cut at all. The top-50 and ties make the weekend, but so does anyone within 10 shots of the lead. It's possible that that's almost everyone, however unlikely.

The Genesis is one of the grand old tournaments on Tour, dating way back to when the automobile was just coming into vogue. The first edition of the Los Angeles Open was played in 1926 at Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open. It has been played every year but 1943. Even though showbiz-laden Riviera has been by far the most prominent track in the tournament's history -- this will be its 62nd time hosting -- there actually have been 11 different courses in play through the years, including three munis that anyone can still play today: Rancho Park, Brookside and Griffith Park's Wilson course.

Riviera can be brutally tough -- and that was before they added 61 yards this year. The winning score often is close to single digits. And with the weather forecast downright miserable this week, that could happen again. But in the past two editions in 2023 and '24, Jon Rahm and then Matsuyama won at 17-under. The year before that, Joaquin Niemann won at 19-under, a score that hadn't been reached since Lanny Wadkins set the tournament record of 20-under in 1985. The last time the weather was as bad as it's supposed to be this week, big-hitting J.B. Holmes won at 14-under.

This is one of the few courses on Tour with no water. Instead, tight, tree-lined fairways, thick (but not tall) rough, some very long holes, many undulations and large poa greens (averaging 7,500 square feet) force the golfers to use all the clubs in their bag. Riviera annually is among the toughest fairways and greens to hit, usually under 60 percent for both.

Every year at this time we hear about the Riviera fairways and rough sodded with kikuyugrass, a gnarly, club-twisting beast that's a rarity on Tour. Kikuyu is tough to navigate without familiarity, and that's one reason why course knowledge takes on added importance this week.

Riviera -- one of two tracks nicknamed "Hogan's Alley" for Ben Hogan, Colonial being the other -- features six par-4s in excess of 450 yards, while two of the three par-5s surpass 580 and there's even a par-3 that has been lengthened to a whopping 273 yards. That would be No. 4, and look what happened there two years ago, before it got 37 yards longer:

No. 4 was the third-hardest hole on the course two years ago, behind the traditional beastly twosome of the 479-yard 12th and 487-yard 15th.

Still, a pair of shorter holes are what Riviera is known for. There's the 199-yard sixth with a bunker in the middle of the green and the risk/reward 315-yard 10th, a hole that some call the best drivable par-4 in golf. After years of guys deciding whether to lay up or go for the green, virtually every player in the field now goes for it. The round comes to a close at the brutish, uphill par-4 18th with the pint-size, kidney-shaped green. This year, it's been made even harder, lengthened by 24 yards to a diabolical 499.

One more interesting caveat about Riviera: It has some small greens and some enormous greens. The common denominator is that putting inside 10 feet is harder than just about anywhere else on Tour, thanks in large part to the poa surfaces that get bumpy and hard to read as the day goes on. The golfers make barely 50 percent of their putts from 5-10 feet, an astoundingly low number.

Okay, let's talk lineups: This is a wet week in LA, which could put some of the shorter hitters at a bigger disadvantage than usual. Because there are so many big names and such a small field, some very good golfers have attractive prices. But with 70 percent or more of the field making the cut, there's a strong argument to get two or even three big names into your lineup and fill it with two or three $6000s.

The forecast calls for rain and more rain. It started Sunday night in Los Angeles and it's supposed to continue off and on for more than a week. Further, it will be windy and chilly, with morning temps in the upper-40s and highs only in the 50s. After a very wild winter, this is the coldest weak of the year in Los Angeles.

Riviera-Augusta connection: The Masters is now less than two months away, and it's noteworthy because there is a strong correlation between success there and at Riviera. Matsuyama and Rahm have won at both places, as have Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir and even Fred Couples, Nick Faldo and Tom Watson. However, four players who have won at Augusta have been unable to solve Riviera: Woods, Scheffler, McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus.

Riviera factoids: The course will play host to the 2026 U.S. Women's Open this June and the golf competition at the 2028 Los Angeles Sumer Olympic Games.

Key Stats to Winning at Riviera

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (both distance and accuracy)
• Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green/SG: Approach/Greens in Regulation/Approaches from 150 Yards
• Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
• Putting Inside 10 Feet
• Par-4 Efficiency 450-500 yards 

Past Champions

2025 - Ludvig Aberg (Torrey Pines)
2024 - Hideki Matsuyama
2023 - Jon Rahm
2022 - Joaquin Niemann
2021 - Max Homa
2020 - Adam Scott
2019 - J.B. Holmes
2018 - Bubba Watson
2017 - Dustin Johnson
2016 - Bubba Watson

Champion's Profile

We'll have to keep in mind that a lot of what we've seen in the past few years has taken place in far better playing conditions than we should see this week.

All you have to do is look at the past 10 winners to see how it helps to be long here. Two Watsons, a Rahm, a DJ, a Niemann, a Holmes and a Scott paint a pretty definitive picture (and Matsuyama and Homa aren't exactly short).

Matsuyama ranked 23rd in the field in driving distance and 24th in accuracy for a SG: Off-the-Tee ranking of 16th. He  ranked 18th in SG: Approach, third in Around-the-Green, first in scrambling -- he's among the best wedge players on Tour -- and an outstanding third in SG: Putting.

That's how you win by three strokes in an elite field.

Will Zalatoris was runner-up, ranking only 41st in driving distance but fourth in SG: Approach, third in GIR and 15th in putting, a great number for him.

Third-place finisher and usual big hitter Luke List was even shorter off the tee, but third in Approach and GIR, and first in Putting.

Rahm ranked sixth in driving distance but only 63rd in fairways hit, yet still was second in greens in regulation and first in SG: Approach. He also ranked 12th in SG: Putting, which was good enough to win by two strokes over Max Homa, who led the field in SG: Putting.

In the last decade, Riviera has proved to be either first, second or third hardest on Tour putting inside of 10 feet. The poa greens are tricky, especially later in the day as they get bumpier. Whether that's the case this year in rainy weather, we shall see.

Every champion this century has played the tournament at least twice previously, indicating the importance of course knowledge, and all but three of the past 39 winners have been at least 29 years old. Ernie Els had played Riviera only once before winning in 1999. Charles Howell III was 27 when he won in 2007 and Scott was 24 in 2005, an unofficial victory awarded after 36 holes when the rain simply wouldn't stop. Niemann was 23.

The over/under on the winning score on golfodds.com is 267.5 -- 16.5 under par. 

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

$10,000 and up

Scottie Scheffler - $14,300 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +320)
Scheffler has never won here, and he has played the course six times. He's been good but not Scheffler-great -- T10, T12 and T7 the past three times. As you see, his odds have trickled up into the +300s, so if you're feeling a Scheffler victory, you'll get a little more bang for your buck this week.

Tommy Fleetwood - $10,300 (+2200)
Fleetwood showed last week in his 2026 PGA Tour debut that his game is just fine. He had played on the DP World Tour throughout the fall and into 2026, so rust was not an issue. He tied for fourth at Pebble Beach alongside Scheffler. This will be Fleetwood's fifth go-round at Riviera, and his best finish was his most recent, a tie for 10th in 2024.

$9,000-$9,900

Hideki Matsuyama - $9,500 (+2200)
Matsuyama is kinda/sorta the defending champion, with last year's Genesis taking place at Torrey Pines (won by Ludvig Aberg). Besides his 2024 win, Matsuyama has four other top-11s here, including in the nasty weather of 2019. He has been on his game in 2026, to say the least, with four top-13 showings in four starts, including a near-miss at Phoenix. He's among the best on Tour with wedge in hand.

Patrick Cantlay - $9,300 (+2700)
Fair warning: Good things rarely happen when we pick Cantlay. Maybe it hasn't had anything to do with us; it's just that he's been off his normally elite game the past couple of years. Cantlay has started 2026, oh, shall we say, mixed. He has two top-15s and a missed cut. In the past seven Riviera editions of the Genesis, Cantlay has three top-5s and three more top-20s. The nearby Long Beach native and UCLA product is familiar with this track from way back.

$8,000-$8,900

Jake Knapp - $8,600 (+3600)
Knapp has never played this tournament before, which isn't optimum. But he's a SoCal native and a UCLA alum, so he's gotten some reps at Riviera. Besides, very few golfers are playing better than him now. Knapp has come of the chute in 2026 with three top-10s and a T11. He's well above average across every strokes-gained discipline, highlighted by ranking top-20 in both SG: Off-the-Tee and Putting.

$7,000-$7,900

Harris English - $7,900 (+3800)
English is a guy who traditionally has done everything on a golf course pretty well and nothing really badly. That's a good blueprint for playing Riviera. Maybe that's why he finished seventh two years ago and 12th the year before. English has gotten off to a remarkably consistent start to the season with four finishes in the 20s, two of them inside the top-25. He is ranked second on Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee and 17th in putting inside of 10 feet.

Adam Scott - $7,900 (+5000)
Scott has won here (twice), he's won at Augusta. At age 45, he's still among the longer hitters, and one of the most accurate, to rank third in SG: Off-the-Tee. He's not putting great overall so far in 2026, but he ranks top-25 inside of 10 feet. Scott has played this tournament 16 times at Riviera and missed only one cut; two years ago he tied for 19th and four years ago tied for fourth.

$6,000-$6,900

Sahith Theegala - $6,900 (+10500)
Theegala is one of the ironman on Tour so far this season, having played in all five events and now a sixth. He didn't qualify for the Genesis, but Woods granted him the Charlie Sifford exemption, so the former Pepperdine star plays on. He's had two top-10s and a top-20 in his comeback from an injury-marred 2025. Theegala still has issues getting his driver in the fairway but his wedge-putter game has been outstanding. This will be his fifth go-round at Riviera, with a best of T6 in 2023.

Tony Finau - $6,700 (+13500)
Like Theegala, Finau did not qualify for the Genesis. He's in on a sponsor invite. So far in 2026, it's been all or nothing for Finau -- two top-20s and three missed cuts for a peculiar full house. His best result was a T11 at the Torrey Pines, which at least mirrors Riviera more than the other West Coast or Hawaiian tracks. Finau has had a lot of success at Riviera, with a pair of runners-up in 2018 and 2021 and top-20s in the past two editions there. We know his game has fallen off since then. Sometimes, a return to past success is the needed oomph. Besides, when you get invited by Tiger, you don't want to screw up.

Tom Hoge - $6,300 (+22000)
Nothing really suggests that Hoge will do well here except for the fact that he's done well here -- eighth in 2024, when it was a Signature Event, and 14th in 2023, when it was a field of 120. Actually, that's not 100 percent true. He's coming off a T14 at Pebble, where he's also historically played well, and had another California top-10 earlier this season. Hoge has been putting great --34th overall and 10th from inside 10 feet. Also, he's from North Dakota so he's used to terrible weather.  

Finalizing your lineups for the Genesis Invitational? See how they look in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.