Damien Kayat previews the 2022 Genesis Invitational, running us through his Value Bets and Man To Beat for the tournament.
Scottie Scheffler broke his PGA Tour hoodoo last week in grand style, holding off an elite field to win his maiden Tour title. It will surely be the first of many for the effortlessly smooth Scheffler.
This week the tour will dial down the boorishness, to some extent, as the players move to one of the most iconic events on the calendar: the Genesis Invitational.
This event often attracts a quality field, with universal respect for host course Riviera.
In fact, this week’s field is even stronger than last week’s desert madness, with all 11 of the world’s top-ranked players in action.
Riviera Country Club has hosted this event on a near-continuous basis since 1973.
As a curious sidenote – Tiger Woods actually made his PGA Tour debut here as a 16-year-old amateur. It just gives you an inkling of the history that has come to define this championship.
Players will often need to scramble brilliantly to succeed. It is actually very reminiscent of the challenges posed by Augusta.
In fact, 12 different Masters champions have won 22 of the 58 renewals of this event at Riviera.
Crème de la crème gather in California
As noted earlier, this is certainly an elite quality field.
Jon Rahm will be looking to affirm his status as World Number One following a solid (if unspectacular) week in Phoenix.
Though he lost in last week’s playoff to Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay is fast proving himself to be a possible successor to Rahm as World Number One.
Collin Morikawa is still the man closest to Rahm in the rankings and he will be making his first US PGA tour start of 2022.
Rory McIlroy will also be making his first US PGA Tour start of the year.
Course specialist Dustin Johnson is coming back into form while the likes of Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffeke are always likely to compete.
Past Winners – 2022 Genesis Invitational
2021: Max Homa (-12) *playoff
2020: Adam Scott (-11)
2019: J.B Holmes (-14)
2018: Bubba Watson (-12)
2017: Dustin Johnson (-17)
To Win Outright – 2022 Genesis Invitational
Jon Rahm – 8/1
Patrick Cantlay – 11/1
Justin Thomas – 14/1
Dustin Johnson – 14/1
Collin Morikawa – 18/1
Value Bets – 2022 Genesis Invitational
Viktor Hovland
To Win – 22/1
Hovland is coming off a disappointing missed cut in Phoenix. That all really boiled down to a horrendous triple-bogey on the Par 5 15th.
But the current World Number Four has been one of the most consistent players in the world of late.
Prior to last week, he had four top 4’s in his last five professional starts. That incredibly included three victories.
He won last year’s OHL Classic prior to winning the Hero World Challenge and won the Dubai Desert Classic just two starts back.
Viktor finished in a tie for 5th on debut here last year.
Talor Gooch
To Win – 40/1
Talor Gooch enjoyed an excellent start to his 2021/2022 campaign, securing his maiden victory at the RSM Classic. He hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in 2022, missing one cut and registering three other top 30 finishes. To be fair, he positioned himself well last week before a closing 75 scuppered his chances of contention. But he is returning to a course that has treated him fairly well thus far. He has finishes of 12th, 10th and 20th in three appearances. Could be worth a bet in the place markets at 13/1.
The Man to Beat – 2022 Genesis Invitational
Cameron Smith
To Win – 18/1
This is an event in which Aussies tend to thrive.
Adam Scott has won this event twice while both Allenby and Baddeley have won around Riviera.
They grow up playing on this idiosyncratic Kikuya grass and tend to thrive here.
Camerson has decent course credentials, finishing T6 in 2018 before a solo 4th last year.
He also has the Augusta connection, finishing runner-up to Dustin Johnson at the 2020 Masters.
More importantly, he seems to always be at the business end of tournaments nowadays.
Smith won last month’s Sentry Tournament of Champions and finished solo 4th last time out at the Saudi International.
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