For the second straight year, Tiger Woods isn’t just the host of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club; he’s also a competitor.
Woods is one of 77 players who will tee it up starting Thursday with a first prize of $4 million up for grabs. The annual tournament is now one of the PGA Tour’s Signature events, which feature smaller fields consisting of the game’s top players. The field includes World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Victor Hovland, as well as Southern California natives Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay.
Woods, an Orange County native, is making his 374th start on the PGA TOUR and is making his first start in an official event on TOUR since withdrawing from the 2023 Masters Tournament before completing the third round.
Woods has made 15 starts at The Genesis Invitational, the most of any tournament in his career without a victory, a fact that the 15-time major champion admitted on Wednesday bothers him immensely.
“It is frustrating in the sense that this is a golf course that has been very comfortable visually,” Woods said. “I played in this event since ’92 and the years I’ve played I still have never won this event. Hopefully, I can figure something out and get myself in there in contention and maybe get a W at the end of the week.”
The course, a rectangular piece of property between Brentwood and Sunset Boulevard, is a haven for pure iron players and Woods has long been among the best, but he has only three top-10 finishes at Riviera, and only one serious chance at winning, finishing two shots behind Ernie Els in 1999. Most telling about Woods and Riviera was the end of 1999 and early 2000. Woods had 10 out of 11 starts on the PGA Tour when he either won or finished second. The exception was Riviera. He tied for 18th.
