PGA DFS Core Plays: The Genesis Invitational
Top-ranked grinder, Notorious, breaks down his favorite daily fantasy golf plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
The Genesis Invitational
A big congratulations is in order for Daniel Berger, who bounced back with a terrific round on Sunday. He was tied for the lead with Jordan Spieth heading to the 18th tee on Saturday and he hit his tee shot out of bounds. For him to eagle the same hole when it mattered on Sunday was impressive. In his post-tournament interview, he said the three-wood he hit was his best ever and then said the putt he made was his best ever. To hit two of the best shots of your career on a championship golf course to win an event is pretty incredible. It ended up being a solid week of DFS, as all five of the picks from this article ended up making the cut. Brian Harman, Joel Dahmen, and Matt Jones didn’t do much on the weekend, but Berger got the win and Cameron Tringale posted a top 10 finish.
This week we head to the Los Angeles area for one of my favorite tournaments of the year. The Genesis Invitational is held at Riviera Country Club, which is a Par 71 that measures 7,322 yards. It features the easiest par five on the PGA Tour (hole #1) and a drivable par four (hole #10). Outside of that, this course has some serious teeth. It’s ranked inside the top 10 in difficulty on tour in each of the last three years. The winning score here is typically in the low to mid-teens, while the cut line has fluctuated between even par and four over par over the last 10 years. This is one of the few courses that we will see all year where you won’t fall way down the leaderboard if you shoot a round of even par.
When we look at raw statistics from this event in the past, it’s clear that everything is fairly difficult. The fairways are hard to hit, the greens are hard to hit, and driving distance is lower than your average tour event. Scrambling isn’t as difficult as tour average in terms of the success rate, but there will be more scrambling opportunities than usual. On top of all that, the three-putt numbers here are fairly high and that’s not a huge surprise given the fact that these are fast, poa annua greens. You will have to be firing on all cylinders in order to contend this week. I am including all of the strokes gained stats (off the tee, approach, around the green, and putting) in my stat model for the week. I will also be looking at bogey avoidance and am giving a small weight to driving distance.