The PGA Tour’s West Coast swing will reach an exciting conclusion this week in a return to Southern California for the 2026 Genesis Invitational. Back to Riviera Country Club after being unable to use the golf course due to the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025, the PGA Tour’s best players will partake in the second signature event of the season with a significant purse on the line.
Unlike last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Genesis Invitational will feature a cut at the 36-hole mark (one of three signature events that slice the field), trimming the field to the top 50 players and ties, along with those within 10 strokes of the leader.
That should not be a problem for world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who headlines a field that features 18 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Rankings. Scheffler returns to Riviera for the first time with a mallet putter in his bag, as this was the site in 2024 where his frustrations on the greens reached a boiling point.
The run he has been on since, which includes 18 straight top 10 finishes dating back to March 2025, has been leagues above the rest of the world. Still, Scheffler is seeking his first win at Riviera — a golf course neither Tiger Woods nor Jack Nicklaus were unable to conquer during their careers.
Speaking of Woods, while he will not be playing this week, he serves as the tournament’s host once again. The 15-time major champion handed the trophy to Ludvig Åberg at Torrey Pines last year, and he has previously shaken the hands of Genesis Invitational champions in the field like Hideki Matsuyama and Max Homa.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy hopes that it will be him this weekend as he makes start No. 2 on the PGA Tour this season. McIlroy played well in his season debut at Pebble Beach, where he effectively returned to his blade irons, but he was ultimately upended by others’ big numbers on the scorecard.
Californians Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Patrick Cantlay, Sahith Theegala and Homa hope to win in their home state. Meanwhile, Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Scheffler aim to grab their second wins of the season, joining Chris Gotterup as a multiple-time winner before the calendar flips to March.
2026 Genesis Invitational schedule
Dates: Feb. 19-22
Location: The Riviera Country Club — Pacific Palisades, California
Par: 71 | Yardage: 7,383 | Architect: G.C. Thomas, Jr. // W.P. Bell
Purse: $20,000,000
2026 Genesis Invitational field, odds
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Scottie Scheffler (3-1)
- Rory McIlroy (15-1): Where McIlroy wins at this stage in his career matters almost as much as what he wins, and a potential trophy at Riviera certainly piques his interest. McIlroy played better as the rounds progressed at Pebble Beach; all he needed to do was clean up the scorecard, which he did Sunday by maneuvering through the course without a bogey en route to a closing 64. McIlroy had a run of three top 10s across four tournament appearances at Riviera from 2019-22 but hasn’t been at his best in his last two trips.
- Xander Schauffele (23-1): Schauffele is making slight improvements by the week with a top 20 finish at Pebble Beach providing a glimpse into his game being closer than it may appear. The two-time major champion is driving the ball beautifully, just needing to clean up some stuff on and around the greens to start being competitive again. This should be a good spot for him, as he had a chance to win this tournament on the back nine in 2024 before Matsuyama made his run.
- Tommy Fleetwood (23-1): Quietly snuck his way into a T4 finish at Pebble Beach last week where he did everything extremely well. After some middling play in the Middle East, the reigning FedEx Cup champion looked like the player who raised that trophy at the Tour Championship last year. He has improved in every trip to Riviera with finishes of T37, T28, T20 and T10 to his name. If that trend continues, Fleetwood will be in the mix come Sunday.
- Hideki Matsuyama (25-1): One of many recent Masters winners to reign supreme at Riviera alongside the likes of Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson. Matsuyama returns this year in stellar form after notching four straight top 13 finishes with his playoff loss at the WM Phoenix Open and T8 at Pebble Beach hindered by his driving. There will be no hiding from that club this week, but if he figures it out, he has as good a chance as anyone to step into that winner’s circle.
- Russell Henley (25-1)
- Cameron Young (29-1)
- Patrick Cantlay (29-1)
- Sam Burns (31-1)
- Collin Morikawa (31-1): Stating that he finally started to play golf and not “golf swing” again, the results followed for Morikawa. He was probably overdue for a win with the number of close calls he had experienced since that 2023 Zozo Championship victory, and it came on the shoulders of his typically elite iron play. No one is suggesting he’s suddenly back to being a top five player in the world, even if the Official World Golf Rankings say as much; his short game still has ample room for improvement.
2026 Genesis Invitational picks
