Opening Round Today at the The Genesis Invitational

The Genesis Invitational is one of three tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule with elevated status, along with the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The tour’s “elevated events” offer a larger purse ($9.3 million), a three-year PGA TOUR exemption for the winner, and new in 2021, 550 FedExCup points to the winner

The Genesis (then LA Open) was first played in 1926 and stands as the seventh-oldest active tournament on the PGA Tour behind The Open Championship (1860), U.S. Open (1895), BMW Championship (1899), RBC Canadian Open (1904), PGA Championship (1916) and Valero Texas Open (1922).

Reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson has nine Top-10s in 13 starts at The Genesis Invitational, including a win in 2017 and two runner-up finishes.

2020 Korean Tour Order of Merit winner Tae Hoon Kim, 35, makes PGA Tour debut after receiving sponsor exemption as winner of the 2020 Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour.

Local Advantage? Long Beach, California, native and former UCLA player Patrick Cantlay took over the lead in the FedExCup standings after a T-3 at last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Strong field, indeed: This week, 24 of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, led by No. 1 Patrick Cantlay, No. 2 Xander Schauffele and No. 3 Dustin Johnson are all scheduled to play

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Tournament Tee Times on Thursday start at an early 6:40am (local)/9:40am ET. (link)

Charles Swartzel, Wyndham Clark and Sepp Straka will be first from No. 1 while Cameron Tringale, Joel Dahmen and Will Zalatoris have the early wake-up call to head out on the Back Nine.

Weather for Thursday: Sunny. 0% chance of rain. Temps in the 49-68-degree range with winds NE/SW 5-10 mph. Rest of weekend forecast is similar with exception of Saturday with increased winds, 15-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph.

PGATourBrunch will be serving an early “BRUNCH” and posting at 9am ET Thursday through Sunday. The Monday recap will be for your lunch snacking at Noon (ET) on February 22.

Next Week: “Let’s Play Two!” - World Golf Championship in Florida and the Puerto Rico Open.

Field Updates:

Daniel Berger (out)/ withdrew Tuesday. No replacement, reducing field from 121 to 120

Andy Ogletree (out/hip injury Tuesday) / Tim Widing (in)

Cameron Champ (out/Wednesday night) / Andrew Putnam (in)

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: The GENESIS INVITATIONAL

COURSE: Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California

ARCHITECTS: G.C.Thomas, Jr. and W.P. Bell

YARDS/PAR: 7,321 yards/Par 71

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $9,300,000/$1,674,000

DEFENDING Champion: Adam Scott (2020 Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Winner’s points: 550

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @thegenesisinv

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, February 18: 12:00pm to 8:00pm (ET) on Golf Channel. Friday, February 19: 2:00pm to 6:00pm ET on Golf Channel. Saturday, February 20: 1:00pm to 3:00pm (ET) on Golf Channel and 3:00pm to 6:00pm (ET) on CBS. Sunday, February 14: 1:00pm to 3:00pm (ET) on Golf Channel and 3:00pm to 6:30pm (ET) on CBS.

STREAMING: PGA Twitter Live (free) will be streaming Thursday, February 18th from 12:00pm to 2:00pm (ET) and 6:00pm to 8:pm (ET). PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups on Thursday and Friday from 9:45am to 8:00pm (ET); On Saturday (11:00am-3:00pm ET) and Sunday (11:30am-3:00pm ET), PGA Tour Live will stream Featured Groups. Featured Holes will be streamed only on Saturday (3:00pm to 6:00pm ET) and Sunday from 3:00pm to 6:30pm (ET).

Featured Groups - HERE for $ paywall at NBC Gold

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Thursday, February 18 - Friday, February 19 - 2:00pm to 8:00pm (ET); Saturday, February 20 (1:00pm to 6:00pm (ET)) and Sunday, February 21: (1:00pm to 6:30pm (ET)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.

TOURNAMENT SITE (link)

Odds

A L👀K at the Odds for The Genesis:

2021 Genesis Invitational odds (via William Hill)

Dustin Johnson 6-1

Rory McIlroy 12-1

Jon Rahm 12-1

Justin Thomas 14-1

Xander Schauffele 14-1

Bryson DeChambeau 16-1

Patrick Cantlay 18-1

Brooks Koepka 22-1

Tony Finau 25-1

Viktor Hovland 30-1

Adam Scott 30-1

Collin Morikawa 30-1

Jordan Spieth 33-1

Hideki Matsuyama 33-1

Bubba Watson 45-1

Joaquin Niemann 50-1

Scottie Scheffler 50-1

Marc Leishman 60-1

Max Homa 60-1

Sergio Garcia 60-1

Abraham Ancer 60-1

Will Zalatoris 60-1

Matthew Fitzpatrick 66-1

Carlos Ortiz 70-1

Matthew Wolff 70-1

Russell Henley 75-1

Kevin Na 75-1

Gary Woodland 80-1

Cameron Smith 80-1

Matt Kuchar 80-1

Si-Woo Kim 80-1

Francesco Molinari 80-1

Jason Kokrak 80-1

James Hahn 90-1

Cameron Davis 90-1

Henrik Norlander 90-1

Rickie Fowler 90-1

Sam Burns 100-1

Corey Conners 100-1

Maverick McNealy 100-1

Cameron Tringale 100-1

Lanto Griffin 125-1

Kyoung-Hoon Lee 125-1

Adam Hadwin 125-1

Nate Lashley 125-1

Russell Knox 125-1

Brendon Todd 125-1

Luke List 125-1

Brian Harman 125-1

Alex Noren 125-1

Kevin Streelman 125-1

Brendan Steele 125-1

Quick Look/Key Information:

Last Week’s Final Leaderboard from AT&T Pebble Beach (link)

2020 Genesis Results (Adam Scott was Champion) - (link)

Past Winners and Runners-Up at The Genesis (link)

What They’re Saying:

Bubba Watson Opens-up On Mental Health Issues (PGATourCom)

DeChambeau’s Distance Gives him Upside at Riviera (Golf Digest)

Cameron Champ Withdraws Due to Texas Storms (Golf Digest)

Joaquin Niemann Plays On with his Relative in Mind (PGATourCom)

#SportsBiz, and Golf Industry News

Mike Whan Named Next USGA CEO (Yahoo Sports)

February 18, 2007 - Charles Howell III won his third title on the PGA Tour, defeating Phil Mickelson on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff at the (then) Nissan Open at Riviera CC in LA. Howell fired a final round (65) and Mickelson bogeyed his final hole in regulation to drop into the playoff. Mickelson had won the week before at Pebble Beach.  -  (Courtesy of Randy Walker), Author of On This Day in Golf History, available via Amazon.com and by clicking HERE

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG!

Be SURE to test drive the weekly Sunday Sports Notes Column, “While We’re Young (Ideas)” by @TerryLyons. Sent once a week for your (late) Saturday night or Early Sunday morning entertainment. You can sample and subscribe HERE

Parting Putt:

No NFL? Golf’s TV Ratings get stronger.

Golf Digest @GolfDigest

CBS drew its best final-round rating in years with Sunday's broadcast of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 👀: glfdig.st/9AzA50DD9dL

February 18th 2021

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