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.
The 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 Woods admitted on Wednesday bothers him immensely.
“It is frustrating in the sense that this is a golf course that has been to me 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.”
Asked why he hasn’t been able to find the winner’s circle at a golf course he clearly loves, he pointed to his inability to putt well enough on Rivera’s often bumpy, poa annua greens.
“I have traditionally not putted well here,” Woods said. “I’ve driven it well here. There are small greens and traditionally throughout my entire career my iron game has been pretty good, but I have never really gotten hot with the putter at this course. For some reason it just has never compiled to a hot week.”
While Woods remains the undisputed biggest draw in golf, the game has been splintered by the birth of the LIV Tour that has taken some of the…
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