The PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing comes to an exciting conclusion this week as it returns to Southern California for the 2026 Genesis Invitational. Returning to Riviera Country Club after the Los Angeles wildfires rendered the golf course unusable in 2025, the PGA Tour’s best players will compete in the season’s second high-budget event.
Unlike last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Genesis Invitational will be cut at the 36-hole mark (one of three signature events that subdivides the field), narrowing the field to players in the top 50, tied players, and players within 10 strokes of the leader.
That shouldn’t be a problem for world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the headliner in a field that features 18 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Scheffler returned to Riviera for the first time in 2024 with a mallet putter in his bag, as that was where his frustrations on the greens reached a boiling point.
Since then, his run has far outpaced the rest of the world, including 18 consecutive top 10s starting in March 2025. Still, Scheffler is aiming for his first win at Riviera, a golf course that neither Tiger Woods nor Jack Nicklaus were able to conquer during their careers.
Speaking of Woods, he won’t be playing this week, but he will once again host the tournament. The 15-time major champion handed the trophy to Ludwig Oberg at Torrey Pines last year, but he has previously shaken hands with Genesis Invitational champions like Hideki Matsuyama and Max Homa on the field.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy is hoping for a win this weekend after starting second on the PGA Tour this season. McIlroy played well in his season debut at Pebble Beach, effectively returning to the blade iron, but was ultimately overturned by big numbers from other players on the scorecards.
California’s Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Patrick Cantlay, Sahit Segala and Homa are hoping to win in their home states. Meanwhile, Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa and Scheffler will be looking to join Chris Gotterup for their second win of the season and become multi-time winners before the calendar switches to March.
2026 Genesis Invitational Schedule
date: February 19th to 22nd
position: Riviera Country Club — Pacific Palisades, California
Par: 71 | Yardage: 7,383 | Architect: GC Thomas Jr. // WP Bell
wallet: 20 million dollars
2026 Genesis Invitational Field, Odds
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
- Scotty Scheffler (3-1)
- Rory McIlroy (15-1): Where McIlroy wins at this stage of his career is just as important as what he wins, and a potential trophy at Riviera certainly piques his interest. At Pebble Beach, McIlroy’s play improved as the rounds went on. All he had to do was clean the scorecard. He accomplished that on Sunday by running the course without a bogey and shooting a final 64. McIlroy had three top-10 finishes in four tournament appearances at Riviera from 2019 to 2022, but hasn’t been at his best in his past two outings.
- Xander Schauffele (23-1): Schauffele has shown some improvement so far this week, with a top-20 finish at Pebble Beach and a glimpse that his game is closer than it seems. The two-time major champion is flying the ball beautifully, but he just needs to clean up the dirt on and around the greens to be competitive again. Before Matsuyama competed, he had a chance to win this tournament on the back nine in 2024, so this should be a good spot for him.
- Tommy Fleetwood (23-1): He had a quiet T4 finish at Pebble Beach last week and did everything very well. After playing so-so in the Middle East, the reigning FedEx Cup champion looked like the player who hoisted that trophy at last year’s Tour Championship. He improved with each trip to Riviera, finishing T37, T28, T20, and T10. If this trend continues, Fleetwood could be added to the list on Sunday.
- Hideki Matsuyama (25-1): Along with Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson, he is one of the most recent Masters winners to reign supreme at Riviera. Matsuyama returned to form this year after posting four straight top-13 finishes, although playoff losses at the WM Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach T8 hampered his driving. There’s no hiding from that club this week, but if he figures it out, he’ll have a better chance of stepping into that winner’s circle than anyone else.
- Russell Henry (25-1)
- Cameron Young (29-1)
- Patrick Cantlay (29-1)
- Sam Burns (31-1)
- Collin Morikawa (31-1): He stated that he had finally started playing golf instead of “golf swinging” again, and the results followed Morikawa. The victory was perhaps premature, having had many close calls since winning the 2023 ZOZO Championship, but it rested on the shoulders of his typically elite iron play. No one expects him to suddenly become a top-five player in the world, even though the Official World Golf Rankings say so. His short game still has plenty of room for improvement.
2026 Genesis Invitational selection
Who will win the 2026 Genesis Invitational? Which long shot will shock the golf world? Visit SportsLine now to see the entire predicted leaderboard of models with 16 golf major wins heading into the weekend.
