Woods announced via Twitter that he will return for his first non-major PGA Tour event
Riviera Country Club has always held a special place in the heart of Tiger Woods. The Orange County native grew up near the course and this year’s Genesis Invitational will be the 60th at Riviera in the history of the event. The Tiger Woods Foundation runs this event, so it only makes sense that it will be the site of his PGA Tour return.
We haven’t seen Tiger in a non-major PGA Tour event since the ZOZO Championship back in October 2020. His last appearance was the 2022 Open Championship, where he missed the cut. He’ll be in search of his first career win at Riviera.
Tiger Woods Odds to Win Genesis Invitational
Superbook Sports in Las Vegas opened Tiger at 100/1 to win the Genesis Invitational, but then moved him to 150/1 after the betting market opened. Tiger was +135 to make the cut and -155 to miss, but that has been adjusted to +250 to make the cut and -300 to miss. His first round over/under is 73.5 and he is +750 to withdraw from the tournament and -1200 to not.
The odds on Tiger to miss the cut were growing throughout the day based on the betting action. He played in the PNC Championship in December with his son Charlie after withdrawing from the Hero World Challenge due to plantar fasciitis.
Genesis Invitational Preview
This event has “invitational” status, which means it is a smaller field than normal because players have to meet certain criteria to enter. As a major champion within the last five years (2019 Masters), Tiger fits at least one of the criteria.
This will be another one of the highlighted tournaments with a bigger prize purse as the PGA Tour was pushed by LIV Golf to increase purses and generate more excitement about events. The players are shooting for a piece of the $20 million pool, which is an $8 million increase from last season. The winner’s share is also nearly $1.5 million more.
Tiger Woods Genesis Invitational results
Tiger was the runner-up at Riviera in consecutive years in 1998 and 1999 when this event was known as the Nissan Open. He finished 68th back in 2020, just before the pandemic shut everything down, and tied for 15th in 2019 after a missed cut in 2018.
Dating back to 2004, Tiger’s best finish is a T-7th, but he has only played this event six times in the last 20 years.
Our golf guys will have much more coverage of the Genesis Invitational on the Long Shots Podcast and also with Wes Reynolds’ official tournament preview.