The PGA Tour finishes the West Coast swing by teeing it up again at Torrey Pines in San Diego. The Genesis Invitational was moved from Riviera Country Club because of the wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. The fact that they were able to move the tournament and not cancel it on such short notice is a bit of a miracle.
Torrey Pines South possesses the infrastructure needed to host any PGA Tour event. Having hosted major championships means it has the right cache to host a signature event with a star-studded field.
Tiger Woods was originally slated to make his 2025 PGA Tour season debut as the tournament host on a golf course where he dominates, but he is dealing with the loss of his mother and will not play this week.
I planned to tee it up this week, but I’m just not ready. I did my best to prepare, knowing it’s what my Mom would have wanted, but I’m still processing her loss.
Thanks to everyone who has reached out. I hope to be at Torrey later in the week and appreciate the continued… pic.twitter.com/HP45Tla3QQ
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) February 10, 2025
Scottie Scheffler is once again the betting favorite. He is coming off of a frustrating week at the WM Phoenix Open. A missed putt in the middle of his final round completely derailed his comeback attempt. He showed a level of frustration we haven’t seen from him in a long time. While I expect him to bounce back, this might not be the best golf course for him to get back to his winning ways. His best finish at Torrey Pines was his T7 at the 2021 U.S. Open.
The field will consist of 72 golfers with 29 of them having already played Torrey Pines when they teed it up at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. The top 50 including ties and those within 10 shots of the lead will make the cut.
The wind looks like it will be a factor on Thursday and Friday with rain predicted while the temperatures will hover around 60 degrees. The weekend should see better playing conditions with the temperatures reaching the mid-60s in the afternoon. There was a weather wave at the Farmers Insurance Open so I would pay attention to tee times when putting your DFS teams together.
My model this week will concentrate on driving distance, strokes gained around the green, strokes gained putting on poa annua grass, going for the green, and club head speed with the rough topping four inches in spots. The first hole is always a tester. You need to drive the ball accurately to give yourself a chance to start your round on the right foot. The penalty for missing the fairway on the first hole is almost a full stroke.
2025 Genesis Invitational odds
Course information
Course: Torrey Pines South
Location: San Diego
Designer: William P. Bell and William F. Bell, redesigned by Rees Jones
Par: 72
Length: 7,802 yards
Average green size: 5,000 square feet
Betting slip
Collin Morikawa (+1400) missed the cut here in 2024 but has had success, including a third-place finish in 2023 and a T4 at the 2021 U.S. Open, which was hosted here at Torrey Pines. He has started 2025 strong, finishing second at The Sentry and gaining over 5.3 strokes from tee to green at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Ludvig Åberg (+2200) started the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open on fire at the North Course, gaining over seven strokes on the field. However, he became ill on Saturday, and eventually withdrew during his round at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the following week. Åberg’s game is ideal for this course, and we are just gambling on the fact that he is fully recovered from his bout with illness this week.
Sungjae Im (+3000) finished T4 here in January gaining strokes across the board. Outside of that performance and his third place finish at The Sentry he has struggled mightily with his iron play. He has lost over 4 strokes on approach in each of his other three tournaments. I expect him to straighten it out this week and contend on a course he loves.
Taylor Pendrith (+3300) has gained over 15.5 strokes tee to green over his last two tournaments combined. Pendrith has three top-16 finishes at Torrey Pines since missing the cut at the 2021 U.S. Open. Pendrith is hitting the ball as well as he ever has and is a hot putter away from winning.
DFS plays
Rory McIlroy ($10,900) is priced too low for a golf course that seems to fit his strengths as well as almost any course on the PGA Tour. He hasn’t finished worse than T16 any time he has teed it up here and he didn’t gain a full stroke putting any of those weeks. If he can putt it the way he did at Pebble Beach a few weeks ago he will win back-to-back signature events.
Collin Morikawa ($10,000) See above.
Ludvig Åberg ($9,800) See above.
Sungjae Im ($9,200) See above.
Tommy Fleetwood ($9,100) only played at Torrey Pines at the 2021 U.S. Open when he finished T50, but he seemed to like the putting surfaces. He comes into this week in fine ball-striking form having gained strokes off the tee and on approach in six straight measured events.
Taylor Pendrith ($9,000) See above.
Shane Lowry ($8,800) missed the cut here in January, but had a bit of bad luck with the timing of his draw. He followed up that missed cut by playing spectacular golf at Pebble Beach, finishing second. I think he’s going to be popular because of what he did at Pebble Beach, but I don’t think his ceiling is good enough at this price.
Jason Day ($8,700) loves Torrey Pines, but struggled with his putter in January at the Farmers Insurance Open and still finished a respectable T32 after losing almost 6 strokes on the greens. He bounced back at Pebble Beach by gaining almost 2.4 strokes on the greens and will look to continue that trend this week.
Rasmus Højgaard ($8,300) struggled down the stretch on Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open, but his driving and ball-striking were just what I thought they would be for most of the week. He is going to have to be better around the green to contend this week, but he has a ton of upside with the way he drives the ball.
Sepp Straka ($8,000) continues to put up solid finishes after winning at The American Express. He fought through illness at Pebble Beach and still managed to contend. He has gained over 10.6 strokes on approach in his last two tournaments combined.
Will Zalatoris ($7,900) has missed three cuts and finished T13 or better in his other three tries at Torrey Pines. He either loves or hates this course given the year. When he is at his best he should excel here as he showed when he finished second in 2022. I think he will be a popular play this week, but I wouldn’t go too heavy as there are a lot of solid options in this price range.
Viktor Hovland ($7,900) is priced extremely low for the amount of upside he has. He has struggled around the greens to start the year, but he has had some success here as he finished T2 here in 2021 at the Framers Insurance Open. I’m not going to ignore him at this price.
Min Woo Lee ($7,800) continues to mash it off the tee this year. He gained over 4.4 strokes off the tee at the WM Phoenix Open and he gained over 6 strokes around the green. He is riding a nice little run of consistent finishes without putting it all together at the same time. He gained over 2 strokes off the tee at the Framers Insurance Open here in 2024.
Keegan Bradley ($7,700) finished T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open before struggling with his iron play at Pebble Beach the following week. He has gained strokes off the tee in every tournament so far in 2025. He has three top-five finishes here in the last 10 years so he will be confident and seems like a safe play.
Adam Scott ($7,500) gained over 4 strokes combined off the tee and on approach at Pebble Beach. He will miss Riviera Country Club this week as he has had tremendous success there, but he does have some nice finishes at Torrey Pines with a second-place finish as well as another top 10 in his two tries at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Wyndham Clark ($7,300) has a lot of upside when it comes to fantasy scoring at this price, but he also has a lot of volatility baked in right now. He finally looked to figure out his driver on Sunday at the WM Phoenix Open after struggling since The Sentry to open 2025. He gained over 6.8 strokes on approach and around the green at the WM Phoenix Open.
Daniel Berger ($6,900) tricked me by missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open. I was all in on his comeback from injury season before that missed cut. He was tremendous in the desert. He gained strokes across the board at the WM Phoenix Open, finishing T2. His best finish at Torrey Pines was at the U.S. Open in 2021 when he finished T7 after gaining over 5 strokes on approach for the week. I’m a little scared that his ownership number will be too high. I may look to pivot or be under his ownership percentage because of that.
Cameron Davis ($6,800) has gained strokes on approach and around the green in all four starts in 2025. He has finished T18 or better in the three tournaments where he made the cut. His save from the tree on 18 at Pebble Beach will go down as one of the shots of the year. He has only missed the cut once at the Farmers Insurance Open, but he hasn’t finished better than T32 in six tries. I’m cautious about Davis and will sprinkle him in as a pivot from Gary Woodland.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($6,700) finished T4 last week by gaining a ton of strokes everywhere except for off the tee. He gained strokes on approach in all three tries here while continuing to struggle off the tee. He is extremely hot with his putter and around the green right now and that may be enough to pay off at this price.
Gary Woodland ($6,600) is hitting the ball really well and is only a hot putter away from contending. He was a top-20 machine at Torrey Pines from 2015 to 2020, which is when he was hitting the ball the best from tee to green. He is tough to pass up at this price.
Justin Rose ($6,400) has won at Torrey Pines in 2019 and is coming off a solid performance at Pebble Beach where he finished T3 after gaining over 5.3 strokes from tee to green.
Michael Kim ($6,300) is a San Diego area native who is coming off his best tournament this season. He finished T2 at the WM Phoenix Open by gaining over 11.3 strokes from tee to green. He has never had the finish he might have wanted at the Farmers Insurance Open, but he has popped up on the leaderboard at times before fading on the weekend.
Adam Hadwin ($6,000) finished T9 at the WM Phoenix Open by gaining strokes across the board. He has only missed the cut once at Torrey Pines and seems to like the greens as he has gained 2.9 or more strokes putting in eight of nine tournaments played here.
One and done
I took Bradley here at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and am coming off of a missed cut by Andrew Novak at the WM Phoenix Open. I wish I stuck with Højgaard in my original projection. He may have only earned $195,000, but he was in contention for most of the week and my model predicted he would love that course.
I’m going with Jason Day this week. I’m banking on his experience at this course and the fact that he looked really solid with his putter at Pebble Beach.
Let me know who you are going with and how you are building your DFS teams this week. I’m curious to see if you are going to use Scheffler this week or not.
(Photo of Collin Morikawa: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
