Genesis Invitational Picks

Football season has come to an end (sorry XFL) and that means your favorite crew at The Stiff Shaft is back to give you the best in our weekly golf picks. We start our season this week with Tiger Week on the PGA Tour. The Genesis Invitational is run by Tiger’s team over at TGR Events and is played at Riviera, Tiger’s old stomping grounds.

Here’s a quick look at the standings when we left off after the Fall Swing:

We clearly aren’t experts.

So, without further ado, let’s get right into who we like this week.

Michael Shamburger (@mshamburger1)

So…WE’RE BACK BABY!

We just had to get that horrible Pebble Beach debacle out of the way. Seriously, why do they force us to watch Toby Keith hit golf shots?

I digress…

We took a break from picks, but I am already 1-2 overall and hoping to make it 2-2 this week!

So, with the Tour returning to Riv and there being no shortage of top players in the field, we all picked different players.

I’m going with Tony Finau. The guy has got to win eventually so I figure if I start picking him now and pick him every week … which I won’t … I will end up with more wins than both Two and Dan.

Finau has gone T14 – T6 – 2 since the Presidents Cup and he really looks like he’s ready to win. That’s after Finau had a 2019 season with three second place finishes, one third place finish and six top 10s. He ended his 2019 season with a fourth place finish at the BMW Championship followed by a seventh place finish at the TOUR Championship.

HE’S GOING TO WIN AND THE FLOOD GATES WILL OPEN FOR HIM!

Two Inches Short (@TwoInchesShort)

And the winner of the 2020 Genesis Open is… Bubba Watson. When in Hollywood right? Let’s get one thing straight. We don’t like Bubba and his pink driver and his yellow golf balls, but dammit do we respect his ball flight. The man is a shot shaping machine.

Plus he basically owns Riviera winning here 3 times all in even number years (2014, 2016, 2018.) Spoiler alert: it’s 2020!

Fresh off a T6 at the Farmers and a T3 at the Waste Management, Bubba is in prime form to get his lucky number 13th victory on the PGA Tour.

Again to be clear, we won’t be rooting for him to win. But unfortunately, that’s what’s going to happen.

Dan Hauser (@DanHauserGolf)

Given that it’s Tiger Week would it really shock anyone that I am taking Tiger here? Once upon a time, before he made the move east and called Florida home, Southern California was Tiger’s stomping grounds. Not only is it where he was born, but Riviera CC was where Tiger made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur way back in 1992. Despite the extensive “local knowledge” and the fact that he is now the tournament host, Tiger has somehow never won at Riviera.

So, what better time for Tiger to get his first win at the Riv than his first year as tournament host? It will certainly make the trophy presentation come Sunday much easier!