Genesis Invitational Odds: Top Players Tee It Up At Riviera

The top players and the biggest draw yet in 2021 are outside of Los Angeles for The Genesis Invitational at Riviera this week. I chip-in an early preview at TheLines, and odds released today with projections noted Sunday on the mark for the top players.

That includes the top-4 players in the Official World Golf Rankings, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele. Current No. 6 Rory McIlroy was No. 1 entering this tournament last year and finished 4th, whilel Dustin Johnson finished 10th and is a past winner here.

The SuperBook in Las Vegas posted the early odds.

GENESIS INVITATIONAL ODDS 2021

The Genesis Invitational

D Johnson 6/1
J Rahm 12/1
R McIlroy 12/1
J Thomas 14/1
X Schauffele 14/1
P Cantlay 14/1
B DeChambeau 16/1
B Koepka 25/1
T Finau 25/1
D Berger 30/1
V Hovland 30/1
C Morikawa 35/1
A Scott 35/1
J Spieth 35/1
H Matsuyama 40/1

72 Hole Winning Score: 270.5

— Jeff Sherman (@golfodds) February 15, 2021

Odds vary slightly at other leading online sportsbook like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and William Hill, who all have Dustin Johnson at +550 to win.

COURSE AND TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

• Course: Riviera Country Club
• Location: Pacific Palisades,  CA
• Date: Feb. 18-21
• Par: 71 / Yardage 7,322
• Purse: $9.3 Million / Winner $1.67 M
• Fairways/Rough: Kikuyu
• Greens: Poa annua
• TV/Stream: Golf Channel (Thurs-Sun) and CBS (Sat-Sun), PGA Tour Live
• Twitter & Hashtag: @ thegenesisinv
• Defending Champion: Adam Scott

A total of 20 of the top 30 players, and 30 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) will compete. Additional course insight and information you can bet on in the Genesis Invitational preview at TheLines.

Top players in the field include:

• Dustin Johnson (No.1 OWGR)
• Jon Rahm (2)
• Justin Thomas (3)
• Xander Schauffele (4)
• Rory McIlroy (6)
• Collin Morikawa (7)
• Bryson DeChambeau (9)
• Patrick Cantlay (11)
• Brooks Koepka (12)
• Viktor Hovland (13)
• Tony Finau (14)
• Daniel Berger (15)
• Matthew Wolff (18)
• Matthew Fitzpatrick (20)
• Adam Scott (22)
• Hideki Matsuyama (23)
• Kevin Na (26)
• Abraham Ancer (27)
• Cameron Smith (30)

Recent Genesis Invitational winners and runner-ups at Riviera:

• • 2020 – Adam Scott (-11), Matt Kuchar, Scott Brown, Sung Kang
  • 2019 – JB Holmes (-14), Justin Thomas
  • 2018 – Bubba Watson (-12), Tony Finau, Kevin Na
  • 2017 – Dustin Johnson (-17), Scott Brown, Thomas Pieters

GOLFERS TO WATCH

I chip-in more insight and information you can bet on with Golfers to Watch – or those players beyond the top 8-10 favorites who are often +3000 or greater. You can bet them to win outright, but a better percentage play is top finishing position bets of Top 5, 10, 20 or even Top 30.

Here is one of the players I identified for the Golfers to Watch. Check out the other players and analysis at TheLines.

Hideki Matsuyama (+4500 DraftKings): Hideki’s problems remain with the putter, and his worst metric is Putting. He’s 76th in this field over his last 36 rounds on Poa. But Matsuyama’s Approach play is elite, and he ranks Top 20 in this field in Ball Striking, Tee-to-Green and Around the Green. Hideki’s Scrambling from inside 30 yards is solid, although his bunker play is not. Matsuyama is not a trending or popular pick for those following FanShare Sports, but he’s just solid all around and has also finished Top 5 last year and Top 10 in 2019 to go along with two other Top-11 finishes in this event.

I add more betting data and golfers to watch in my Genesis Invitational update at Forbes.

Last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach, Max Homa was one of our golfers to watch and he finished Top-10 for a +400 score.

Be sure to check back and follow on Twitter, as we Fire for Birdies and I post periodic Round-by-Round matchup plays. Those were 2-for-2 in the Farmers Insurance Open, and happened to include Max Homa.

More tournament coverage, stats, scoring averages and information you can bet on in my Genesis Invitational update at Offshore Gaming Association.

Players to Win and Top Finishing Position (Top 5, 10, 20)

Fairway’s Favorites: Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama
Fairway’s Longshots: Carlos Ortiz, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Lanto Griffin

Tournament Match-ups: Griffin(-115) over Todd, Ortiz (+100) over Ancer (William Hill)

The Genesis Invitational starts a stretch of top tournaments and stronger fields, and the next four are in Florida – World Golf Championships at The Concession, Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass and Honda Classic at PGA National.

We’ll continue to update and keep firing for Birdies and Scrambling to save Par.

Update: Tournament matchups 1-0-1. Griffin beats Todd (+2, missed cut).
Ortiz (+2) and Ancer (+2) push, both missed cut.