2025 Genesis Invitational Preview: Everything To Know About Torrey Pines

It’s another week of golf action on the PGA Tour. The next stop is the 2025 Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. Compare Genesis Invitational odds at the best sports betting sites to increase your potential PGA Tour golf betting payouts. Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, and Rory McIlroy are the headlining names for this upcoming tournament.

For the second time in four weeks, Torrey Pines is back to host another event. Unfortunately, due to the devastation the California wildfires have caused to the greater Los Angeles area, the 2025 Genesis Invitational has been forced to relocate from its usual home at the famed Riviera Country Club to a familiar venue in Torrey Pines’ South Course for four rounds starting this Thursday.

It’s great to see this event remain in California, serving as an excellent opportunity to raise funding for those affected by the wildfires. You can donate to the California Fire Foundation and check out additional causes supported by the Genesis Inspiration Foundation at www.pgatour.com/content/SupportLA.

The Torrey Pines South course is one of the longest setups on the PGA Tour, measuring over 7,700 yards. Distance alone gives this event the feel of a major championship, and its leaderboard over the years has been reminiscent of the same. This week, a combination of driving distance, proximity from 200+ yards, a top-tier short game, and scoring in difficult comp conditions will be crucial. This serves as a nice contrast to the birdie fests we’ve followed over the last two months.

Here’s everything you can expect at the 2025 Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. Click on odds anywhere to bet now.

2025 OPENING Genesis Invitational ODDS: THE FAVORITES

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THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

Fewer, bigger, better is the theme this week. While it may feel like we’re running back the Farmers Insurance Open again four weeks later on the same grounds, this event will feel much different from the full-field event we saw at Torrey Pines in January. As an invitational event, this is a signature event field of just 72 players reserved for the top 50 finishers from the prior season’s FedExCup Standings. The field is then rounded out by the Swing Season’s Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5 to capture the hottest players over the last several weeks.

In addition to those prerequisite qualifications, we have a star-studded list of sponsor exemptions, including Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland, Min Woo Lee, and the tournament host himself.

Tiger Woods!

Tiger Woods surprised the golf world with the announcement earlier this week that he’s chosen the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines to mark his first start of the 2025 season. We have been blessed to watch Tiger in competitor non-PGA Tour action like TGL and the PNC Championship this winter, but this will mark Tiger’s first PGA Tour start since The Open Championship last July.

Expectations are in check for Tiger, as a gargantuan 7,800-yard course will be anything but a walk in the park. He did manage to make the cut at The Masters last year, but coming off a 2024 season with finishes of WD-60-MC-MC-MC, Tiger’s presence in this event feels more ceremonial than anything else.

Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines is a match made in heaven for golf viewers. From the venue that brought us “Expect anything different?” Tiger at Torrey is a remarkable sight, and he’ll set out for one more miracle if he can somehow secure his seventh career win at Torrey Pines this week.

The Rest of the Field

Great golfers make great tournaments, so I’m excited to see the PGA Tour run back another event at Torrey Pines this week. The star-studded field, headlined by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, features all eligible OWGR top-50 players except Xander Schauffele, who continues to recover from injury. I’m sure the San Diego native is as frustrated as anyone to miss not one but two events at Torrey Pines this year.

Of the top 20 players in the field, only Hideki Matsuyama, Ludvig Aberg, Sahith Theegala, Sungjae Im, and Keegan Bradley return from the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open field.

Regarding event history, Hideki Matsuyama returned as your defending Genesis Invitational champion at Riviera last year. He’s joined by Max Homa and Adam Scott as past Genesis Invitational champions in the field this week.

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INTRODUCTION TO TORREY PINES SOUTH COURSE

Torrey Pines’ South Course needs no introduction because we have already taken a deep dive into the course breakdown in the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open preview. With minimal changes expected to the course layout, we’ll briefly refresh the South Course breakdown and then focus on how this new and improved field stacks up for this week.

Riviera and Torrey Pines have little in common beyond their Poa greens, so I’m deprioritizing the value of event history in my tournament research.

How It Breaks Down

The South Course is heavily concentrated, with seven par 4s measuring over 450 yards. It also features three par 3s over 200 yards and two par 5s over 600 yards, all reminiscent of a classic major championship venue. This places significant emphasis on long-iron approaches from beyond 200 yards. About one-third of approach shots come from this distance.

The par 5s on the South Course are the only four holes with below-par scoring averages. Players must grind for pars and take advantage of rare scoring opportunities that come from the par 5s.

Course History & Comp Courses

The top 10 players in this field in terms of total strokes gained at Torrey Pines are Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im, Keegan Bradley, Sam Stevens, and Will Zalatoris.

Harris English highlighted the importance of course history or just course experience in his 2025 Farmers Insurance Open win. He put on a masterclass of course management, missing in the correct spots in his final round to prevail despite not having his best ball-striking form in the final round. While debutants have fared pretty well at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (see Matthieu Pavon in 2024), I find myself favoring the in-form veterans who regularly stop on these grounds year over year and know exactly where you can and cannot miss on this course.

Comp Courses

The identity of the Torrey Pines South lies primarily in its length. It offers a unique combination of narrow fairways, thick and penal rough, and firm, hard-to-hold Poa greens. Unsurprisingly, the South Course hosted the US Open in 2021 and 2008. These are the foundational characteristics of a major modern venue.

Given the recent stretch of birdie fests, I’m emphasizing performance in difficult comp conditions to refine my player pool this week. I am comfortable overlooking some recent results if a player profiles well on a course that favors driving distance, long iron play, and short game, particularly on West Coast Poa greens.

Starting with recent major venues, Bethpage Black, Winged Foot, TPC Harding Park, Quail Hollow, The Ocean Course, Oak Hill, and Los Angeles Country Club most feature the common characteristics of yardage, penal rough, and difficult-to-hold green complexes that emphasize top-tier touch around the greens. TPC Harding Park and LACC get an added bump as California locations.

From an agronomy standpoint, Riviera CC and Golf Club de Chapultepec share the most in common with Torrey Pines. They both feature West Coast Poa greens, thick rough, difficult overall scoring conditions, and overlapping success from players like Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, and Patrick Reed.

Bay Hill, Muirfield Village, and Olympia Fields also share an advantage to longer hitters, difficult scoring conditions, and a high volume of approach shots from the rough.

The top 10 players in SG: TOT at these comp courses are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris, Wyndham Clark, and Harris English. It’s not surprising to see this group filled with perennial major winners and contenders.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER FOR 2025 Genesis Invitational OPEN ODDS

• Driving distance / SG: OTT
• SG: APP
• SG: short game / scrambling gained
• Prox: 200+
• Bogey avoidance
• Par 4: 450-500
• Par 5: 550-600
• SG: P (Poa)
• Course history and comp course history

We have seen players who lack distance still find success at Torrey Pines. However, sacrificing distance to the field on a 7,800-yard course puts enormous pressure on their short game, especially if the course plays as soft as expected. I’m looking to hone in on players who are at least above average in driving distance this week.

We’ll also see a premium on scoring in the P4: 450-500 and P5: 550-600 ranges and an emphasis on proximity 200+. Over 33% of approach shots at Torrey Pines come from at least 200 yards out. Eight players rank in the top 30 in each of these distance metrics: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Keegan Bradley, and Taylor Pendrith.

The ideal blueprint for success here is to hit it long and accurately off the tee. However, added importance is on a strong short game, particularly on Poa. Five players rank above average in driving distance, SG: OTT, scrambling, SG: short game, and SG: putting (Poa): Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Andrew Novak, and Seamus Power.

Importance In Putting

Poa putting is of particular importance this week. We usually only see these distinctly bumpy and imperfect greens during the California swing, favoring locals. Year after year, Torrey Pines proves to be the most challenging course on tour to hit putts inside 15 feet. Identifying players who are most comfortable on Poa greens is crucial. The top 10 Poa putters in this week’s field are Max Homa, Denny McCarthy, Sungjae Im, Mackenzie Hughes, Matthieu Pavon, Sahith Theegala, Thomas Detry, Jason Day, Akshay Bhatia, and Sam Burns.

This week’s ideal player should rank well in terms of season form, comp course history, and performance in comp conditions (7,400+ course length, difficult scoring, and thick rough), along with the prerequisites driving distance and long-range approach prowess. Five players rank above average in each category: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, and Cameron Young.

Correlated Stats

Looking at the top correlated stats for this week (referenced from the Farmers Insurance Open), SG: APP, SG: short game, and P5: 550-600 make the most notable jump inside the top 10. Par-3 scoring and SG are essential: OTT is relatively less than the tour average at this event. Across the board, distance and short game stats like prox 200+, driving distance, SG: ARG and three-putt avoidance saw the largest jump in importance compared to the tour average, while fairways gained saw the least correlation with success.

Three players rank above average in all 10 categories: Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, and Scottie Scheffler.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Russell Henley

We’ll continue to monitor Ludvig Aberg’s wellness checks. I vowed to bet him whenever he plays Torrey Pines (when healthy). The course perfectly suits his strengths of hitting towering ball flights long and straight. But with my praise of Aberg well documented, we’ll focus on a different name this week: Russell Henley.

In many ways, Torrey Pines is the opposite of the type of course (short, positional, wedge-fest) we’ve pigeonholed Henley into. In reality, Henley’s game continues to advance year over year as he evolves into one of the most consistent players. The 2021 US Open at Torrey Pines was the first time I took notice of Henley’s game translating to “big boy” courses, as he played in the final pairing on Sunday before ultimately fizzling to a T13 finish. That was a great learning experience for Henley. He posted four additional top-15 finishes in Majors since, including a T7 at Pinehurst and 5th at Royal Troon in his last two starts.

If we can all come around to this new reality that Henley may be a “difficult conditions” guy, Poa putting would be the last obstacle I’d like to see the Georgia native overcome. He just led the entire field in SG: Putting at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in his last start.

Golf is much easier when you can hit every fairway and green in regulation on repeat, like Henley. He’s in complete control of his game now with a trending putter, and I expect we’ll catch a nice discount on Henley’s price for his lack of distance, despite the prior success he’s shown at this venue.

2025 genesis invitational: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m also looking their way in the 2025 Genesis Invitational odds. I’ve broken the list by actualized pricing/odds tier for DraftKings and rankings projections for Underdog Fantasy, with odds and pricing released earlier this week.

UNDERDOG GOLF DRAFT RANKING TIERS

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Tier 1

Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy
Collin Morikawa

Tier 2

Tony Finau
Ludvig Aberg
Hideki Matsuyama
Will Zalatoris

Tier 3

Russell Henley
Adam Scott
Jason Day
Taylor Pendrith
Keegan Bradley
Cameron Young

Tier 4

Akshay Bhatia
Maverick McNealy
Harris English
Thomas Detry

Tier 5

Denny McCarthy
Mackenzie Hughes
Andrew Novak
Sam Stevens

Genesis Invitational Odds: MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

For my model this week, I’m prioritizing course and comp course history, SG: APP, SG: ARG, driving distance, and SG: T2G (comp difficult conditions), followed by a more balanced mix of bogey avoidance, scrambling gained, prox: 200+, par 4: 450-500, SG: P (Poa), and par-5 scoring.

Model Favorites

Scottie Scheffler unsurprisingly claims No. 1 honors in the model. Although he’s looked “human” in his first two starts of 2025 since recovering from his hand injury, he still ranks No. 1 in SG: TOT, SG: T2G, SG: APP, and Comp Course History. Rory is closing the gap as a close competitor to Scheffler after his Pebble Beach victory. However, Scheffler is still clearly the man to beat in San Diego.

After Scheffler, my model’s top tier is rounded out by Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im, Russell Henley, Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, and Taylor Pendrith.

When Genesis Invitational odds are released on Monday, I’ll be eying Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg at the top of the board. Russell Henley, Taylor Pendrith, Adam Scott, and Jason Day will also be in consideration.

Thanks for reading, and good luck navigating the 2025 Genesis Invitational odds!

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