The early portion of the 2019 PGA Tour season continues this week as the next tournament on the docket is the Genesis Open at historic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, California. It will be a relatively star-studded event, as the majority of the top-30 players in the world will be competing.
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Storylines
There is no shortage of storylines heading into this week. First and foremost, Tiger Woods, who will be making his second appearance of the season. Bubba Watson will look to capture his fourth title at Riviera in his past seven appearances. Phil Mickelson will look to capture his 45th PGA Tour win after holding onto a victory last week at Pebble Beach. Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth will also tee it up this week. Essentially every big name in the sport of golf today will be teeing it up in LA beginning on Thursday.
Golfers to Target
Hideki Matsuyama $9,300
Hideki will enter the Genesis in relatively good form, finishing T15 and T3 in his last two events. He also has a decent track record at Riviera, finishing 23rd here on his course debut, fourth in the following year and then 11th. Matsuyama also ranks T29 in greens-in-regulation percentage on approach shots that stretch over 200 yards, a key metric to target at Riviera due to the lengthy Par-4s.
Bubba Watson $9,700
If there is one thing you need to know about targeting Watson in PGA DFS, it’s that he normally plays well when competing at courses that he genuinely loves. For example, Riviera, Augusta National, and TPC River Highlands are courses that he enjoys, and he’s collected multiple victories at each location. He has three victories at Genesis and he’s coming off a top-five finish in Phoenix two weeks ago. For this price point, it seems foolish to fade him.
Jason Kokrak $7,600
Kokrak is a world-class ball striker who nearly won this event a few years ago before capturing second place to only Bubba Watson. He can win this event if his putter catches fire.
Harold Varner III $7,000
Coming off a top-10 finish in Phoenix two weeks ago, Varner possesses the length and ball-striking to compete at a course like Riviera. As a matter of fact, he led the field off the tee and ranked 25th in approach last year at this tournament. Only one other player in the field hit more greens in 2018 than Varner. He ranks 26th in GIR percentage on approach shots above 200 yards.
Tommy Fleetwood $8,600
I could be operating in the minority, but I think it is only a matter of time before we start discussing Fleetwood among the best golfers on the planet, which means we are getting a tremendous amount of value this week given his price-point. Fleetwood ranks 2nd in SG: Approach and 34th in SG: T2G, with his only flaw being around the green. If he can consistently locate Riviera’s relatively miniature greens, he will find himself in a position to potentially win on Sunday.
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Shane Davies is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Shane, check out his archive and follow him @FantasySD1.
