Tiger Woods Will Play in the Genesis Invitational to Open 2020
Tiger Woods announced that he will be playing the Genesis Invitational to start his 2020 season.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. Of course Tiger Woods is going to be playing the Genesis Invitational. It is his tournament after all, as he hosts the event at Riviera Country Club.
While it might not be as important to some people as the announcement that we now know when we will first see Tiger this season, some changes have been made to the event as well.
With the tournament now be an invitational, a few things have changed. The field will now be 120 golfers, a smaller amount than has been seen in prior years at the event. The winner will also receive a nicer purse, as the total amount available has been increased from $7.4 to $9.3 million. They will also receive a three-year exemption on the PGA Tour, where in the past it was only two years.
These changes were announced way back in February, right around the time it was played last season. It is a nice time to be reminded of them though, with the announcement that Tiger Woods will be playing there.
What is interesting to me is that, although it is the tournament that Tiger Woods hosts, it is his struggles at Riviera. He has played here 12 times and has yet to record a win. That makes it the most entrances into a tournament for him in which he has not won.
It would be fitting for him to be able to take home the win finally in this year’s upcoming event, not that it is an invitational. It sits up there along with Jack and Arnie as having tournaments that are strongly associated with them. This tournament is associated with Tiger Woods, and likely always will be. For him to be able to add a win to “his tournament” would be the icing on the cake.
We still have around three months before we will see him there, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about the prospect of seeing Tiger again. He showed that his game is already in good shape when he lead wire-to-wire at the Zozo. With some time off for the holidays, this could be a top opportunity for Tiger to get in shape for the major season which closely follows the Genesis.
Next. Presidents Cup 2019: The biggest snubs from each team’s roster. dark
It’s no fun that we have to wait three months to see Tiger Woods again. Maybe I will tee up the old youtube and watch some highlights.