2022 Genesis Invitational: Top 10 power rankings at Riviera CC

Did you realize the Genesis Invitational is Collin Morikawa’s first event of the West Coast swing? May I add that this is also the last event of the West Coast swing?

He eschewed two events within a roughly two-hour drive from where he went to college at Cal-Berkeley with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and where he grew up in La Cañada with the Farmers Insurance Open.

Morikawa played in the Sentry Tournament of Champions to start the year in Hawaii (T-5th) and later took to the Middle East to compete in the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (T-62nd) and Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic (T-18th).

With a couple weeks off since Dubai, Morikawa might have a leg up on a good chunk of this week’s field beleaguered from playing Pebble and/or Phoenix.

This is his third Genesis Invitational appearance. He posted T-26th (73-67-68-73) in 2020 and T-43rd (73-69-70-73). Hey, Collin, it’s tough to win with bookending 73s, got it?

Morikawa also competed at Riviera at the 2017 U.S. Amateur where he finished T-8th in stroke play and advanced to the round of 16 in match play.

“You look at a great golf course and does it test every shot, does it test everything that you need?” Morikawa was quoted in a 2021 Golf Channel article. “That’s what Riviera does. You hit every shot out here, you hit draws, you hit fades, wedges, long irons, 3-woods, everything, and I think that’s what makes a great golf course.”

As we all know, Morikawa has all the shots in his arsenal. A course like Riviera that isn’t just point and shoot only serves to benefit him, though he can win at bomb-and-gouge tracks, too.

Morikawa was first on the PGA Tour last season in strokes gained approach (1.17) and second in SG tee to green (1.528).

Putting is his biggest flaw, but he’s good enough to get hot on certain weeks to rack up wins. Plus, he’s plenty familiar rolling the rock on poa annua greens.

It’s time for Morikawa to land a top-10 finish in his backyard.