There aren’t many PGA Tour weeks where Rory McIlroy is not front and centre in the build-up, but on the eve of the Genesis Invitational at L.A.’s Riviera Country Club, that’s exactly what’s happening.
Tiger Woods, naturally, is taking the lion’s share of the attention – yes, bad pun very much intended – and in addition to the tournament host, last week’s winner Nick Taylor, Charlie Sifford Memorial exemption awardee Chase Johnson, Adam Scott, Charley Hoffman, Ludvig Åberg, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark are all scheduled for press conferences.
Rory McIlroy, is not. Ok, so neither are Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and a myriad of other big-name stars, but it’s very seldom that McIlroy isn’t paraded in front of the media in the lead up.
Last year, Rory was paired with Woods for rounds one and two, meaning he was woven into the Woods comeback narrative whether he liked it or not, this year, he’s at the opposite end of schedule to Tiger, not doing any pre-tournament press and very much under the radar, even if he’s world number two and second-favourite in the eyes of the bookmakers.
And maybe that’s exactly how McIlroy likes it. Too often at these bigger PGA Tour events he’s generated headlines galore for his candid comments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but significantly less over the weekend. But this is a course he’s played well at, and despite the Poa-Annua putting surfaces, one where he can definitely win.
Back in 2020, just weeks before golf and the rest of the world shut down for the pandemic, Rory held the lead after four holes of the final round only to be undone by an unexpected triple bogey at the fifth and he was fourth here in 2019, ultimately fifth in 2020 and then 10th in 2022.
Quite where his game is actually at is anybody’s guess. He had a runner-up and a win in Dubai with his ‘B’ game, endured a frustrating three rounds at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and we haven’t seen him since, but with the eyes of the golfing world on Woods at the front end of Thursday’s coverage, McIlroy, sitting at the back end of the draw, will be focused on his own game, avoiding the travelling circus that always is a Woods pairing, especially here in his native California.
Seamus Power is the other Irish representative and the Waterford man is in desperate need of inspiration following five lacklustre performances where he’s missed just one cut but not finished inside the top 30. And these are the weeks where he needs to make hay while the sun shines.
There is a cut, of course, but a maximum of 20 of the 70 starting players will not see the weekend and anybody within 10 shots of the 36-hole lead will be safely through. It’s not quite free money and ranking points, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to secure a healthy payday and to halt the slide down the world rankings.
Riviera is always one of the most anticipated tournaments on the west coast swing, not just because of Tiger – he wasn’t a regular competitor until he became tournament host several years back – but because it is one of the best courses on the regular PGA Tour circuit and the tournament, originally called the L.A. Open, is one of the longest-running PGA Tour events and has a roll of honour that is a who’s who of big-name stars. From Snead and Hogan through to DJ and Rahm, virtually all of the big-name hitters on the PGA Tour have won this tournament – all except McIlroy, Jack Nicklaus and Woods,
For the third time this year, there is a gaping hole left by the absence of the defending champion, and not having Rahm in the field is a significant disappointment, but he and Tyrrell Hatton are the only two of the top-25 in the world rankings who won’t be teeing it up, even though the official world rankings continue to become more and more obsolete with each passing week.
And there are mouth watering threeball groupings galore, spearheaded by the Woods, Justin Thomas and Gary Woodland threesome who set out at 17:25 Irish time.
Power goes out earlier, alongside Denny McCarthy and Adam Svensson at 16:32, while McIlroy is in the penultimate group on the opening day, paired with Max Homa and US Open champion Wyndham Clark, and they don’t get round one underway until 19:54.
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