Jake Knapp, Rickie Fowler Feature Best Fantasy Golf Picks at the Genesis Invitational

The PGA Tour is heading to one of the most iconic golf tournaments on the calendar — Riviera. The Genesis Invitational is a special event, hence being invite-only. The club is ultra exclusive and the layout makes it difficult to win here. It can be considered as a west coast version of Augusta National. You will have to be an elite golfer and that is exactly what we will look for today with our fantasy golf analysis.

Fantasy Golf Key Metrics

Riviera is a golf course of shot shaping, bogey avoidance, scrambling, and well, everything. If one part of a golfers game is off, they will struggle to succeed here. These are the key metrics that trend to be vital to winning.

Long Courses/Distance off the Tee
Strokes Gained: Tee to Green
Strokes Gained: Putting (Similar Courses)
Short-Putting Accuracy (Inside 10 Feet)
Shot-Shaping Ability

Tournament History

This will be the 100th playing of the Genesis Invitational. It used to be called the Los Angeles Open and it has been played most at Riviera Country Club (60 Times). The course will not be easy and I am sure you have gotten the idea for by now. The weather will kick off with some rain on Thursday, then being pleasantly in the 60's for the rest of the week. This will have the course playing softer and more gettable, though a bit shorter.

Given the easier nature of this course this weekend, we can expect a winner to range around -20. Here are the past winners:

2025: Ludvig Aberg (-12)
2024: Hideki Matsuyama (-17)
2023: John Rahm (-17)
2022: Joaquinn Niemann (-19)
2021: Max Homa (-12)

Best FanDuel/DraftKings Picks

Hideki Matsuyama — $11,600 (FanDuel) | $9,500 (DraftKings)

Matsuyama might be the most on-fire golfer on the PGA Tour right now. In his last nine starts, Matusyama has no finish worse than T-20, including a victory and five top 10 finishes. He is also the 2024 winner at the Genesis Invitational. He has all the tools to win her over, including that underrated shot-shaping ability that helped Matsuyama win the Masters.

Tommy Fleetwood — $11,400 (FanDuel) | $10,300 (DraftKings)

In Fleetwood's last 11 events, he has won twice and finished in the top 10 seven times. Fleetwood has also played at Riviera four times, improving with each start, most recently at T-10 in 2024. Fleetwood is well abover average in putting (1.6 Strokes Gained). Off the tee, he has also been above average in every event since April of 2025, outside of the US Open, which logically makes sense to be the most difficult setup.

Rickie Fowler — $10,200 (FanDuel) | $8,500 (DraftKings)

Fowler is very underrated at the moment. He has finished in the top 20 in his last five events and seven of his last nine. In putting, Fowler remains to be one of the best on the PGA Tour. Off the tee, he is above Tour average and about 50% better than Tour average in Strokes Gained: Approach. Fowler has all the tools to reach victory at Riviera. He never played here in his true prime of the mid-2010's, so this very well trends to be his best finish at Riviera, which is previously a T-20.

Jake Knapp — $9,800 (FanDuel) | $8,600 (DraftKings)

Knapp is an elite putter and an elite driver of the golf ball. He is meant to play well at Riviera. Knapp has three straight top-8 finishes and he is the 4th best putter on the PGA Tour (Min. 10 rounds). Knapp is also 19th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and the same in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green.