For the second week in a row, the PGA TOUR will host an event in California. We head to Riviera Country Club (par 71, 7,322 yards) of Pacific Palisades for the 2021 Genesis Invitational. Tiger’s Tournament brings us a full slate of high-end talents and viable GPP plays available for the tournament. Below are some of my favorite PGA optimizer picks of the week for both DraftKings and FanDuel. These PGA DFS picks are based on Awesemo’s Top Golfers Tool, designed by Alex “Awesemo” Baker to provide leverage scores for each golfer in the field based on their ownership, salary and chances of finishing inside the top six. These picks, combined with the site’s daily fantasy golf picks, projections and analysis should help with lineup construction.
PGA Optimizer Leverage Picks: Genesis Invitational
After tackling multiple courses for the AT&T Pro-Am, we get back to traditional fantasy golf at the Genesis with Riviera Country Club being the only course being played this week. Last week’s champ, Daniel Berger, withdrew on Tuesday and this field is now down to 120 players. Despite being a smaller field, there will still be a top-65 and ties cut after the first 36 holes of this tournament, meaning a higher percentage of the field will be playing on the weekend than usual. Bombers have dominated this track over the last half a decade, with names like Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson walking away with wins, and I will be prioritizing golfers who have extra length off the tee at this Par 71 that features POA greens.
Justin Thomas
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 8.9%, FanDuel: -0.3%
Thomas is expected to be modestly owned on DraftKings and his leverage score for the site is far and away the best of Awesemo’s Top Golfer Tool this week. He has made 14 of his last 15 cuts, finishing inside the top-10 in half of those made-weekends, and Thomas’ stats have been incredible in 2021. For the season, he ranks first in SG on Par 4s, first in BOB%, first in bogeys avoided and second in SG on Par 4s ranging from 450-500 yards.
This stat is important this week because six of the 11 Par 4s at Riviera land in this specific distance. Throughout his career, Thomas’ best work as a putter has come on POA, and before missing the cut here in 2020, the 27-year-old was the runner-up in 2019 and finished T9 in 2018. Thomas very easily could record his first win of the season at Riviera and he is the perfect play this week from a GPP perspective.
Hideki Matsuyama
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 3.2%, FanDuel: 0.4%
With back-to-back subpar performances in his game log, Matsuyama isn’t going to be popular and Riviera is a great place for him to get back on track. The course is built for elite ball strikers like the 28-year-old, and in six career starts at the venue, Matsuyama has carded three top-10s, two of which have come the past two years.
His T42 at the Phoenix Open in his last start isn’t overly exciting, but Matsuyama generated positive strokes T2G, OTT and on APP, after failing to gain strokes in any of these categories in his previous tournament. Hopefully, this is a sign that his game is trending in the right direction just in time for his return to Riviera.
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Nate Lashley
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 1.0%, FanDuel: 0.8%
I featured Lashley in this article last week and if he didn’t four-putt on the 16th at Pebble Beach on Sunday, the 38-year-old might have secured his second career PGA win. He was tied for the lead before this meltdown and Awesemo’s Top Golf Tool is predicting Lashley to be very low owned again, brining me right back to the 38-year-old. He finished with a T5 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and recorded a T17 at the Phoenix Open the week prior.
Lashley has gained over six strokes tee-to-green in each of these impressive outings and he ranks ninth in total strokes gained over his last eight rounds. Lastly, before the four-putt on 16, Lashley was leading the field in SGP on the POA greens at Pebble Beach. He is an expert on this cut of grass, ranking sixth in SGP when we compare all these golfer’s last 24 rounds specifically at venues with POA. In his first attempt at Riviera last year, Lashley missed the cut, but he was dealing with a wrist injury at the time, that forced him to withdraw in his previous start. I expect Lashley to impressive with at least a top-30 this time around and this missed cut should make most DFS players shy away.
Kyoung-Hoon Lee
Awesemo PGA DFS Leverage Scores: DraftKings: 0.8%, FanDuel: 1.9%
During his T2 at the Phoenix Open, no player in the field, including winner Brooks Koepka, gained more strokes tee-to-green than Lee. His 10.2 SGT2G is a career-high and the 29-year-old has made it to the weekend in four of his past five starts. Lee has positively gained strokes tee-to-green in three of his last four and he should produce a quality finish at Riviera in this form.
Lee has teed it up here the past two seasons, posting a T25 and a T13. Based on Awesemo’s projections and PGA optimizer picks, no one is going to roster Lee and he is an excellent sleeper for the Genesis.
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