The PGA Tour and Tiger Woods return to stage the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club starting on Thursday, ending the event's hiatus due to wildfires in the region.
Woods' first ever appearance with tour competition came in the tournament as a teenage amateur in 1992. This week, he will preside over the tournament's 100th anniversary as host but not as a player.
"Playing the 100th championship here is pretty amazing," said Woods, who is from nearby Orange County. "For me as a SoCal kid who grew up coming here, L.A. Open, coming here to Riv, it's an iconic site. ... For a 16-year-old kid just to be able to start here and then now host his own tournament at the same golf course is pretty special."
Last year's tournament moved to the San Diego area one month after the devastating Palisades Fire destroyed much of the adjacent community. The Riviera course and clubhouse were spared. Empty residential lots just down Sunset Blvd. sit as a reminder of the destruction.
"We come to make an impact on local communities," said defending US Open champion J.J. Spaun, who is from the Los Angeles area. "At the end of the day, that's what this tournament does, and that's what we hope to do: Provide some warmth, some entertainment, kind of make this area a lot more what we're used to seeing and try to erase the bad memories and move forward."
Sweden's Ludvig Aberg is the defending champion, claiming the trophy on Torrey Pines' South Course. The last event winner at Riviera was Hideki Matsuyama in 2024.
California's Collin Morikawa will step on the course 30 miles from where he grew up in La Canada with an abundance of confidence. He won last week's Pebble Beach Pro-Am to end a 29-month victory drought.
The Cal alum has made his mark in the northern part of the state with a decorated college career at Cal and three tournament titles. In addition to Pebble, he also won the Barracuda Championship at Lake Tahoe in 2019 and the PGA Championship at San Francisco in 2020.
He hasn't won in the southern part of the state, but that has not eliminated the thrill.
"Having a lot of friends, family come out, it just makes the week that much more exciting," Morikawa said. "It's a long week for me, but everything is worth it whether you play great or not. But the goal is to kind of continue this momentum or whatever I had Saturday, Sunday last week, into the rest of the season."
Rainy weather could impact Thursday's opening round before giving way to clear skies through the weekend. Riviera's 7 383-yard, par-71 course is average in length on the PGA Tour, but the thick Kikuyu fairways and rough, with undulating Poa annua greens, make it as challenging as they come.
"I think you have a lot of history here, and it's a golf course that's stood the test of time," said world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who has never finished better than a tie for seventh at Riviera. "... I think it's evolved for the better and it still challenges us to this day, which is pretty cool."
Scheffler highlights a star-studded field in a second consecutive signature event. There will be 27 of the top 30 players in the world on hand, including every player in the top 10.
"I don't know why I was surprised but some of the movement and some of how much break you have to play on a lot of the putts out here. It's like ‘Wow,'" said world No 2 Rory McIlroy, whose best finish at the Genesis Invitational was tied for fourth in 2019.