Following one of the tightest final rounds that we’ve seen so far this year – one where Scottie Scheffler, again, proved that he is a menace wherever he is on a leaderboard going into Sunday – Collin Morikawa emerged as the latest winner to add his name to the illustrious list of golfers who have managed to get the job done at historic Pebble Beach. As we head back inland for the final leg of this year’s West Coast Swing, however, the Tour is merely swapping one storied venue for another, as this week’s Genesis Invitational makes its triumphant return to Riviera Country Club after devastating forest fires saw it moved to Torrey Pines in 2025.

Much like Pebble Beach, Riviera is one of those venues that is synonymous with the PGA Tour. Because, in the century that it has existed, it has spent over half that time hosting a PGA Tour event, starting with the Los Angeles Open, before then morphing into the Genesis Invitational. Does that happen out of a sense of tradition? Perhaps. But, primarily, when a course earns that sort of tenured status, it’s doing so because it’s a special place.

And, like every track that falls into that rarest of brackets, what makes Riviera so special is how it embraces the terrain where it now sits. The course wasn’t shoehorned in there, with holes and greens gouged out of the dust in a stubborn effort to bend Mother Nature to the will of some lines on a blueprint. Instead, George C. Thomas, the renowned architect commissioned with the unenviable task of transforming a small valley hidden in the Hollywood Hills into the very “best of the best”, cooperated with what he had and, with an imagination and vision ahead of its time, wove this now legendary course into the ground where it has now stood for over a hundred years.

Because it was Michelangelo who once said about the Pietà, one of his most famous sculptures, that the figures already existed inside the flawless piece of Carrara marble from which they would eventually be hewn, and that his job had been to merely remove the excess in order to reveal them. And when you look at Riviera, I think that the same analogy rings true. The course that we now have? This uniquely challenging gem from the golden age of course design? One can’t help but feel as though the same creative philosophy that guided Michelangelo’s hands back in the 15th century was the same guiding light for George C. Thomas when he first set foot on that plot of ground in the heart of Palisades.

The golf course was already there. He just had to remove the excess.

THE ORACLES’ FOURBALL

MATT FITZPATRICK

After looking incredibly solid at Pebble Beach, I think Matt Fitzpatrick is well worth another nod for the Genesis this week.

Because tee-to-green, there’s no denying that the Englishman has been amongst the strongest performers on the PGA Tour this season. 15th in SG: Total. 20th in SG: Off the Tee. 4th in SG: Approach the Green. 8th in Total Driving. 8th in Driving Accuracy. 3rd in GIR%. And 14th in Proximity. In other words, Matt’s been playing at his absolute metronomic best. Yes, the lack of cooperation from his putter has hampered him somewhat in his outings thus far this season, preventing him from really troubling the leaders come Sunday. But when you’re still coming off the back of a fortnight where you’ve logged a top-10 and a top-15 whilst not torching up the greens? Clearly, you’re not that far away from producing something special.

Therefore, whilst his performances at Riviera the past two years have seen him fail to reach the weekend on both occasions, I think we’re seeing a different, more confident Matt Fitzpatrick arriving in the Palisades this week; one whose accuracy and consistency could not only see him replicate the 5th-place finish he managed in 2021, but actually surpass it.

JAKE KNAPP

Having mentioned him in the same breath as both Si Woo Kim and Pierceson Coody over the last couple of weeks as someone who could be worth watching at both the WM Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am, I’m finally pulling the trigger on Jake Knapp as part of the Oracles’ Fourball. 

Because how could you not?

Alongside the aforementioned Kim and Coody, Jake has been one of the most consistent players since the beginning of the season. In the four events that he’s played thus far, Knapp has a T-11 and three top-10 finishes to his name – undoubtedly, a phenomenal run of form. But when you look into his career to date, that’s just what Jake seems to do. Since earning his PGA Tour card in 2024, the American has been the model of consistency. Forty of fifty-four cuts made. One win. Three 3rd-place finishes. Seven top-5 finishes. Eleven top-10 finishes. And eighteen top-25 finishes. Again, it’s just incredibly impressive playing. The epitome of being a solid touring professional.

And when you look at the nuts and bolts of his game, particularly this season, it’s little wonder that every new event just becomes a personal ATM machine for the 31-year-old. Because, as well as being one of the longest hitters on tour, Jake has also been one of the best putters, ranking 13th in SG: Putting and 4th in Total Putting – a lethal combination if there ever was one.

So, to see a red-hot Knapp heading to Riviera for the first time as a PGA Tour professional this week, a native Californian who went to college just fifteen minutes from this most famous of tracks, everything might just align for him to pick up the biggest win of his career – as long as he navigates his own energy levels and the poor weather that’s due to hit LA on Thursday morning when he’ll be out on the course. But nothing good ever comes easy, right?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD

After claiming the Tour Championship last season, a victory that not only secured him his first-ever PGA Tour win but the FedEx Cup right along with it, I’d seen a lot of people talking about how 2026 would be the year when Tommy Fleetwood broke through and won a Major.

When Tommy showed up in Dubai back in January to begin his season, however, he wasn’t exactly showing signs of coming good on those lofty expectations. Because he didn’t look like the Tommy Fleetwood we’ve come to expect. There were glimpses of his usual self, sure. But his game was looking rusty, to say the least – as evidenced by his underwhelming finishes of 25th and T-41 at the Dubai Invitational and Hero Dubai Desert Classic, respectively.

The ‘Tommy’ who arrived at Pebble Beach this past week, though, was a different animal. This was a ‘Tommy’ we were more familiar with. The driving was better. The irons and wedges were looking far more dialled in. The putter was showing signs of warming up. And, most importantly of all, he managed to knit it all together over the four days to land himself a tie for fourth. In essence, it was a performance that was not only night and day from what we saw in Dubai, but it was a showing that made those whispers of a Major Championship being in the offing gather a little more in the way of momentum.

So, to see Fleetwood heading back to Riviera, a course where he has always played consistently well, this week would be the perfect time for the Englishman to lay down a marker that he’s a force to be contended with this year. Because not only would it be a reassuring sign that he is, indeed, headed in the right direction with his game. But landing a big finish in the Hollywood Hills? If that doesn’t add another figure to his next apparel deal, nothing will.

SHANE LOWRY

Another holdover from last week’s Oracle, Shane Lowry narrowly pips Tony Finau’s experience at Riviera to make it back into the Fourball this week (however, if the last few weeks are anything to go by, don’t be surprised if Tony Finau now winds up winning this week – just saying).

The reason why Shane gets the nod, though, is because he just seems to be playing with this quiet confidence, one that’s making him look incredibly comfortable both on the course and with his game. He knows what he’s doing well, and he’s using it to his advantage. I mean, take how he performed at Pebble last week. It was his first tournament since the Dubai Desert Classic, and, statistically, he was one of the best players all week. His driver was solid, giving him a tremendous platform. His irons were looking sharp. His wedges, as always, were magical. And his putter saw him ranked 11th for the week in SG: Putting. All of that, and he walks away with a tie for 8th. It was just a really impressive performance – one that could’ve been all the better had it not been for the one or two ill-timed bogies that seemed to pop up during every round.

So, whether this confidence in his game is down to his heroics at the Ryder Cup or something else, I don’t know – I suppose, in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Because if Shane can bring that same game with him that we saw at Pebble, albeit even slightly sharper? Then, come Sunday, the Irishman could well be writing another Hollywood ending for himself to rival the blockbuster finish we witnessed last September.