🏌️ Genesis Showdown: Who's Hot!

Happy Valentine’s Day. Just like in golf, may your Valentine's day be filled with fewer bunkers and more hole-in-ones, proving that love is the ultimate fairway to happiness!

Over to golf…

Read what’s making headlines at The Genesis Invitational - the only golf tournament scheduled to take place this week across the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour.

We also dive deeper into the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s viewership numbers and the best players at the Genesis Invitational in recent years.

That, and a tip to fix 3 common putting mistakes, in today's edition of Golf Reporter.

Today's Trivia: Only four golfers have been ranked World No 1 for more than 100 weeks on the PGA Tour since the OWGR was introduced in 1986. Tiger Woods (683 weeks), Greg Norman (331 weeks), Rory McIlroy (122 weeks) and who else? Answer at the end of the email.

⛳ This day in history: Mary Kathryn (Mickey) Wright, arguably the greatest female golfer of all-time, was born on this date in San Diego in 1935. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, she won four U.S. Women’s Opens and 82 LPGA Tour titles. Wright died nearly four years ago on February 17, 2020.

19TH HOLE
Clubhouse Conversations

Tiger Woods made his first start at Riviera back in 1992.

He hasn’t won at this venue or the Genesis Invitational even once in all these years. Is 2024 finally his year - let’s see what the consensus says!

ALBATROSS
Tiger, Rory and Weather Headline The Genesis Invitational

The Genesis Invitational tees off tomorrow at the Riviera Golf Course with players battling it out for a $20 million purse.

Here’s everything you need to know before play begins in Los Angeles.

⛳️ Tiger Plays Host: Tiger Woods is the host of the tournament and he will also be a part of the playing field. This will be his first start in an official PGA Tour event since last year’s Masters.

🏌️ Stars Return To Action: Top 10-ranked players in the OWGR - Rory McIlroy (2), Viktor Hovland (4) and Xander Schauffele (5) will all be in action this week after skipping the WM Phoenix Open. All of them were last seen in action on the PGA Tour at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

🌦️ Weather: All eyes will be on the weather after it played spoilsport in the previous two events on the PGA Tour. While the first two rounds of the tournament will have no disturbance due to weather, the final two rounds can fall prey to rain.

🤝 Tiger-JT Reunion: Woods and Justin Thomas have been grouped together alongside Gary Woodland for the first two rounds. In 2023, Woods received a lot of flak for the controversial 'Tampon Prank' on Thomas at this very same tournament.

⏱️ Round 1 Tee Times Of Key Players (ET):
12:25 pm: Thomas, Woods, Woodland
02:42 pm: Morikawa, Fitzpatrick, Scheffler
02:54 pm: Clark, McIlroy, Homa

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
PGA Tour Clearly Leads Viewership, LIV Golf Far Behind

The closing round of the LIV Golf Las Vegas tournament on Saturday finished 51st in the TV ratings while the WM Phoenix Open was the third rated sports TV show last week.

The PGA Tour event was watched by 1.6 million (Saturday) and 2.3 million (Sunday) viewers on the NBC network while the LIV Golf event had 297K (Saturday) viewers and 121K (Sunday) viewers on CW.

LIV Las Vegas drew roughly 20,000 fewer viewers than the Kansas State-BYU basketball game, and roughly the same as the Golf Central PGA tour pregame show. The numbers do not include app streaming figures but even then these are not good signs for the Saudi-backed league.

In 2023, the ad revenue generated for LIV golf through CW Network was around $3 million, whereas the PGA Tour enjoyed more than 100 folds in revenue with its broadcasters through TV, which was more than $500 million.

LIV Golf has failed to rope in a telecast partner for Friday and that will lead to a further increase in the margin both in terms of viewership numbers and ad revenue.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

WM Phoenix Open: Changes are coming to next year's WM Phoenix Open in the wake of a series of incidents involving fans and golfers, overcrowding on the course and the suspension of both admissions and alcohol sales. Chance Cozby, the executive director of the Thunderbirds, the civic organization that hosts the Phoenix Open, stated on record that the tournament is already looking at ways to fix the issues that plagued the event this year.

What's In The Bag: Tiger Woods makes his 2024 PGA Tour debut at The Genesis Invitational this week. Check out the equipment he'll be using at Riviera.

LPGA Tour: The LPGA Tour has roped in Ford as the new title sponsor for the 2024 Arizona tournament. The Ford Championship will take place at Seville Golf and Country Club, March 28-31, in Gilbert, Arizona.

The Genesis Invitational: Gary Woodland, Adam Scott and Will Zalatoris joined Tiger Woods as the four players to receive sponsor exemption for The Genesis Invitational. Chase Johnson received the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption.

Sun Day Red: Tiger Woods plans to change the Sun Day Red logo if he wins a 16th Major title. The logo features a fully stretched tiger with 15 stripes, symbolizing Woods' 15 major championship triumphs.

BIRDIE
The Genesis Showdown: Who's Hot!

Reigning champion Jon Rahm is unable to defend his title at Riviera due to his move to LIV Golf.

Here are the best players at the Genesis Invitational over the past five seasons from the current field.

Max Homa: Homa won the tournament in 2021 and finished second last year.

His finishes: 2nd (2023), 10th (2022), 1st (2021), 5th (2020) and 37th (2019).

Patrick Cantlay: Cantlay hasn't won this tournament in the last five years but he has been very consistent.

His finishes: 3rd (2023), 33rd (2022), 15th (2021), 17th (2020) and 15th (2019).

Rory McIlroy: McIlroy missed cut in 2021 but was very good in the other four editions.

His finishes: 29th (2023), 10th (2022), MC (2021), 5th (2020) and 4th (2019).

Viktor Hovland: Hovland has only played this tournament thrice but he has been prolific.

His finishes: 20th (2023), 4th (2022) and 5th (2021).

Scottie Scheffler: Scheffler has made four starts in the last five years at this tournament.

His finishes: 12th (2023), 7th (2022), 20th (2021) and 30th (2020).

DRIVING RANGE
Debunk These Putting Myths

In this video, Todd Kolb points out three reasons why you might still be struggling with putting and shows us how to get a better golf putting setup.

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