I’ll address the article photo a little later. Before that, last week at Pebble Beach started with ideal conditions and devolved into a challenge as winds swept in off the Pacific to the very exposed Pebble Beach Golf Links. While the event was eventually won by Collin Morikawa in the final group, a few former Bulldogs hung around the first page of the leaderboard and earned some good finishes.
Chris Kirk and Keith Mitchell finished at 8 under par in a tie for 52, but slightly different ways to get there; Kirk was very steady while Mitchell had a little more volatility round to round.
Harris English opened with a 73 but followed it with a 63 and 2 more under par rounds to finish t24.
Brian Harman started Sunday T19 but eagled both par 5s on the front and started to scare the leaders at 6 under for 15 holes, but faltered at the finish at ended back at T19.
Russelll Henley started back in the pack but a hot front 9 moved him up the leaderboard and a eagle at 18 secured a top 20 standing.
And Sepp Straka started in the final threesome but early bogeys seemed to doom his chances. That is until a birdie on 14, 16, 17 and an eagle on 18 jumped him over all but Morikawa and gave him a T2 finish. Now the Tour moves down the Pacific Coast to LA.
Tournament: The Genesis Invitational, February 19-22, 2026
Course: Riviera Country Club, par 71, 7,384 yards. Located just a few miles north of Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles metro.
Purse: $20 million total, $3.6 million to the winner. Another Signature Event, another bloated purse with another exclusive field.
Defending Champ: Ludvig Aberg. Due to the fires in LA last January, the decision was made to move the tournament from it’s home at Riviera (LA) down to Torrey Pines (San Diego). There, the young Swede captured his 2nd Tour title with a clutch final 9 holes. Davis Thompson and Brian Harman were the only two ‘Dawgs in the top 20.
Fun Fact: Bubba Watson won this tournament 3 times – Northern Trust in 2014, 2016 and the Genesis Open in 2018 (hence the cover art). The caddy for all 3 of those wins was Ted Scott. Who is now the caddy for #1 in the world Scottie Scheffler. The same player who has finished in the top ten in his last 18 tournaments, and 6 of those were wins. You might not get much value from placing a bet on Scheffler to win, top 5, or top 10, but at least you’re shekels are pretty safe.
TV Times: Thursday-Friday 4-8 pm ET on Golf Channel; Saturday 1-3 pm ET Golf Channel and 3-7 pm CBS; Sunday 1-3 pm Golf Channel and 3-6:30 pm CBS. Plus all the streaming on satellite radio and ESPN+.
‘Dawgs in the Field: 4. Harris English, Brian Harman, Sepp Straka, Russell Henley.
This is a Signature Event with a smaller, invitation only field, yet the tournament has a 36 hole cut, thanks to the insistence of host Tiger Woods (who famously never won on this course in his PGA Tour career). It is essentially the same as last week so we’ll only see a couple more new faces, but more importantly (to most viewers and definitely the networks) is that the top players on Tour will all be in attendance facing off against each other. Even though the season is 6 weeks old, this will be only the second event of the year for players such as Rory McIlroy and last August’s FedEx Cup winner Tommy Fleetwood. But this is about as close as you can get to good on good outside of the 4 majors.
We’re about to conclude the West Coast Swing and head to the Florida Swing, but it is interesting to see how the schedule sets up. Last week’s first Signature Event was at Pebble Beach – iconic by every measure. This week is at Riviera, a close runner-up tier in iconography and it is hosted by Tiger Woods. Next week is the Cognizant – PGA National is a good challenge but while not on any Mount Rushmores, it is hosted by Jack Nicklaus. The following week is Bay Hill – founded and named after Arnold Palmer. The next week is the Players at Sawgrass. That is quite the stretch of golf for February/March.
Though only February, it’s never too early to earn FedEx Cup points to get into the post-season via top 100 in point rankings. Of our Bulldogs, Chris Kirk and Davis Thompson have the most work to do at 124th and 116th repsectively. Brian Harman is 77th after last week, Keith Mitchell 47th with lots of cuts made but no high finishes, Harris English 39th from a mixed bag, Russell Henley 25th with a very good Sunday scoring average, and Sepp Straka 9th thanks to his runner up in the point-boosted AT&T last week.
The golf world is still splintered and in an arms race for purses, players are making surprising moves in and out of tours/leagues most every week, and there’s plenty of griping about field sizes and pathways, but the sport of golf is no more messed up than every other sport: just the issues are different. The good news is that a lot of very good golf is on TV every weekend and the sport is about to start playing some of the best venues in the world. That’s worth watching. Enjoy, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
