The Break: Tiger Woods is playing host at the Genesis

Sun Day, Fun Day

This week is one of my favorite weeks of the year. The Genesis Invitational may have become a limited-field event (with a "cut," more later), but we have a stacked field that includes host Tiger Woods on the best course on the PGA Tour.

I love Riviera. I had the good fortune of playing there almost six years ago, and it was worth every penny of the guest fee. The architecture is incredible. The challenge is formidable. The holes are all recognizable. The greens are so fast. The houses above the course are insane. It is such a special place, frothing with history, from Hogan, to Palmer, to Watson, to Couples, to Scott, to Phil, to Tiger (as host, not yet a winner).

It'll be great to see Tiger back inside the ropes in something with a little more weight than a 36-hole scramble or a hit-and-giggle in the Bahamas. Woods knows his place in golf history, and he also knows that, like Jack, he's never won at Riv -- the place where he really made his mark in his PGA Tour debut in 1992 as a 16-year-old amateur.

We should get a week uninterrupted by weather, though the 8 inches of rain the Los Angeles area got the week prior has softened up a course that is so much more fun when it's firm and fast. Hopefully a few more days of sun will give us an opportunity to see the Riviera we know and love over the weekend.

Checking the Box

The Genesis Invitational is one of a minority of this year's Signature events to have a cut. Tiger Woods insisted on having one at the event he hosts, and we should see them at Bay Hill and Jack's Memorial Tournament as well. However, the cut feels, well, ceremonially at best.

The 36-hole cut this week is to the top 50 players and ties, as well as any player within 10 shots of the lead heading into the final two rounds. In reality, that means no more than 20 players are missing the cut. There are 70 players in the field. At most, 28.5 percent of the field will be cut. However, it's much more likely that more than 50 players make the cut, meaning at least 75 percent of the field will play all four rounds. Conceptually, every player could make the cut, depending on ties and the spread between first place and last place at the tournament midpoint.

So, yeah, there's a cut, but so what? This isn't that much better than adding to a player's cuts-made streak because they played a no-cut tournament. 

Tiger Woods' cuts-made streak is the stuff of legend, almost certain to never be passed in my lifetime. He had the benefit of some World Golf Championships in there, too. However, this kind of cut makes a mockery of what Tiger did so many times to grind it out on a Friday and not let that streak end. 

If there are to be cuts in Signature events, have a field size proportional to the cut. Before the dawn of Signature events, Tiger's tournament had 120 players and a cut to the top 65 and ties -- in other words, 54.1 percent of the field was going to get to the weekend before ties. If we were being proportional, a field of 92 players cut to the top 50 and ties would be right. Call it an even 90, and then it feels right.

In the Loop

Riviera's 10th hole is fascinating to watc, but the data is crystal clear about how to play it.

You'll hear the word kikuyu a lot this week, so here's a primer on the grass at Riviera.

If you need help to develop a pre-shot routine here are some ideas that can help.