Genesis Invitational to Find a New Venue for 2025
Due to the wildfires still raging in the Los Angeles area, the PGA Tour has announced that the Genesis Invitational will move away from Riviera Country Club in 2025.
Due to the ongoing wildfires around Los Angeles, the PGA Tour announced this week that the Genesis Invitational will be forced to move from Riviera to a course yet to be named.
“In collaboration with Genesis, The Riviera Country Club and TGR Live, and out of respect for the unfolding situation, we have determined that The Genesis Invitational 2025 will be played at an alternate location the week of February 10-16. A venue update and additional tournament information will be provided in the coming days.” stated the PGA Tour in a statement announcing the move.
They went on to say, “The PGA Tour’s focus continues to be on the safety and well-being of those affected by the unprecedented natural disaster in Greater Los Angeles. We are grateful for the life-saving efforts of first responders and the tireless work being done to put an end to the tragic wildfires.”
The tour has not commented on where the event will be played, but with it being the “West Coast Swing,” you can bet they will keep the event, one of the PGA Tour’s “signature” events, somewhere out west.
They could use an existing tournament course such as Torrey Pines, PGA West or TPC Scottsdale and keep the infrastructure up and just have a second event on one of these. This is probably the easiest option if the courses would agree to it. This kind of move is not unprecedented. During the pandemic, the PGA Tour hosted back-to-back tournaments at Muirfield Village and just changed the course conditions a bit. One event had longer rough and tougher pin placements, while the other event had the rough mown down and the course playing easier.
If they are looking to stay somewhere near Los Angeles, Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California could be an option as they hosted the ZoZo Championship in 2020 when it stayed in the United States during the pandemic.
Omni La Costa could be a possibility, as the newly redesigned course by Gil Hanse that debuted by hosting the 2024 NCAA Championships could theoretically be toughened up in the next month by growing out the rough enough to challenge the best in the world.
Odds are that the PGA Tour will stick with the double schedule for one of the courses already hosting an event in the next month, however, maybe they will surprise golf fans and have the event on one of the many great private clubs in California that we rarely get to view.