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The PGA Tour’s west coast swing to start the new year concludes this weekend with the Genesis Invitational at historic Riviera Country Club outside Los Angeles. Just about any movie star who likes to golf has played Riviera – also known as “Hogan’s Alley” as the legendary Ben Hogan won the Los Angeles Open at the track three times as well as the 1948 U.S. Open there.

The Genesis Invitational is hosted by and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, and while Woods will be on the grounds some this weekend, he’s still not healthy enough to play off another back surgery. We might not see Tiger compete until the Masters. This is a very rare event he has yet to win; Jack Nicklaus never won it, either. The tournament was renamed the Genesis Invitational last year, and an invitational means the fields are a bit smaller (120 players) and the purses a bit bigger. It’s still 72-hole stroke play with a 36-hole cut.

While the field at last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am left much to be desired, especially after world No. 1 Dustin Johnson withdrew, it’s a very strong field at Riviera that includes Johnson. He played over in Saudi Arabia on the European Tour two weeks ago and won. Technically, that was a second straight win on that Tour when including last November’s rescheduled Masters.