Value Report: Genesis Invitational

It feels good to land a flag-plant win early on in the season, with Collin Morikawa being triumphant at quite low ownership last week at Pebble. His play, especially on the weekend, was vintage ‘Kawa, and the precision he can have with his iron play is why he became a two-time major winner at such a young age. Morikawa was open about his disappointment on the golf course throughout this winless stretch, and bringing back the fun to the game was a way to ease his mental pressure. Golf can be a funny game, as it’s incredibly easy to give up on a player returning to their heights like a Morikawa, but we also are suspect of players sustaining higher tiers for prolonged times, like a J.J. Spaun. But there’s often a happy medium between the two. Morikawa’s long-term outlook remained very strong in the category that matters the most, ball striking, and even on a week where he lost strokes to the field putting, he proved that the ceiling he can reach with his approach is still among the world’s best.

Now that’s more like it! It was a strong performance for our Value Report at Pebble with two difference makers in Akshay Bhatia and Jacob Bridgeman, who were still at relatively low ownership when we put it in context of a signature event. On Saturday, it looked like Akshay was going to storm his way to a dominant win, before the wind told a different story, and then Bridgeman took the solo lead to the back nine before melting in his own way. But both of them were all over the best GPP lineups for the week, and if it wasn’t for Sepp Straka’s nutty finish, the winner would’ve had the combination of them. It’s pretty clear now that Akshay has completely shaken off the rust, and the iron play that propelled him in 2025 looks to be back to the same levels. I think that lesson remains, just like with Morikawa: When we’ve got this tier of talent and the underlying ball-striking numbers long term are there, I’d rather be on the side of this player bouncing back to success than fading out of relevance. With Bridgeman, he looks to be developing a ball-striking game, and when you have a player with his putting ability, any sustained uptick on approach is going to drive them up the ranks.