The Genesis Invitational is about to take centre stage, with a star-studded field set to take part in the Tiger Woods-hosted tournament. The world’s top two players, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, will headline the 72-player field at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

They will be joined by defending champion Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa, the winner of the recent Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Host Woods won’t be in action. The 15-time major champion, who turned 50 in December, has not played in a tournament since the 2024 Open at Royal Troon due to a number of injuries. However, he told reporters ahead of the Genesis that he could be back in action soon, revealing that an appearance at the Masters in April is not out of the question. Here’s a round of the week’s other golf news…

McIlroy snubbed

To the surprise of some, McIlroy has been overlooked for a major award. DP World Tour stars have voted for their player of the year, and despite McIlroy winning the tour’s Race to Dubai crown for a fourth consecutive time, it wasn’t enough to land him the Seve Ballesteros Award for a fifth time.

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It instead went to Marco Penge, who enjoyed a breakthrough season which saw him record three wins, finish second to McIlroy in the Race to Dubai rankings and move into the top 30 in the official world rankings.

The Englishman was the highest-ranked of the 10 DP World Tour players to secure dual membership on the PGA Tour for the 2026 season and will make his latest appearance on the US tour at the Genesis.

Penge said: “I feel incredibly honoured to have won this prestigious award. I had a great season last year on the DP World Tour, but to have that recognised by my fellow competitors really means a lot.”

Woods on Ryder Cup captaincy

Woods has revealed he has been consulted about being the next US Ryder Cup captain. There were hopes in some quarters that he would lead the team at the 2025 edition in New York but he ruled himself out because of scheduling issues.

Woods has again been linked with the role ahead of the 2027 event in Ireland, when Team USA will attempt to win the match on European soil for the first time since 1993. Asked about that prospect at the Genesis, he told reporters: “They have asked me for my input on it, and I haven’t made my decision yet.

“I’m ­trying to ­figure out what we’re trying to do with our [PGA] Tour. That’s been driving me hours upon hours every day and ­trying to figure out if I can actually do… our Team USA and our ­players and everyone that’s going to be involved in the Ryder Cup, if I can do it justice with my time.”

Woods is a busy man as a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board and the Future Competition Committee.

Presenter banned from Augusta

A former golf presenter believes he has been banned from Augusta National for life after a joke backfired. Former ESPN and SportsCenter man Kenny Mayne has covered various big tournaments, such as the US Open and the Players Championship, but the Masters is off-limits for him, it seems.

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Mayne has told Golf Digest that a quip he made while covering the Players at TPC Sawgrass got him in hot water. He said: “At TPC one year, I just made some smarta** comment about, ‘We’ll see you at the Masters, where we bring four saucy ladies out to play!’

“Or, you know, just something stupid, right? But mentioning that I’m bringing women to play golf. And [Augusta National] called into the ESPN truck, like we’re still on the air, and the people in Augusta are literally… they somehow have the inside number to the truck. And they were like, ‘He is not coming!’ So I was never invited to go by my lords.”

Augusta National dropped its all-male membership policy in 2012, though it remains invitation-only.