Welcome to GOLF.com’s “Seen & Heard” video series, in which we give you an inside look at golf’s biggest events through the eyes and ears of our onsite crew. On deck this week: the 2024 Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Let’s go!
ICYMI: Inside Genesis Invitational Day 1: Tiger Woods’ new brand and L.A. arrivals
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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Making your way from New York City to Los Angeles is quite the trek. There are nearly 2,500 miles between the two largest cities in the U.S. — and on Tuesday, GOLF’s James Colgan experienced every one of them. With a snowstorm bearing down on the northeast, it took James 18 hours to get out to our team in L.A. ahead of the Genesis Invitational.
I can speak for our entire team when I say we let out a collective sigh of relief when he didn’t end up getting snowed in. On top of being one of the most talented reporters and writers on our staff, James is also a maestro when it comes to sourcing restaurant recommendations. And on Wednesday, he unearthed a gem.
But before we could grub, we had a full day of reporting and writing at Riviera Country Club. First up: a quick stop at the 1st tee to watch Tiger Woods tee off in the pro-am. The sound of the driver off the face wasn’t quite as pure as normal, but he found the fairway nonetheless. After his round, I asked him what he focused on with his technique to get his swing ready for competition, and he provided some great insight.
“I think that more than anything, that I try and do from a technical standpoint is making sure I can still hit the golf ball flush and solid,” he said. “I don’t have the same speed I used to have, I don’t have the ability to practice the same amount of hours, but I still do work on making sure that I can hit the ball on the middle of the face.”
Our social media star Claire Rogers even got Tiger talking about his new caddie and how the partnership came to be.
“I’ve had a great relationship with [Lance Bennett] over the years going back to when he caddied for [Matt Kuchar],” he said. “Very down to earth, very loyal and how he conversated through the years, I’ve also taken notice of that. We’ve had the same type of feels in how we look at the golf course and how we read putts, they’re very similar. I think it’s a great — we’re going to be a great team and look forward to the challenge.”
GOLF.com’s elder statesman for the week — Sean Zak — got a peak inside TaylorMade’s tour truck, and he even walked away with some goodies.
“We have some tees of some of the best players in the world,” Sean said. “We’ve got Collin Morikawa with bacon strips on the side. We’ve got Jason Day with a kangaroo up top. A very obvious one, Oklahoma State for Rickie Fowler. We all know who Rors is. And by far the favorite one, ‘F’ for Fleetwood, but it is the Everton Football Club badge.”
