Collegiate Showcase

collegiate showcase

Monday, February 10, 2025

The Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase is an exciting opportunity for a collegiate golfer to play their way into The Genesis Scottish Open field while allowing universities to compete for a $50,000 donation to support their golf program. The Collegiate Showcase allows your golf program to experience Riviera during one of the PGA TOUR’s Signature events, while awarding the winning collegiate golfer the opportunity to compete in a co-sanctioned PGA TOUR & DP World Tour event outside of your college golf season.

First held in 2015, the Collegiate Showcase will be contested for the 11th time in 2025.

What is the Collegiate Showcase?

  • The Collegiate Showcase features a standout collegiate golfer paired with three amateurs representing a college/university competing in both a team and individual competition.
  • The team’s three amateurs play a best-ball round with the top three-person team winning a $50,000 donation to the school’s golf program.
  • The low collegiate golfer will earn an exemption into the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open
  • Collegiate Showcase registration fee of $33,000 per team / $11,000 per amateur. Can be paid by alumni/donors, or the university.

Benefits to receiving an exemption into the Genesis Scottish Open:

  • PGA TOUR U points.
  • Possibility of playing for qualifying into The Open (Final Qualifying for The Open is the week prior to the Genesis Scottish Open).
  • Player can turn professional and play as a pro in the tournament.
  • Playing in a co-sanctioned PGA TOUR & DP World Tour event
  • Playing in an elite field that drew 8 of the top 10 in the world in 2023, and continues to grow in stature.

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Pathway Player

To build upon the tournament’s history of inclusion, The Genesis Invitational will annually select a collegiate golfer as the Pathway Player. This special invitation into the Collegiate Showcase will be awarded to a player with a minority background who is excelling on the golf course and academically. Kristopher Stiles of San Jose State University was named the 2024 Pathway Player.

results

2024

Cole Rueck

For the second consecutive year, The Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase needed extra holes to crown a champion. On the 11th green, Cole Rueck made a short birdie putt to secure the 2024 Collegiate Showcase victory on Monday. With the victory, Rueck earned an exemption into the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open. Rueck, a sophomore at Boise State University, defeated the University of Washington’s Petr Hruby on the second playoff hole. Both players finished their round at even-par 71.

Team Champions
University of Washington

2023

Jack Wall

Texas Tech University senior Jack Wall defeated University of Kentucky’s Alex Goff on the second playoff hole to win the 2023 Collegiate Showcase to earn the final exemption into The Genesis Invitational. Wall went birdie-eagle on Riviera’s 10th and 11th holes in the playoff to secure the win. With the win, Wall made his PGA TOUR debut. Wall and Goff each carded even-par 71 over 18 holes of regulation. The two-man playoff was the second in Collegiate Showcase history (the first playoff was in 2021).

Team Champions
Wake Forest University

2022

Michael Brennan

Wake Forest sophomore Michael Brennan set a Collegiate Showcase shooting a five-under-par 66 to earn the final exemption into The Genesis Invitational. Brennan used a birdie-eagle stretch on the 10th and 11th holes to separate himself from the largest field in the eight-year history of the Collegiate Showcase. Brennan, a Leesburg, Va. native who ranked No. 19 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at the time of his victory, became the second Wake Forest player to win the Collegiate Showcase joining Will Zalatoris (2015), who played in Brennan’s group during the 2022 showcase.

Team Champions
Arizona State University

2021

Angus Flanagan

University of Minnesota senior Angus Flanagan won The Genesis Invitational’s seventh-annual Collegiate Showcase with a 15-foot birdie putt on the third sudden-death playoff hole (No. 3, Par-4, 434 yards) to earn an exemption into the 2021 tournament. The first playoff in the history of the Collegiate Showcase, San Francisco’s Tim Widing experienced agony and jubilation, as he too received an exemption into the field after a withdrawal later in the week. For Flanagan, the start at Riviera was his second PGA TOUR start while Widing made his PGA TOUR debut.

Team Champions
University of Wyoming

2020

Sean Yu

On a picturesque day at The Riviera Country Club, 13 collegiate golfers were tested not only by the difficulty of the course but by the wind. San Jose State University’s Sean Yu posted the low score of 1-under-par 70, to earn an exemption into The Genesis Invitational. Yu earned a two-shot victory over second-place finishers Allen Hamilton (University of Kentucky) and Spencer Soosman (University of Texas). Competing with Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipient Joseph Bramlett on Monday, Yu would go on to play the first two rounds of the tournament with Bramlett later in the week.

Team Champions
University of Southern California

2019

Lukas Euler

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. That method worked for Kentucky’s Lukas Euler who after finishing T2 in the 2018 Collegiate Showcase, earned a three-stroke victory in the 2019 competition. Euler, a junior at the University of Kentucky, posted a four-under-par 67 and was one of only two players to break par; Oklahoma State’s Hayden Wood was the other. The victory for Euler on Monday at Riviera would be a sign of things to come that week. Kentucky alumni and Euler’s Monday playing partner J.B. Holmes would emerge victorious on Sunday in the Genesis Open.

Team Champions
San Jose State University

2018

Scottie Scheffler

University of Texas senior Scottie Scheffler shot a 3-under-par 68 at The Riviera Country Club on Monday to win the 2018 Collegiate Showcase and earn an exemption into the 144-player field at Riviera. The start in the Genesis Open marked Scheffler’s fifth PGA TOUR start and first since he finished as the top amateur in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, tying for 27th (1-under-par 287). Scheffler posted a six-shot victory over a trio tied in second place that included Texas teammates Doug Ghim and Spencer Soosman along with Kentucky’s Lukas Euler.

Team Champions
University of Texas

2017

Sahith Theegala

Less than 15 miles from the campus of Pepperdine University is The Riviera Country Club. getting from one to the other is so easy, there are only two turns. That ease would be shared by Pepperdine sophomore Sahith Theegala as he earned an exemption into the Genesis Open by virtue of his one-shot victory in the Collegiate Showcase. Theegala would get a preview of Riviera during the week as he went on to compete in the 2017 US Amateur Championship, also held at Riviera. Theegala made it to the round of 32 later that summer, eventually falling to Doug Ghim, the tournament’s runner up. After making the cut, Theegala finished T49.

Team Champions
Pepperdine University

2016

Charlie Danielson

With a bogey-free score of 68, the University of Illinois senior Charlie Danielson bested 13 other collegiate golfers to earn a start at Riviera in 2016. The three-under-par score vaulted Danielson to a three-shot victory over the defending champion Will Zalatoris (Wake Forest University) and Johnathan Garrick (UCLA). Danielson wasn’t done making highlights at Riviera as he followed up his bogey-free 68 in the Collegiate Showcase with a four-under-par 67 in the first round of competition on Thursday. After making the cut, Danielson finished T72.

Team Champions
University of Texas

2015

Will Zalatoris

Freshmen don’t lack experience. That’s what Will Zalatoris showed in the inaugural Collegiate Showcase as he carded a four-under-par 67 to earn the exemption into the 144-player field later in the week. Zalatoris was the only player to break par and finished five-strokes ahead of Arizona’s George Cunningham who finished in second place.

Team Champions
University of Oregon

media coverage

GOLF Channel

Wall: Meeting Tiger was 'unbelievable experience'

Texas Tech's Jack Wall joins Golf Today after winning the Genesis Invitational's collegiate showcase at Riviera -- and a chance to meet Tiger Woods himself.

Golfweek

Scottie Scheffler plays Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase 24 hours after PGA Tour victory

Less than 24 hours after defending his WM Phoenix Open title for his fifth PGA Tour win, Scottie Scheffler was teeing it up again on Monday. At a college event in California.

Golf.com

Seeking America’s next rising golf star? Here’s why the Genesis is a good place to look.

Besides sharing a month on the calendar, there’s little connective tissue between last week’s raucous Phoenix Open and this week’s placid Genesis Invitational. But there is one piece of Scottie Scheffler’s win and Sahith Theegala’s impressive start that bridges the two events: the Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase.

Every year, this week’s Invitational grants a sponsor’s exemption to the best of about 15-20 collegians invited to take on RCC the Monday of the event. Back in 2018, that was Scheffler, then a senior at Texas. In 2017, it was Theegala, then a sophomore at Pepperdine.

Golfweek

Who is the 24-year-old rookie that lit up Riviera in 62? Here are 6 things you need to know about Cameron Young

Call it the zone, call it in the flow, call it sleep-deprived with a 2-month-old son, Henry, or whatever you want, but Cameron Young was in it on Friday. He wrapped up a sizzling 9-under 62 at Riviera Country Club on Friday with four consecutive birdies on the front nine.

Golfweek

'Pretty dang cool': Wake Forest's Michael Brennan earns spot in Tiger Woods' event after winning Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase

How does a golfer who’s never played Riviera Country Club shoot a 5-under 66, with his only bogeys coming off three-putts, to win the Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase, in the process earning a spot in the Genesis Invitational?

It’s simple.

Golf Digest

Meet the college golfer who is about to crash the party at the Genesis Invitational

Statistically speaking, this week’s Genesis Invitational has the strongest field of any men’s pro tournament to date in 2021. Seven of the top 10 players in the world will be competing at Riviera Country Club outside Los Angeles, along with 30 of the top 50. And so will Angus Flanagan.

inquires

COLLEGIATE SHOWCASE | TWO CONTESTS

During The Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase, there are two different competitions taking place. First, a college golfer is competing to earn an exemption into the Genesis Scottish Open field. The second contest features a team competition where three amateurs representing their alma mater compete in a team best ball contest which awards a $50,000 donation to the winning golf program.

For more information on the Collegiate Showcase or to register your team, please contact James Cefaly by email.

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