Pacific Palisades, California …

If our colleagues at ESPN are correct then the Tiger Woods’ Foundation hosted Genesis Open is heading for a ‘major’ upgrade.

It is understood the upgrade will entail a large prize-purse, a three-year winner’s PGA Tour exemption (Currently two years) and with the event to take on an ‘invitational’ feel and be reduced from 144-players to 120.

This would mean the 2020 Genesis Open mirroring the present Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Jack Nicklaus hosted Memorial.

Tiger Woods to confirm tomorrow (Wednesday) major changes to the stature of the Genesis Open. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

An announcement is expected to be made Wednesday at the Riviera club and with Woods, as the tournament host, to address the media after contesting the Pro-Am

The Arnold Palmer Invitational, which the late golf legend founded in 1979 at this Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida, and the Memorial Tournament, which Nicklaus began in 1976 at a course he designed near his Columbus, Ohio, home, are events that operate in a similar fashion.

Both have 120-player invitational fields with purses higher than a regular PGA Tour stop.

The first Genesis Open was staged in 1929 and named the Los Angeles Open and is one of the longest-running PGA Tour events in California.