Golf fans pack the amphitheater surrounding the famed 18th green during Sunday’s final round at the Riviera Golf Course under sunny conditions.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
By STEVE GALLUZZO
CTN Contributor
Heading into Sunday’s final round of the Genesis Invitational it looked like the 41-year old tournament scoring record would finally be broken.
However, the famed layout at Rivera Country Club once again for the 61st time—held its own on the 100th anniversary of a golf tournament that debuted in 1926 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club and first came to Riviera three years later.
Jacob Bridgeman analyzes his par attempt at the 13th hole Sunday in the Genesis Invitational.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
Jacob Bridgeman started the day at 19 under par and with a seemingly safe six-stroke lead, which he upped to seven with birdies on the first and third holes, it looked like winning his first PGA Tour event would be a walk in the park. Instead, the 26-year-old had to hang on for dear life as several players made fierce charges ahead of him to whittle the margin down to a single stroke.
Bridgeman bogeyed the 16th to drop to 18 under while Kurt Kitayama birdied the 17th to get to -17 and followed with a par at the iconic 18th, putting pressure on the leader to play mistake free over the last two holes, which he did to hold off Kitayama and playing partner Rory McIlroy.
“I had a bunch of putts I thought I was going to make that just bounced out and didn’t go in,” said Bridgman, who was a collegiate standout at Clemson. “I thought I’d be a few under par going into the last three but I wasn’t so that made it a lot more stressful.”
Bridgeman left his 20-foot birdie putt at No. 18 three feet short, but calmly tapped in his par putt to triumph on a course he had never played prior to Wednesday’s pro-am.
“I kind of had everything under control especially to start the day and I felt great throughout the day,” said Bridgman, who won $4 million and was handed the trophy from tournament host Tiger Woods at the 18th green. “Then some guys started making a little run and they got a little closer.
“I had a couple unfortunate breaks,” he said. “Yeah, it got a lot tighter than I wanted it to, but I don’t think it will get any easier than a six-shot lead so I’ve got to figure out how to make that gap bigger to finish the day. To get my first win here at probably one of the coolest places that I could have done it, and having Tiger as the host is a dream come true.”
Jacob Bridgeman tees off at No. 13 in Sunday’s final round at the Riviera Golf Course. He shot one-over to win by a shot.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
The final round 72 gave Bridgeman a four-day score of 266, two off the tournament record set by Lanny Wadkins at the 1985 Los Angeles Open. Wadkins won by seven shots in 20 under par and his 264 remains the longest-standing 72-hole scoring record for an active PGA Tour event.
Asked later if he was aware of how close he came to the scoring record, Bridgeman admitted he “had no idea.”
Two-time Riviera winner Adam Scott shot eight under Sunday, his second 63 in three days, and finished alone in fourth at 16 under. The 45-year-old Australian, who won a rain-shortened Nissan Open at Riviera in 2005 (playing only 36 holes) and won the Genesis in 2020, shared his thoughts on the event possibly being moved to later in the year.
“Yeah, I guess there’s more chance of it being firm and fast,” Scott said. “I think it would be a good thing. This tournament at any time of year is going to be great. It’s got the history and it’s got the venue. It’s amazing, the crowd shows up.
“I know it’s a big metropolitan area, but I don’t think of L.A. as golf fans, but they are. I’ve always had great support here and it’s a great vibe at Riviera so as long as we’re coming back here anytime will be good,” Scott said.
Adam Scott (left) and Tommy Fleetwood congratulate each other after Sunday’s final round at Riviera.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
Kitayama, whose putter got hot the last three days after an opening round 71, began Sunday nine shots off the lead and came within one of forcing a playoff.
The biggest final-round comeback in tournament history was in 1959 when Ken Venturi shot a 63 to rally from eight shots back at Rancho Park.
“I played awesome, I had a dream start to the day,” Kitayama said after his final round 64. “I didn’t really go into it thinking I had a chance, I just kind of plugged along and I had good speed all day. Coming down the stretch I figured If I could make some birdies, I could maybe add a little pressure.”
McIllory, the world’s second-ranked player, fell just short of notching his 30th PGA Tour win at Riviera, where he debuted in 2016 when it was called the Northern Trust Open. His best result before Sunday was a tie for fourth in 2019—the year before the Genesis Open gained invitational status.
“I just kept plugging away and trying to make something happen,” said the 36-year-old from Northern Ireland, who had four birdies on the back nine but had to split the $2.2 million runner-up check with Kitayama.
“I felt like I could’ve made something happen on the front nine if I holed a few putts but I didn’t,” McIllory said. “Sometimes it’s harder when Jacob has a big lead and I’m not doing anything to put pressure on him so he sees that.
“I’ve had this before when I had a big lead and the guy playing with me isn’t putting pressure on and then the guys in front are,” McIllory said. “He was making a lot of pars and then at the end Kurt did what he did and Adam posted and I started making a couple birdies. I thought Jacob did really well to hang on and play the way he did coming down the stretch.”
Rory McIlroy watches his birdie putt track towards the hole on the 13th green in Sunday’s final round.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
World No 1. Scottie Scheffler kept his consecutive cuts streak alive (he has advanced to the weekend in 68 straight events dating back to August 2022, the longest active streak on the Tour) and carded a final-round 65 to share 12th place with Jordan Spieth, Min Woo Lee and Alex Noren.
Scheffler was through 10 holes and tied for dead last in the 72-player field at five over par when the horn blew to suspend play Thursday at 5:41 p.m. because of darkness after a morning drizzle had delayed the first round for three hours.
Englishman Aaron Rai was six under through 16 holes, one shot better than clubhouse leaders Bridgeman and McIilory but bogeyed 18 early Friday morning and shot a second-round 69.
“When we went out on Thursday, the wind was blowing so hard and the greens were so bumpy and so fast it was a complete crapshoot whether or not the ball was going to get in the hole,” Schreffler said. “You had to hit it with a little bit of speed to negate some of the bumps, and if you hit a putt with speed, you had another three or four-footer… especially with how much pitch is on these greens. So it was real challenging going out there starting the way we did Thursday. After that I did lots of solid stuff.”
Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick make the famous walk up the fairway to Riviera’s 18th green.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
At the halfway point, Bridgeman was tied with Englishman Marco Penge at 12 under par, one shot ahead of McIilory, who carded a 65. Bridgman fired a 64 Saturday, the lowest score all day, to equal the 54-hole scoring record set four years ago by Joaquin Niemann, who shot even par in the final round to become the event’s first wire-to-wire winner in 53 years.
“Wherever the leaderboards are today, I saw them all,” Bridgeman said. “II don’t shy away from knowing where I’m at.
“Maybe that’s a bad thing at times, but I wanted to know if somebody was doing something and I needed to press a button to make a couple of birdies,” Bridgeman said. “I was very aware the whole day. I felt comfortable right till the end there.”
Bridgeman is the first golfer to get his first PGA Tour win at Riviera since James Hahn in the 2015 Northern Trust Open. After being in contention the week before at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (tying for eighth) and winning Sunday, he hopes he can play well at his first Masters in April.
“Getting the monkey off my back of winning for the first time is huge,” he said. “The Masters in itself is going to be another whole challenge just because that’s the tournament every golfer growing up wants to play in and win.
“I’m very excited for it,” Bridgeman said. “I’m hopefully going to take a couple trips down there and see the golf course a little more. I haven’t played since college, so I want to do some prep and maybe learn something from some of the older guys.”
Asked if he watched the men’s gold medal hockey game that morning in which the USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime, Bridgeman said he did not. “I honestly thought it was a little bit later because yesterday when I was warming up in the truck we were watching Canada play, so I figured I’d see it again in the truck this morning. Then Haley said on the way to the course this morning that they won, which is great.”