Jacob Bridgeman holds on to win the Genesis Invitational

On one of the most historic golf courses in the world, Jacob Bridgeman made some history of his own Sunday afternoon at Riviera Country Club. Two months and three days after getting married, the 26-year-old from South Carolina has another memory to last a lifetime after winning for the first time on the PGA Tour and threatening the tournament scoring record at the Genesis Invitational. “To do it against this field is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt,” said Bridgeman, who prevailed by a single shot over Kurt Kitayama and Rory McIlroy. “Fans were super supportive all day and winning at this course is a dream come true. I grew up watching this on TV.” Beginning the final round with a six-stroke lead, Bridgeman birdied the first and third holes to take a seven-shot lead and send an early message to the other 50 players that he would be tough to catch. He carded a one-over-par 72 to finish at 18 under for a four-day total of 266 two off the 72-hole standard achieved at the 1985 Los Angeles Open by Lanny Wadkins, who won by seven shots with rounds of 63, 70, 67 and 64. Wadkins’ record-setting performance 41 years ago earned him $72,000 and made him the ninth golfer to earn more than $2 million in his career. Bridgeman pocketed $4 million on Sunday while Sepp Straka and Brian Harman split the last-place share of $51,000. Making Bridgeman’s accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that he had never played Riviera before. What he lacked in experience he more than made up for with instinct, ingenuity and poise, especially during a crucial stretch of eight consecutive pars from holes eight through 15 on Sunday to become the tournament’s 100th champion. “I didn’t play golf on Monday or Tuesday because of the weather and I just was a little bit worn out.” he said. “I played my pro-am Wednesday and kind of just had a casual round and let my caddie point me around. It wasn’t a whole lot of practice. I feel like I got my first kind of learning experience of the course Thursday and on Friday everything was a lot more familiar. I knew where some slopes were and where the tee shot lines were, so I started feeling a little more comfortable.” Bridgeman, who had a stellar college career at Clemson (setting a school record with 50 career rounds in the 60s) before turning pro in 2022, was so dialed in with the putter Friday while grouped with Akshay Bhatia and Maverick McNealy that Bhatia’s caddie Joe Greiner asked him on No. 17: “Are you sure you’re not from the West Coast?” The last player to notch his first PGA Tour victory at Riviera was James Hahn, who beat Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey in a playoff in the 2015 Northern Trust Open. “This morning I let myself think about winning and everything was under control but guys started making runs and it got a little tighter than I wanted it too,” Bridgeman said. “This is one of the coolest places I could’ve done it.” Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, winner of last year’s Genesis at Torrey Pines, tied for 20th at nine-under after a final-round 66. The day before, Bridgeman matched the tournament’s 54-hole scoring record of 194 set four years ago by Joaquin Niemann, who went on to shoot even par in the final round to win by two strokes at 19 under. As solid as Bridgeman was playing the first three rounds, eclipsing Wadkins’ record seemed almost inevitable. Instead, he had to have nerves of steel to par the last two holes and preserve the win. Bridgeman stumbled with bogeys at No. 4 and No. 7 and was wary of two-time Riviera champion Adam Scott, who leapfrogged into second alongside McIlroy, Kitayama and Aldrich Potgieter after beginning the back nine with back-to-back birdies. He narrowed the margin to three with back-to-back birdies at the 17th and 18th to cap his second 63 in three days and finished alone in fourth at 16 under. “It’s fun to make birdie at the 18th with this amphitheater,” Scott said. “Today I didn’t have my best and still had a great score.” History has proven that no lead is safe on Sunday at Riviera. The last time it was played there in 2024 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan overcame a six-shot deficit to win by three shots after firing a 62 the lowest final round score ever on the course. “The pins were a lot more challenging than the first three days,” Bridgeman said. “They were harder to get to. For the putts on 17 and 18 I had no idea how hard to hit them.” Kitayama, who started the final round nine shots behind, nearly pulled off an even bigger comeback, pulling to within one shot when he rolled in a 32-foot birdie at No. 17, and Bridgeman bogeyed No. 16 to drop to 18 under. Ken Venturi staged the biggest final-round comeback in tournament history, shooting a 63 to erase an eight-shot deficit at Rancho Park in 1959. McIlroy hit his 30-foot birdie putt just hard enough to fall at the famed 18th green to move into a second-place tie with Kitayama. Then, with tournament host Tiger Woods watching, Bridgeman nervously left his birdie putt three feet short but made his par and the crowd roared. “I thought it would be a lot easier,” Bridgeman admitted. “It was easy until the 16th, then I made it harder. I was crazy nervous on that five-footer for bogey. I couldn’t feel my hands the last two greens.” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was tied for last after the first day and barely made the cut at even par but played the last two rounds in 11 under par to finish tied for 12th.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2026-02-22/jacob-bridgeman-genesis-invitational