Jacob Bridgeman held his nerve to win his first PGA Tour title despite late charges from Australia’s Adam Scott and Masters champion Rory McIlroy at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
McIlroy drained a ridiculous birdie putt at the last from the fringe to pile the pressure on as Bridgeman, but he kept his cool to comfortably two-putt for a one shot victory in the US$20 million signature event hosted by Tiger Woods.
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The 26-year-old left his first putt three feet and five inches short of the cup, and while that putt is the stuff of nightmares for your average weekend hacker, it presented no problem for Bridgeman.
“I think getting the trophy from Tiger is going to be the coolest thing in my life,” he said.
“I’m know he’s made a million of those little three footers, but that was my first one.
“I’m going to need some tips to make those easier because that was hard.”
LEADERBOARD: Scores from the Genesis Invitational
The American finished 18-under for the tournament and closed out the title with a one over par final round 72 after starting the last day with a six-shot buffer.
“I felt like I was playing the same way I’ve been playing all week. For whatever reason today, the putts, they were bumping out and I wasn’t making the ones I was the last few days,” he said.
“Not having that early start of being four, five, six under par was a little bit different and new.
“And it got really hard at the end. I was thinking ‘man, this lead is getting close’.
“I wanted to be leading by four going into the last hole and I was up on the last tee leading by one.
“It got really hard.”
McIlroy and Kurt Kitayama finished one shot back, while Scott was two shots behind Bridgeman.
Scott’s surge into the top three came off the back of his bogey free effort to claim low round of the day honours.
It was the Queenslander’s second eight-under par 63 of the week, having also produced a second round clinic at the venue where he last won on the PGA Tour back in 2020.
“It felt really different, to be honest,” Scott said when asked how his final round compared to his second.
“I didn’t feel like I had my swing in a great spot today. The other day it felt really good except the last two tee shots were a bit squirrely and then that’s kind of been the direction for the rest of the week actually.
“So the soft conditions helped me today a lot. I was out of position a couple of times and being able to plunk it on the green definitely saved some Riviera stress. I took advantage of it. Really nice to make a few putts because it’s been pretty dry for quite a while with the putter so that felt good.”
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Scott’s performance marks an excellent return to form after not registering a top ten finish on the PGA Tour at all last year.
The 45-year-old certainly welcomed being in the mix for the first time in America since playing in the final group at last year’s US Open.
“I feel really good that I almost made the most of it this week,” he said.
“I’m going to have a good finish. It’s not a win, which I really kind of refocused on trying to get back to the winner’s circle this year, but a result feels good because it’s been a while since I’ve just had a good result as well.”
Bridgeman is one over par for the day at 18-under with one hole left to play.
Rory McIlroy (-16) will be hoping for Bridgeman to tense up as he edges closer towards a first PGA Tour title.
The American led at one point in the final round at Pebble Beach a week ago, but a back nine collapse ruined his chances of victory there.
He even ended up on the beach beside the 18th green and thinned his shot from the sand and pebbles into the sea wall and his ball ricocheted back into the ocean.
The lengthy delay that was prompted by that slip up and his decision to go back to the fairway to take a drop caused Collin Morikawa to wait roughly 20 minutes to play his second shot on his way to victory.
Australia’s Min Woo Lee fired a six-under par 65 to jump to 11-under overall alongside world No.1 Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth in a share of .
The West Australian made seven birdies as he put on a stripe show.
Lee hit 11 of 14 fairways and gained more strokes than anyone else in the field off the tee.
He led that statistic across the four rounds combined, but struggled with his irons or wedges in hand to prevent himself from contending like he did at Pebble Beach last week with a runner-up finish.
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