The post Winners, losers, questions from PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing appeared first on Golf.

The post Winners, losers, questions from PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing appeared first on Golf.

My heart remains at Riviera Country Club, but my body is in a middle seat en route home. What better time to reflect on the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing — the good, the bad, the rumored, the mysterious.

Here are some winners, losers and questions from the opening stretch of the 2026 PGA Tour season.

WINNER: The 26-year-olds

Chris Gotterup won two of the first four events on this year’s calendar (given unusual circumstances, we’re treating the Sony as a half member of this year’s West Coast Swing), playing his best when things got most chaotic at the WM Phoenix Open and establishing himself as a fan favorite, a proven winner and arguably the best player on Tour 26 years old or below.

His current competition for that extremely unofficial title includes the guy who just won at Riviera; Jacob Bridgeman, like Gotterup, is 26. And while Gotterup took the weekend off (he missed the Genesis cut) Bridgeman beat everyone’s doors off for three days and hung on on Sunday to establish that he, too, has what it takes.

News

'Couldn't feel my hands': Inside Jacob Bridgeman's terrifying Genesis finish

By: Dylan Dethier

LOSER: Hawaii x PGA Tour

Is the PGA Tour headed back to Hawaii? Next year? Ever? It skipped Kapalua this year under controversial circumstances. Its Sony sponsorship just ran out. As the powers that be continue to reimagine the Tour’s optimal schedule, Hawaii remains a logistical challenge lacking a “big market.” How highly will Rolapp and Co. value continuity, tradition and nostalgia? We’ll see.

QUESTION: Where are the 25-year-olds?

Speaking of age, it’s jarring to browse whichever version of the world rankings you’d prefer and marvel at the lack of young stars. The 26-year-olds may be having a moment, but we’re still waiting for the emergence of the next young wave. There’s no reason to despair: Akshay Bhatia (24), the Hojgaard twins (also 24) and the Michaels (Brennan and Thorbjornsen, each 24) could all be on the brink of a breakthrough. But with Tom Kim in a bit of a rut, it feels like we’re searching for Who’s Next. (Shoutout also to Blades Brown, who stole the show for much of the week in Palm Springs.)

WINNER: The 45-year-olds

OK, I promise this whole list won’t be about age. In fact, lemme start with some hypocrisy: I wish when we talk about Justin Rose and Adam Scott that we’d focus less on their age. But it’s a useful way to pair two particularly impressive West Coast showings; Rose’s blowout win at Torrey Pines is worth extra points, of course, but Scott’s Sunday 63 to finish fourth at Riviera was nothing to scoff at, either. These guys are remarkably similar ages, they’ve had remarkably similar careers and they’re performing at remarkably similar levels at the moment. Let’s get ’em on a remarkable leaderboard at the Masters.

LOSER: The Scandinavians

While athletes from Norway and Sweden were dominating the Winter Olympics, their PGA Tour counterparts were having a slightly tougher time on the West Coast. Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg are among the Tour’s biggest talents and fan favorites — but neither has had his best thus far this year.

Hovland had a strong start at the WM Phoenix Open (T10) but less so at Pebble Beach (T58) and Riviera (T41), where talk turned more to his training aids than his scores.

And Aberg got severely ill for a second consecutive West Coast Swing — though if there’s good news, it’s that he seems to be trending up. Going WD-MC-T37-T20 means I guess he’s headed for a Masters victory?

(In other Scandinavian news, Alex Noren went MC-MC in Palm Springs and San Diego, but his T12 at Riviera was encouraging, too. And representing Denmark, the Hojgaard twins have each showed encouraging signs; Nicolai finished T3 at the WM and was one blowup hole from contending to win.)

QUESTION: Will Tiger Woods play the Masters?

Tiger Woods hinted that he’ll try. Then he hinted that he’ll try a second time. I don’t know if he will, but I think he’s told us the truth — if he can, he’ll do it.

LOSER: Scottie Scheffler’s Thursdays

Scottie Scheffler’s first Thursday of the season was a 63 at the American Express. So it’s particularly jarring that he’s just No. 116 on Tour in Round 1 Scoring Average. And it was strange to see him in last place when play was halted this past Thursday. Still …

WINNER: Scottie Scheffler’s other days

Considering he was in last place on Friday morning and needed to make a seven-foot curler on 18 just to stay inside the cut line, Scheffler’s T12 was another remarkable display of skill and determination. Sure, it snapped his streak of 18 consecutive Tour top-10s. But it only reinforced the idea that if you play enough rounds of golf, eventually Scheffler will rise to the top. Four tournaments in, here’s how his scoring average looks by round:

Round 1: 70.50 (116th)

Round 2: 65.75 (2nd)

Round 3: 67.00 (7th)

Round 4: 64.50 (2nd)

(If you were wondering who could possibly beat that 64.5, Will Zalatoris has played one fourth round this year and shot 64.)

QUESTION: So what the heck is going on with Scheffler on Thursdays?

My best guess is still some version of “nothing, really; this has just been a weird blip on the radar.” He led the Tour in first-round scoring last year, after all, and has had some funky starts in strange conditions. Let’s wait for a bigger sample size before we get panicky here.

WINNER: California kids

I’m thinking of two in particular: Collin Morikawa, who won for the first time in too long at Pebble Beach, and Jake Knapp, who just quietly put together the best stretch of golf of his life. Knapp hasn’t finished worse than T11 in five starts this year. Morikawa’s win was meaningful on several levels — because of how long it had been, because of where it took place, because of everything that went into it, because he and his wife have a baby on the way. It’s good to see West Coast kids eat up the West Coast Swing. And then of course there was another California sensation in the winner’s circle …

LOSER: Anthony Kim’s haters and doubters

I write this tongue in cheek; I think Anthony Kim‘s win showed just how many people have been on his side this entire time, rooting for something special. But he’s used a chip on his shoulder to get this far, and his shot at the haters showed he’ll keep drawing on that. Mostly it’s worth acknowledging that one of golf’s biggest moments this month happened on LIV Golf, with a one-of-a-kind comeback story capped off with an electric finish to a story a dozen years in the making.

QUESTION: What’s next for Jon Rahm, LIV and the DP World Tour?

Big picture, this is one of pro golf’s most compelling questions moving forward; LIV and the DP World Tour still seem in an uneasy coexistence and I’m curious how that will resolve. For now the DPWT has reached a temporary truce with several of its LIV members, allowing them to play both circuits and maintain Ryder Cup eligibility. But why isn’t Jon Rahm one of the players taking that deal, and is there any chance in the world he doesn’t play on next year’s European Ryder Cup team?

WINNER: CBS golf coverage

These courses look awesome in person, they look incredible on television and CBS continues to innovate in order to dial in their coverage.

Also, the little stuff continues to go a long way.

LOSER: Soggy conditions

There’s been plenty of discussion about moving these marquee West Coast stops to later in the PGA Tour schedule. A cold, soggy Pebble Beach followed by a cold, soggy Riviera made that case much more appealing, with fans shivering on the rope lines and golf balls plugging in greens. Two perfect weekend days capped the Genesis off in style, and wet and windy can be entertaining at Pebble, but each was still missing some of the firm, fast character it has at its best.

QUESTION: So are we doing the August West Coast thing?

I leave California more confused than I arrived. On paper it seems smart to have the best courses in the biggest spots on the PGA Tour calendar; what could be cooler than Pebble and Riviera as playoff venues? But there are issues with both sites that time of year. Pebble has a car show and a full tee sheet and it’s not near enough of a population center to draw a playoff-worthy crowd. In L.A., locals suggested that the golf-going crowd would be out of town in August and that its current spot on the calendar is actually optimal for getting people to actually attend.

If I was in charge, my top priority would be to remove the playoff events from the hellish August humidity of Atlanta and Memphis. I don’t need them in California, though — Boston, Chicago and Seattle are calling, as are a dozen other medium-to-large cities with ideal summer days. I’m curious where they’ll land, though.

And what the West Coast Swing will look like next year, and the year after that, and when we’ll be gazing at golf’s glorious coastlines again.

We’ll see you in Florida.

The post Winners, losers, questions from PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Weird relationship’: Like Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler has yet to answer Riviera question appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Weird relationship’: Like Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler has yet to answer Riviera question appeared first on Golf.

A long list of golfing greats have triumphed at Riviera Country Club.

Hogan. Snead. Watson. Nelson. Mickelson. Couples. Faldo. Els. Scott. The list goes on.

The George C. Thomas design is one of golf’s great cathedrals. It has hosted U.S. Opens and PGA Championships. Since 1973, it has played host to the PGA Tour’s LA Open, now the Genesis Invitational. It is a place where great players win. It is a course where legends want to etch their name into history.

And it’s also a place where the best players of their generations — Jack, Tiger and Rory — have been unable to get it over the line. You can blame it on the bumpy Poa annua greens or some unexplained Riviera voodoo. But three golfing legends haven’t found ultimate success at a place that, in theory, should play to their strengths. The course has a well-documented correlation to Augusta National and asks players to control their spin and trajectory while attacking small, tricky greens.

“It makes absolutely no sense,” Max Homa said in 2023, about Woods being unable to win at Riviera. “It’s a second-shot golf course, and he’s the greatest iron player of all time. It truly makes no sense.”

“He’s a really great iron player and you have to be a good iron player to play well here,” Adam Scott said then of Woods. “That may just be an anomaly and the only one in his whole career maybe. It’s a little bit inexplicable.”

Woods has made 15 starts at Riviera, including his PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992. He has made 10 cuts but just three top 10s, including a runner-up finish to Ernie Els in 1999. Woods has chalked it up to a matter of the stars not aligning and the unpredictability of Poa greens.

“It is frustrating in the sense that this is a golf course that has been to me been very comfortable visually,” Woods said in 2024. “As I said, it’s a fader’s delight from the tee shots and I have, as I said, been a pretty good iron player, but for some reason I just haven’t put it together at this event other than one time with a chance. For some reason it just hasn’t happened.”

Nicklaus had two runner-up finishes at Riviera but never won. McIlroy’s T2 Sunday was his best finish in Pacific Palisades.

While the sample size isn’t as large as the others just yet, the haunted greats of the Riviera club could add another member if things don’t change.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler arrived at Riviera with a checkered history of his own. He missed the match-play cut at the 2017 U.S. Amateur and missed the cut as an amateur at the Genesis Open in 2018. He entered the week with four top-20s as a pro at Riviera but had never finished within six shots of the lead. He arrived riding a streak of 18 consecutive top 10s (which is now over).

Even after slow starts at the WM Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Scheffler made a run at the trophy before coming up just short. That didn’t happen at Riv, where he opened with a three-over 74 and found himself walking the cutline.

News

The strange experience of watching Scottie Scheffler in last place

By: Dylan Dethier

“I don’t know, this place and I have like a weird relationship,” Scheffler said after holing a par putt on 18 on Friday to make the cut. “I feel like I can play so well out here and I just haven’t yet.”

Scheffler made a valiant charge up the leaderboard on the weekend — he said he benefitted from early tee times and less chewed-up greens — but finished in a tie for 12th at a place that has confounded the game’s greats.

Like Woods and McIlroy, Scheffler had no explanation for why Riviera — a ball-striker’s course — hasn’t meshed with him. He faced difficult conditions on Thursday and got the benefit of earlier weekend tee times to rise up the leaderboard. In his career at Riviera, Scheffler has had good weeks off the tee and around the greens. His putting has been average, but he has only finished in the top 10 in approach once, which came in 2022 when he tied for 7th. This past week, he ranked 36th in Strokes Gained: Approach, losing 0.739 shots per round.

“When you look at this golf course and you look at it on paper, it seems kind of easy,” Scheffler said pre-tournament. “Then you start playing it, and you’re like, hit a ball in the rough on 2 and you’re like, Man this hole is kind of hard. Then you don’t hit the fairway on 3 and you’re like, Oh, shoot, I don’t know how I am going to hit the ball on the green here, and then the golf course just eats away at you over time.”

As Scheffler’s reign over professional golf has grown, he has continuously found his name in the same sentence as Woods. The story repeated itself at Riviera as Scheffler, like Woods, searched for ways to solve the famed Southern California track. Even on a day when he posted a low number, the answers alluded him.

“Maybe a little bit,” Scheffler said after his third-round 66 when asked if he felt better about the course. “But then at times it still felt weird.”

On Sunday night, Woods, the tournament host, greeted winner Jacob Bridgeman on the hill. The 15-time major winner joked that Bridgeman, who beat McIlroy by one, now had something Woods doesn’t.

The answer to a puzzle that Woods, McIlroy and now Scheffler are still trying to solve.

The post ‘Weird relationship’: Like Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler has yet to answer Riviera question appeared first on Golf.

The post The last 2 Tour winners took this typical club out of their bag appeared first on Golf.

The post The last 2 Tour winners took this typical club out of their bag appeared first on Golf.

Mark that as two wins in two weeks for TaylorMade staff players, but it’s also two wins in two weeks for players without a traditional 4-iron in their bags.

Like Collin Morikawa last week, Jacob Bridgeman also trusts a utility iron head for his 4-iron, going with a 12-year-old TaylorMade Tour Preferred UDI with the same Project X 6.5 iron shaft as the rest of his set.

Both Morikawa and Bridgeman use three different models in their iron, with Morikawa having a true split set of TaylorMade P7CBs and then P730 blades in addition to a P-DHY utility iron, while Bridgeman replaced his P7CB 5-iron with a P770 version to maintain peak heights throughout the set.

“The 770 5-iron was added to his bag to simply find a 5-iron that launched higher and landed softer into long par 3s and par 5s,” TaylorMade Senior Tour Rep Nick Springer said. “He found the 770 to be a versatile club that he could flight when he needed to.”

Using a utility iron in the 4-iron slot is likely done for similar reasons, as many pros now choose more forgiving options for either gapping or peak height purposes.

That’s exactly why Morikawa, who experimented with a 9-wood last season, is the only player on the PGA Tour regularly using TaylorMade’s P-DHY driving iron, the larger of the company’s two utility iron options.

“He was looking for a 4-iron that goes up in the air easier,” TaylorMade Tour Rep Todd Chew said last week. “With the DHY, he doesn’t have to hit it as hard as he can to make it go up in the air. It also spins enough so he can cut it, whereas with previous 4-irons, it was hard to get the spin right to create that ball flight. We added a little more loft as well to get it to go high and cut and still spin when he takes something off of it.”

TaylorMade P-UDI Custom Utility Iron

Tour inspired shaping for a playable and balanced look at address. Strategically positioned CG for a penetrating ball flight with backspin for players who demand shot making with long irons. INDIVIDUAL MASS OPTIMIZATION Featuring advanced thick-thin back wall construction, sound stabilization bar, and deliberately distributed mass to maximize forgiveness. Each iron is uniquely designed with every gram strategically placed to achieve specific performance goals with premium forged feel. OPTIMAL LAUNCH AND FORGIVENESS Designed to deliver easy launch, increased forgiveness and enhanced consistency. The new internal weighting structure combines with proven technologies such as the forged 4140 OptiFace, Speed Pocket™ and up to 26g of tungsten. THRU-SLOT SPEEDPOCKET The Thru-Slot Speed Pocket™ provides increased face flexibility while preserving ball speed and distance on low face strikes.

$249.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade

TaylorMade P-DHY Custom Utility Iron

Shallower face height, increased sole width and longer blade length create a super forgiving and versitile long iron. Designed with a low CG for a mid-high launch and mid-range spin. INDIVIDUAL MASS OPTIMIZATION Featuring advanced thick-thin back wall construction, sound stabilization bar, and deliberately distributed mass to maximize forgiveness. Each iron is uniquely designed with every gram strategically placed to achieve specific performance goals with premium forged feel. OPTIMAL LAUNCH AND FORGIVENESS Designed to deliver easy launch, increased forgiveness and enhanced consistency. The new internal weighting structure combines with proven technologies such as the forged 4140 OptiFace, Speed Pocket™ and up to 26g of tungsten. THRU-SLOT SPEEDPOCKET The Thru-Slot Speed Pocket™ provides increased face flexibility while preserving ball speed and distance on low face strikes.

$249.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade

At all levels of golf, we’re increasingly seeing more and more players opt for driving iron replacement-type clubs in the 4-iron slot, not just for 3- and 2-irons anymore. Brian Campbell also won last season with a Ping iDi 4-iron.

During Fully Fit 2026, Sean Zak found his best 4-iron option was also a TaylorMade P-UDI.

Want to find the best 4-iron replacement for your bag in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post The last 2 Tour winners took this typical club out of their bag appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Earned me an extra 400, 500k’: Rory McIlroy’s epic response to ‘cruel’ question appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Earned me an extra 400, 500k’: Rory McIlroy’s epic response to ‘cruel’ question appeared first on Golf.

Rory McIlroy didn’t win the 2026 Genesis Invitational on Sunday. But he blitzed Riviera’s back nine late in the final round, nearly overcoming winner Jacob Bridgeman’s big 54-hole lead.

The five-time major winner, who finished T2, sounded pleased with his performance Sunday evening, calling it, “overall a really positive week.”

At least in terms of his bank account, he wasn’t kidding. McIlroy earned a huge payday for his runner-up at Riviera, thanks to the Genesis’ status as a PGA Tour Signature Event.

However, his payout would have been far smaller had he not dropped a lengthy putt for birdie on his final hole of the tournament. That fact was not lost on McIlroy after his round, and he used it to hilarious effect in a response to a reporter’s question about his “cruel” near-miss at the Genesis.

Rory McIlroy’s birdie bomb on 18 earns him massive payday at Genesis

McIlroy’s final round started off slow. Trailing Bridgeman by six shots to start the day, he traded a birdie at the first with a bogey at 6 to finish the front nine at even par.

Once he made the turn, though, McIlroy kicked it into a different gear. He reeled off a birdie at 11, then holed-out an incredible bunker shot for another birdie at 12.

When Bridgeman later made bogey at 16, only three shots separated he and McIlroy on the leaderboard.

Rory birdied 17 to shave off another stroke. At 18, he stared down a 30-footer and, unlike with many of his other chances on Sunday, drained it for an unlikely birdie at the last.

News

‘Horrible change’: Rory McIlroy criticizes Riviera’s controversial par-3

By: Alan Bastable

It wasn’t enough to stop Bridgeman, who parred out to win by one, but it was enough to move McIlroy up one position on the leaderboard. And there were major financial repercussions as a result.

During his post-round interview, a reporter asked McIlroy if it was “cruel” watching his long birdie putt drop on 18 considering that so many earlier putts had missed.

That’s when McIlroy offered his witty response, using his increased winnings as the punchline.

“No, not really,” McIlroy began. “It probably earned me an extra 400, 500 grand so it’s fine.”

However, McIlroy’s quick math resulted in a major underestimate. In reality, his long birdie at 18 increased his paycheck by far more than he thought.

Had Rory two-putted for par at 18, he would have finished T3 with Adam Scott. That two-way tie for third would have earned McIlroy $1.2 million. It’s a startling figure, no doubt. For reference, it’s a bigger payday than Rory earned for winning the 2025 Irish Open in September ($1.02 million), his most recent victory.

But McIlroy did sink his birdie putt on Riviera’s 18th hole. And as a result, he improved from a T3- to a T2-finish with Kurt Kitayama. That massively improved his payout from $1.2 to $1.8 million.

In short, McIlroy’s 30-foot make on 18 earned him $600,000 more, increasing his earnings by 50 percent.

And based on his comments to close his presser, McIlroy is going to keep focusing on the positives as the biggest tournaments of the year approach.

“I feel like my game’s in really good shape. I’m looking forward to getting on some Bermuda greens over the next couple weeks,” McIlroy said in closing on Sunday. “But it’s feeling good, it’s feeling much better than it did in Dubai, which is a big step in the right direction. Just have to keep working.”

The post ‘Earned me an extra 400, 500k’: Rory McIlroy’s epic response to ‘cruel’ question appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Couldn’t feel my hands’: Inside Jacob Bridgeman’s terrifying Genesis finish appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Couldn’t feel my hands’: Inside Jacob Bridgeman’s terrifying Genesis finish appeared first on Golf.

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The scariest putt in golf is somewhere between three and four feet.

Short enough that you expect to make it.

Long enough that you might not.

It gets tougher, I’d imagine, to hit a three-and-a-half footer with 5,000 people watching from the hillside in front of you.

Tougher when they’ve just gasped in horror at what you’ve just done.

Tougher still when one of those people is Rory McIlroy, who just so happens to be one stroke behind you.

And tougher when another is Tiger Woods, your childhood hero, looking on from a perch beside the clubhouse, 50 yards and 500 miles away, waiting to shake your hand as long as you can somehow get your ball to the bottom of that hole.

It gets tougher when you’re on the brink of winning your first PGA Tour event, something you’ve dreamt of your entire life, something you know you can do but also know isn’t guaranteed.

And tougher knowing that missing wouldn’t just mean letting an opportunity slip by — it would mean blowing a six-stroke lead, crashing on the final turn, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It gets tougher when the pressure hasn’t slowly mounted, but instead, after three rounds and 15 holes of low stress and many birdies, it hits like a freight train, with a shrinking lead, a growing crowd, decibels, nerves and heart rate rising by the minute.

And it gets tougher when you can’t feel your hands.

SUNDAY BROUGHT THE MOST GLORIOUS WEATHER in the history of Los Angeles, tied for first with 80 percent of all days in L.A. history, 70 degrees and sunny, deep blue cloudless sky matching the deep blue ocean just visible from the balcony of Riviera Country Club’s iconic clubhouse.

That was the setting for the final round of the Genesis Invitational, which felt like it could go one of two directions. Jacob Bridgeman began the day with a six-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and seven-plus over the rest of the gang, having played nearly flawless golf through three rounds. Bridgeman has been very good and very steady since last season, but entering Sunday he’d never won. Would he succumb to the pressure, blow up and yield to the chase pack? Or would he keep his foot on the gas and continue speeding away from the rest of the field? Those felt like the two options.

Instead, much of the day settled in the awkward in-between.

There are few better golf settings than the iconic old-school cool of Riviera, though early tee times plus an L.A. crowd living up to its get-there-in-the-fourth-inning reputation led to a slightly muted early stretch.

Fans were pulling for McIlroy, wanting to will him into a comeback, but they were quietly supportive of Bridgeman, too, an impressive unknown without an ounce of villain in him. Bridgeman matched McIlroy’s birdie at No. 1 to keep his lead at six. He birdied the third to stretch it to seven. Even that was greeted with light applause. McIlroy’s early birdie tries slid by, doing little to ignite the crowd. Hollywood seemed unimpressed with this particular bit of anticlimax.

(One star among them: Ben Affleck, who walked the entire front nine inside the ropes with his son and tried multiple times to frame up the perfect iPhone photo of a McIlroy tee shot. The stars, they’re just like us!)

Bridgeman has been forged in the fires of competitive golf, first growing up in South Carolina, then at Clemson and more recently on the game’s top circuit. He’s been on a steady upward trajectory. He’s made it clear that success isn’t all his own.

When he first started working with his swing coach Scott Hamilton, he had some work to do. “I didn’t hit the ball straight, didn’t hit it high, didn’t have a lot of control with my irons,” he said.

When he settled on his first-choice caddie, G.W. Cable, there was just one problem: he’d have to take a pay cut to join Bridgeman on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“He took a gamble on me and luckily we only spent one year down there and I think he’s pretty pleased with his gamble,” Bridgeman said.

He earned $4.4 million on the course last season. He was playing for a $4 million winner’s check on Sunday. Good pressure to have.

But just because he’s been good doesn’t mean it’d be easy. As the day lingered, Bridgeman let the rest of the field do the same. He bogeyed 4. He bogeyed 7. He hit the middles of greens, he scared the hole, just missing putts that he’d watched fall the first three days.

McIlroy finally made some semblance of a push early on the back nine. Birdie at 11 cut the lead to five before a highlight-reel hole-out birdie from the bunker at 12 electrified the crowd for the first time all day.

Up ahead, several other contenders made their presence felt. Aldrich Potgieter got to 15 under with an eagle at 11. Adam Scott played stunning golf, stacking eight birdies and zero bogeys to post the clubhouse lead at 16 under. And then, just as Bridgeman found himself in a spot of bother, Kurt Kitayama made his seventh and eighth birdies of the day in the group ahead to post 17 under par.

Bridgeman wobbled with a wayward tee shot at No. 16, dumping his iron into the front right bunker, an inescapable jail.

“It was honestly easy until I got to about 16 and then it got really hard,” Bridgeman said post-round. His caddie, looking at his lie, didn’t hesitate. He had to aim right and play for bogey. His lengthy par putt wandered past the hole; he negotiated in a nervy try for bogey. The lead was suddenly one.

Things only got tougher at the par-5 17th, where Bridgeman’s second shot sailed right and found a bunker, leaving him with no good options. He did well to play a sensible shot.

“Definitely around the green, that was the first time that I had to play defense,” he said.

It was around this time that Bridgeman lost feeling in his hands.

“I didn’t really feel really crazy nervous until I had a five-footer for bogey on 16; that one was sketchy,” he said. “I hit a really good putt and luckily it went in, and then I was really nervous from there on out. I couldn’t even feel my hands on the last couple greens, I just hit the putt hoping it would get somewhere near the hole.”

But on full shots, Bridgeman said, he still felt okay.

“I felt like I was just kind of in robot mode and autopilot, I could just swing the club and it would do exactly what it’s supposed to do,” he said. An envious feeling.

That’s what he did on No. 18, sending driver up the left-center fairway off the tee and playing a towering approach right at the hole, 20 feet short, straight uphill.

And then he left it three and a half feet short.

The crowd groaned. They murmured. Suddenly, a tantalizing possibility was back in play: a miss would mean a three-way playoff between Bridgeman, Kitayama and McIlroy, whose dramatic birdie putt had dripped over the front edge just moments before.

Bridgeman is good friends with Chris Gotterup, a rising star on Tour and a recent multiple-time winner. He recounted watching the WM Phoenix Open, where Gotterup poured in a winning birdie putt with aggressive speed.

“We were like, what were you doing? You hit your putt so hard, it was going to go four feet by the hole. He said, ‘I have no idea, I couldn’t feel my hands.’

“I thought he was kind of crazy until I got to this moment and then I was like, yep, I understand what you’re talking about now, Chris. I had no idea what to do.”

It’s tough to make a three-and-a-half footer, and it’s tougher if you can sense that some portion of the crowd around is suddenly hoping that you will.

Tough for you or me.

But, as he and we suddenly realized, easier for Jacob Bridgeman.

“The hole’s really white and it looked pretty big for whatever reason on 18,” he said. He had his read — hit it at the middle of the middle — and he knew what he could control.

“I was just hoping that the ball would roll where it was supposed to roll.”

Most of the time, nothing good can happen with a three-and-a-half-footer. It’s a multiple-choice test with two options: Relief or disaster. This time, though, salvation lay within. The ball rolled as it was supposed to. Bridgeman’s triumph was official. He plunged into the winner’s whirlpool; his wife greeted him on the green, he floated through his CBS interview, he climbed the stairs, shook Woods’ hand, didn’t process whatever he said.

“This is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt it,” he said.

He also offered an admission.

“I’m glad it’s done now.”

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

The post ‘Couldn’t feel my hands’: Inside Jacob Bridgeman’s terrifying Genesis finish appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth got his ‘weapon’ back but has work to do before the Masters appeared first on Golf.

The post Jordan Spieth got his ‘weapon’ back but has work to do before the Masters appeared first on Golf.

When Jordan Spieth was at the peak of his powers, it seemed like every putt he looked at went in. Be it the 50-foot putt to win the 2015 Valspar, the 55-foot eagle at the 2017 Open Championship or the 25-foot eagle at the 2015 U.S Open, when Spieth was cooking, he was a wizard with the flat stick.

Per Data Golf, Spieth gained two or more shots on the field on the greens in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2019, he gained 2.9 shots on the greens. PGA Tour average, per Data Golf, is around zero. But after the 2019 season, Spieth’s putting started to go the other way. Per PGA Tour stats, Spieth ranked second in putting during the 2018-19 season. In the following six seasons, he has ranked 105th, 33rd, 155th, 79th, 101st and 65th. The three-time major winner dealt with a wrist injury that impacted his swing and has worked to iron out some “bad tendencies” in his putting that made him less reliable on shorter putts and zapped him of his trademark brilliance on the greens.

The putter used to be a key part of what made Spieth Spieth, back when he was a young superstar taking the sport by storm. Now 32, Spieth believes he has tapped back into the putting magic that once captivated everyone. It starts with Spieth’s eyes. He has always putted best when looking at the hole, and over the past two weeks at Pebble Beach and Riviera, Spieth has found that groove again, and it helped him pick up 5.8 shots on the greens at Pebble and 6.1 at this week’s Genesis, where he finished in a tie for 12th. That included 113 feet of putts made in Round 2 and 97 in the final round.

“Looking at my spot, like looking up, looking at the hole, my spot seems to be a weapon that I’ve got back, which is really nice because I feel solid whether it’s breaking or straight, anything in shorter range. Then that frees you up as you start to expand,” Spieth said after his final round on Sunday.

“I putted incredibly well inside of 10 feet, which is something I’ve struggled with at Riviera in particular, not that everybody does. It would be hard for me to believe anybody putted better
inside 10 feet this week, and that was huge because those were par saves, those were second putts, stuff that keeps momentum going, keeps scorecards clean. And I made a few from outside of 10, which helped kind of the second and the fourth round.”

Spieth opened his season at the Sony in Hawaii, where he ranked 35th in the field in putting. He went back to Dallas and worked with his coach, Cameron McCormick, to adjust his putting setup. Spieth lost 1.215 strokes on the greens during a missed cut at the Waste Management, but has found his old feel on the greens over the past two weeks on the West Coast, and he believes that the good vibes he has with the flatstick will bleed into the rest of his game as he looks toward the Florida Swing and the Masters.

“It’s a big deal,” Spieth said. “I mean, it really, you start as close to the hole as you can, and everything that feels comfortable just keeps going further and further away all the way into the long game.”

Spieth’s swing isn’t where he would like it. He took a lot of time off during the offseason and used the first four starts of his year to get a feel for what he needs to sharpen in his swing. With the Masters less than 50 days away, Spieth has a good understanding of the work that needs to be done to match the rest of his game to the “weapon” he has rediscovered.

“But all in all, I want to get it a little bit tighter off the tee,” Spieth said after losing 2.4 shots off the tee at Riviera. “And kind of with iron play, I felt like my short game, wedges and that kind of stuff, and I made great strides, it was kind of C control and A putting. But I know what I need to do and I feel like it’s only going to get better.”

After three weeks on the West Coast, Spieth will head back to Dallas for a week off to work on fixing what ails his swing. But he leaves California having found something he had been searching for, and that has him looking toward a friendly stretch — one that concludes at a course that brings out the best of him — feeling like Jordan Spieth is close to finding the Jordan Spieth of old.

“I feel very confident. I like the stretch that’s coming up,” Spieth said.

“I feel like I’ve got some momentum.”

The post Jordan Spieth got his ‘weapon’ back but has work to do before the Masters appeared first on Golf.

The post Jacob Bridgeman’s clubs: What’s in his Genesis-winning bag appeared first on Golf.

The post Jacob Bridgeman’s clubs: What’s in his Genesis-winning bag appeared first on Golf.

Jacob Bridgeman broke through on the PGA Tour in a big way, winning the Genesis Invitational on Sunday for his first career victory.

Bridgeman has, in someway, what’s becoming the modern standard for a golf bag on the PGA Tour.

The 26-year-old plays a 4-wood and a 7-wood instead of the traditional 3- and 5-wood, and he actually added those clubs to the bag this week in the form of the new TaylorMade Qi4Ds. Bridgeman previously played an R7 Quad Mini Driver and an older Stealth 7-wood.

“He felt the 3-wood gave him more versatility and was easier to hit off the deck into some of the long par 3’s at Riviera,” TaylorMade Senior Tour Rep Nick Springer said. “He also felt it was a better option for him on the 10th hole for the number and shot shape that hole demanded.”

The new 7-wood spun less than his old gamer, which was something Bridgeman liked.

Club Fitting

Should more golfers play blades? Here's what you should know | Bag Builders

By: Jake Morrow

With his irons, Bridgeman predominantly plays a set of the popular P7CB, but at the 5-iron, he switches to a 2022 P770, and then plays a 12-year-old Tour Preferred UDI driving iron for his 4-iron.

Until the P7CB was released in 2024, Bridgeman had only played blades for his entire career.

“He liked the clean look from address and slightly higher launch with a cavity back iron,” Springer said. “The biggest selling point, though, was the soft feel and better turf interaction than his blades.

“The 770 5-iron was added to his bag simply find a 5-iron that launched higher and landed softer into long par 3’s and par 5’s. He found the 770 to be a versatile club that he could flight when he needed to.”

Bridgeman originally played 1 degree weaker lofts in his 7CBs, but upon switching to the new TP5x golf ball this season, the added spin allowed him to bend his irons back to a more standard loft spec.

“Jacob is one of the lowest spin iron players on tour so we spent the offseason working on a ball switch and reworking the iron lofts to start and hit his window,” TaylorMade Tour Rep Cory Johnson said. “He noticed in the playoffs that the harder firmer greens were tough for him. This switch to TP5x was made for him to win on the hardest set ups in golf. Additionally, TP5x was 2-3 mph faster with driver.”

With the win, Bridgeman is now the fifth winner in the six PGA Tour events held so far this season to use a TaylorMade Spider putter. He uses the larger Spider Tour model with a short slant neck, similar to Tommy Fleetwood.

“Jacob likes to feel a nice arc at release with his putter and does a lot of practice with a blade to feel that,” TaylorMade putter rep James Holley said. “The Spider Tour short slant has less toe hang, but with the back CG it feels very similar to him as a blade. The mallet gives him more forgiveness and consistency with launch. At Pebble, he wanted to check launch and loft to make sure he had enough launch for the Poa greens. He was launching it perfect with just over 2° of launch. He likes the clean Spider Tour top with just a single dot that he sharpies on.”

Keep reading below for all of Bridgeman’s detailed WITB specs.

Jacob Bridgeman’s winning WITB at the 2026 Genesis Invitational

Driver: TaylorMade Qi35 LS 10.5˚
Actual Loft: 10˚
FCT Setting: Upright
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 60 6.5
Length: 45.375″ EOG

TaylorMade Qi4D LS Custom Driver

SHAPED FOR SPEED Traditional address shape based on feedback from world-class players helps create confidence on every shot. Qi4D LS is the lowest spinning option in the Qi4D lineup. FACE FOR DISTANCE Qi4D LS drivers feature a new and improved roll radius, yielding more consistent spin across vertical impact locations. ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE 4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight. TOUR PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket™ protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes. Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation of TaylorMade driver performance. Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to strategically place mass in areas of the head where it maximizes performance, speed, and stability.

$649.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, TaylorMade

Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX Wood Shaft

To make the best, you have to use the best. Project X has teamed up with Hexcel, a global leader in composites technology for aerospace and military operations, to utilize their HexTow® carbon fibers. Hexcel’s HexTow® carbon fiber represents the highest quality aerospace-grade carbon fiber delivering superior performance on some of the world’s most advanced aircraft.  The HZRDUS brand is a distinguishing mark of the aggressive swinger, and that legacy is continued with the new HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX. Built with 100% aerospace materials, Smoke Black RDX is the first shaft to utilize Hexcel’s new HexTow® HM54 high modulus carbon fiber and combines it with high tensile strength HexTow® IM2C carbon fiber to provide the ideal blend of stiffness and stability desired by the HZRDUS player. Smoke Black RDX features an ultra-stiff midsection along with a stiff tip section to provide a low launch and low spin shaft designed to keep up with your swing.

$225.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

1/2

2/2

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D 16.5˚
Actual Loft: 15.5˚
FCT Setting: Bonded
Lie: 58˚
Shaft: Project X Denali Blue 80 TX
Length: 43’’ EOG
Swingweight: D3

7-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D 21˚
Actual Loft: 20˚
FCT Setting: Bonded
Lie: 59˚
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD-XC 8-X
Length: 41.5’’ EOG
Swingweight: D4

TaylorMade Qi4D Custom Fairway Wood

PROVEN RECIPE TaylorMade Fairways have dominated on Tour for over a decade because of their unique performance recipe, which enables maximum distance and versatility. The Qi4D fairway is designed for golfers who want the most advanced technology while still prioritizing versatility and control with amazing distance. ADJUSTABLE PERFORMANCE Utilizing a single Trajectory Adjustment System weight (8g x1) provides the golfer a more mass efficient way to adjust flight, spin and swing weight. 4° loft sleeve can be used to adjust loft, lie and face angle for optimized flight and is available in all lofts. REFINED ATTRIBUTES, BIG CHANGES Engineers conducted an objective analysis of all the performance attributes and discovered new methods to enhance performance and confidence. Sit points, lie angles, address views, and center of gravity locations were all updated based on Tour feedback and the expertise of leading fitters worldwide, ensuring the optimal fairway across skill levels. TOUR-PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES New and improved cut-through Speed Pocket™ protects ball speed and reduces spin on low-face strikes. Advanced CAD modeling creates a design with a clean and powerful sound, a foundation for TaylorMade fairway performance. Twist Face™ features corrective face curvature designed to provide straighter shots on mishits. Multi-Material Construction allows engineers to maximize performance by increasing discretionary weight.

$379.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

1/2

2/2

Irons: TaylorMade 2014 Tour Preferred UDI (4), 2022 P770 (5), P7CB (6-PW)
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Length: 37″ EOG 7-iron
Loft Progression: 23.5/27/30/34/38/42/46
Lie Progression: 60/60.5/61/61.5/62/62.5/63

TaylorMade P7CB Custom Irons

BEST-IN CLASS FEEL Using Tour feedback and modal analysis we’ve strategically designed mass placement for best in class feel. Crafted using Compact Grain Forging and 2000 tons of pressure to deliver the purest feeling 1025 soft carbon steel possible. PRECISE CONTROL Precise milled face and grooves combined with a constant CG the P•7CB is designed to deliver an optimal launch and spin combination for the ultimate control and precision. CONSISTENCY Created to maximize accuracy and consistency. The P•7CB optimized perimeter weighting and co-forged tungsten designed to deliver a beautiful blend of stability and workability. COMPACT TOUR SHAPING Every aspect of shaping in this iron was intended to meet the needs of discerning ball strikers. A compact blade length and thin topline create a confident, clean look in the playing position while the sole camber and progressive bounce profile provide consistent turf interaction.

$200.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 5 (50° SB, 54° SB @ 55, 60° LB)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (50, 54), Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)
Lie: 63.5˚
Length: 35.75″, 35.5″, 35.25″

TaylorMade Milled Grind 5 Custom Wedge

FORGED FEEL Incredible feel is a must for having a great wedge game. MG5 has been forged from soft carbon steel and designed with geometry to provide excellent feel with great feedback. MAXIMUM SPIN MG5 uses all-new, more aggressive grooves designed to maximize spin. Saw-milled grooves produce tighter tolerances allowing engineers to design steeper walls and sharper radii intended to maximize spin in both dry and damp conditions. PERFORMANCE IN ALL CONDITIONS RAW face with Spin Tread technology channels away moisture to help retain spin. The same way that tire treads help your car stay connected to the road, laser-etched channels redirect water at impact and creates more friction between the club face and golf ball to maintain spin in wet conditions. CRAFTSMANSHIP MEETS CONSISTENCY  Crafted by hand and then milled to perfection. Each wedge and sole grind are precision-milled to eliminate the natural human error that comes with hand polishing. Our grinds deliver unmatched consistency and craftsmanship that players can count on every time. CHARCOAL FINISH MG5 debuts a sleek, sophisticated charcoal finish that reduces glare and enhances its aesthetic appeal in the bag.

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour
Hosel: Short Slant
Loft: 2.5°
Lie: 69.5°
Length: 33.75’’
Swingweight: D5
Sight Line: White Sharpie Dot
Insert: Pure Roll
Shaft: Black Stepless
Finish: Gunmetal
Grip: SuperStroke 2.0 PT

TaylorMade 2025 Spider Tour Black Custom Putter

BLACK PVD FINISH The durable PVD coating creates a beautiful high-quality finish with sole plate, back badge and copper accents. TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT The patented alignment system provides visual clarity and helps golfers better envision the line to the hole. WHITE TPU PURE ROLL™ INSERTMade from a combination of Surlyn and aluminum, the white TPU Pure Roll™ insert creates a softer feel.Grooves are angled at 45° to encourage optimal forward roll as well as better sound, feel and overall roll characteristics. The white insert also creates better symmetry with the white True Path alignment. THIN WALL UNDERCUT CONSTRUCTION We’ve engineered a super stable structure by removing excess weight to create high MOI and legendary Spider performance. HYBRAR ECHO®DAMPENER HYBRAR is behind the face to dampen unwanted vibrations, delivering premium sound and feelon every putt with the best possible sensation. TSS WEIGHTING TSS weights provide balanced weighting and help optimize performance for all various putter lengths. STEEL WIREFRAME Allows engineers to better control weight distribution and CG location.

$349.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Ball: TaylorMade 2026 TP5x

TaylorMade 2026 TP5x Golf Balls

Built on the success of the best Team TaylorMade athletes in the world, TP5x is designed to deliver unparalleled low spin and distance off the tee and world-class feel and control where you need it most around the green. Microcoating No two golf balls are the same, but the all-new TP5x sets out to solve an invisible problem through our revolutionary microcoating finish process. Uneven paint and excess pooling in the dimples can compromise distance and accuracy. Microcoating uses precision application technology to ensure uniform coverage across the ball’s entire surface. Click on the video for a deep dive. Thinner Than a Human Hair Microcoating is thinner than a human hair and delivers measurable performance advantages: more consistent ball flight, optimized distance, and tight left-to-right dispersion. Tour-Level Speed The reengineered Speed Wrapped Core in TP5x increases the coefficient of restitution (COR) for exceptional ball speed at the top end of your bag.

$57.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord 

Want to overhaul your bag for 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post Jacob Bridgeman’s clubs: What’s in his Genesis-winning bag appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Grinding over 3-footers’: Why short putts are a nightmare at Riviera appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Grinding over 3-footers’: Why short putts are a nightmare at Riviera appeared first on Golf.

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Xander Schauffele’s putt was just two feet, seven inches.

Which made missing it all the more painful.

Schauffele looked like he made a reasonably good stroke, but his par try at Riviera’s par-3 16th dove right at the hole, caught the edge and careened out the other side. The crowd groaned, a universal reaction to watching a missed shortie, only made worse given Schauffele’s position in contention at one of the most prestigious events on the PGA Tour schedule.

It was hardly an isolated incident. At No. 17 just a few minutes later, Schauffele’s playing partner Rory McIlroy had a four-footer for birdie and missed it. And at No. 18, tournament leader Jacob Bridgeman flagged his approach to six feet and missed that, too.

Pros miss short putts all the time, of course. But if it feels like pros miss them more often here, that’s because they do.

Ron Klos broke down some of the data here; over the last five years, pros three-putt more regularly and make fewer putts from every distance at Riviera. The Tour average from four to eight feet is 69.2 percent; here it drops to 65.6. From outside 25 feet Tour pros three-putt at an average of 8.9 percent; at Riviera that spikes over 11 percent.

For Riviera, this week’s scores are unusually low. Bridgeman’s three-round total of 19 under par is unthinkable. But the same conditions that have given players plenty of birdie tries — soft, soggy, speedy greens that have allowed approach shots to hit and stick, even from the rough — have made putting that much tougher.

In all, the putting challenges come from a combination of factors. Riviera, like Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines, has pure poa annua greens, which tend to get bumpier in the afternoon (a “waffle-iron effect”) despite their immaculate conditioning. That’s another factor; Riviera’s greens are running fast, which means it’s tough to take break out of the equation and leads to players putting defensively. And because of this week’s rain, imperfections are magnified, spike marks are easier to leave and the surfaces get less predictable.

To sum up: These are very soft, ridiculously fast, unpredictable poa annua greens with an unusual amount of subtle two-way breaks. Plenty of putts still go in — these guys are good! — but plenty don’t.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what some of this week’s contenders have said:

Schauffele, after his second round:

“Pebble was almost good prep for here being even sort of wetter and spongier [faster], this is a lot scarier. But in terms of like committing to putts that look dodgy, it was good preparation.”

Scottie Scheffler, to CBS, after his third round:

“The greens here have so much pitch, and as the day goes on, the greens continue to hold speed and they stay fast and they continue to get bumpier and bumpier just with the nature of poa annua … the greens are getting softer and they’re fast, which I think is a really good challenge. It’s kind of underrated how hard that is.

“And especially when you add a little bit of breeze, it can be really challenging to hole putts. So I think you’ll see guys get a lot of looks, but you’ve still got to manage your way around.”

Rory McIlroy, after his third round:

“Yeah, the greens got really fast there at the end of the day. Then you just couldn’t leave it dead. You’re grinding over three-footers and all of a sudden you get one that you think you can have a bit of a run at and if you hit it a little bit too hard [motioning] I just found the greens really, really difficult today.”

More McIlroy:

“They’re hard because you don’t want to hit [putts] too hard obviously, and then the softer you hit them, the more break they’re going to take early.

“There’s a lot of double breakers here, so my putt on 16 today was a great example. I had to hit it really soft. It was left to right early but the last half of the putt was right to left, but it went so far right early because I hit it so soft, it never had a chance to come back. It’s, yeah, it’s tough.”

Jacob Bridgeman, tournament leader (and statistical putting leader):

“In the past I’ve really struggled on poa. For whatever reason, I didn’t like it, didn’t really know what to do. I think I’ve accepted now that some of them are going to bump out. Like mine on the last hole, I hit a good putt, it just bumped left and it didn’t go in. I think in the past I would get kind of frustrated with that and that would kind of inch over into my stroke and play.

“I had to make an adjustment mid round. At the beginning I got off to a nice start, had a bunch of short putts and didn’t really have any 15-footers where the speed matters, and then kind of in the middle of my round I hit a few way too hard and told my caddie, I’ve got to hit those a little softer, they’re not taking a break. After that I feel like I hit a lot of good putts.”

The post ‘Grinding over 3-footers’: Why short putts are a nightmare at Riviera appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational money: Total purse, payout breakdown appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational money: Total purse, payout breakdown appeared first on Golf.

The year’s second PGA Tour Signature Event concludes on Sunday — and with it, a boatload of money will be distributed to the top finishers.

For 54-hole leader Jacob Bridgeman, it could be a significant day indeed. The 26-year-old fired back-to-back rounds of 64 at beastly Riviera on Friday and Saturday to open up a six-shot lead. The Clemson alum has never won on the PGA Tour, but kicked his game into gear last year, when he posted nine top-25 finishes in 30 events.

Now, Bridgeman is on the cusp of his first Tour victory — but he’ll have to contend with a formidable adversary first.

News

Last week Jacob Bridgeman went viral. Now? He's way ahead at Riviera

By: Dylan Dethier

Bridgeman will play alongside his closest competitor in Sunday’s final pairing: Rory McIlroy, World No. 2, newly-minted career grand-slam winner and owner of 29 PGA Tour victories.

“I know he’s going to play well tomorrow,” Bridgeman said of McIlroy after his round on Saturday. “I know that I can’t back up at all. But I think I feel comfortable.”

In addition to a legacy-building win at Riv, there’s also a sweet payday up for grabs. Bridgeman has earned $6.9 million in 65 career events thus far. On Sunday, he’ll have a chance to take home a winner’s check worth a whopping $4 million from a $20 million purse. Second place will receive $2.2 million, with seven figures being awarded all the way down to fourth place.

You can check out the entire payout breakdown below, and you can watch the final round from 1-3. p.m. ET on Golf Channel and 3-6:30 p.m. ET on CBS.

Genesis Invitational money: Total purse, payout breakdown

1st: $4,000,000 
2nd: $2,200,000 
3rd: $1,400,000
4th: $1,000,000
5th: $840,000
6th: $760,000 
7th: $700,000
8th: $646,000
9th: $600,000
10th: $556,000
11th: $514,000
12th: $472,000
13th: $430,000
14th: $389,000 
15th: $369,000
16th: $349,000
17th: $329,000
18th: $309,000 
19th: $289,000 
20th: $269,000
21st: $250,000
22nd: $233,000
23rd: $216,000
24th: $200,000
25th: $184,000
26th: $168,000
27th: $161,000
28th: $154,000
29th: $147,000 
30th: $140,000
31st: $133,000
32nd: $126,000
33rd: $119,000
34th: $114,000 
35th: $109,000
36th: $104,000
37th: $99,000
38th: $94,000
39th: $90,000
40th: $86,000
41st: $82,000
42nd: $78,000
43rd: $74,000
44th: $70,000
45th: $66,000 
46th: $62,000
47th: $58,000
48th: $56,000 
49th: $54,000
50th: $52,000
51st: $51,000
52nd: $50,000 
53rd: $49,000
54th: $48,000
55th: $47,000 
56th: $46,000
57th: $45,000
58th: $44,000 
59th: $43,000
60th: $42,000 
61st: $41,000
62nd: $40,000
63rd: $39,000
64th: $38,000 
65th: $37,000
66th: $36,000
67th: $35,000 
68th: $34,000
69th: $33,000
70th: $32,000 
71st: $31,000
72nd: $30,000 

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational money: Total purse, payout breakdown appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational Sunday TV coverage: How to watch Round 4 appeared first on Golf.

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational Sunday TV coverage: How to watch Round 4 appeared first on Golf.

The fourth and final round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational begins Sunday morning at Riviera CC in California. Here’s everything you need to know to watch the tournament on Sunday, including full Genesis Invitational TV coverage, streaming details and Round 4 tee times.

How to watch Genesis Invitational on Sunday

After firing a second consecutive round of 64 on Saturday to reach 19 under par overall, 26-year-old Jacob Bridgeman opened up a six-shot lead heading into the final round on Sunday.

His closest competitor? Rory McIlroy, who is 13 under par after posting a third-round 69.

Bridgeman is seeking his first-ever PGA Tour victory while McIlroy is chasing his 30th.

Despite an uncharacteristically bad start to his opening round on Thursday, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler recovered well in his last two rounds, reaching five under par overall. He’s currently T22.

Bridgeman and McIlroy will face off in Sunday’s final pairing at 2:20 p.m. ET.

You can watch the final round of the Genesis Invitational on TV via Golf Channel beginning at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, followed by the CBS broadcast at 3 p.m. ET. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide exclusive streaming coverage starting at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday, as well as featured group and featured hole coverage.

Below you will find everything you need to know to watch the final round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational.

Get ESPN+

With an ESPN+ subscription, you gain access to PGA Tour Live, where you can stream the best PGA Tour events live from wherever you want.

$11.99/month from ESPN+

How to watch on TV Sunday

Golf Channel will carry early final-round TV coverage of the 2026 Genesis Invitational from 1-3 p.m. ET on Sunday, followed by the CBS broadcast from 3-6:30 p.m. ET.

How to stream online Sunday

You can stream the final round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+, which will offer streaming coverage beginning on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET in addition to featured group and hole coverage. Paramount+ will stream the CBS broadcast.

2026 Genesis Invitational Round 4 tee times (ET)

Tee No. 1

10:05 a.m. — Sepp Straka
10:10 a.m. — Brian Harman, Matt Schmid
10:20 a.m. — Ryo Hisatsuna, Andrew Novak
10:30 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Denny McCarthy
10:40 a.m. — Sami Valimaki, Rickie Fowler
10:50 a.m. — Viktor Hovland, Ben Griffin
11:00 a.m. — Harris English, Jhonattan Vegas
11:10 a.m. — Corey Conners, Ryan Gerard
11:20 a.m. — Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
11:30 a.m. — Shane Lowry, Patrick Rodgers
11:45 a.m. — Max Homa, Hideki Matsuyama
11:55 a.m. — Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg
12:05 p.m. — Sam Stevens, Sahith Theegala
12:15 p.m. — Matt McCarty, Min Woo Lee
12:25 p.m. — Robert MacIntyre, Tom Kim
12:35 p.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler
12:45 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Wyndham Clark
12:55 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Pierceson Coody
1:05 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren
1:15 p.m. — Cameron Young, Akshay Bhatia
1:30 p.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott
1:40 p.m. — Jake Knapp, Ryan Fox
1:50 p.m. — Marco Penge, Max Greyserman
2:00 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Kurt Kitayama
2:10 p.m. — Aldrich Potgeiter, Aaron Rai
2:20 p.m. — Jacob Bridgeman, Rory McIlroy

The post 2026 Genesis Invitational Sunday TV coverage: How to watch Round 4 appeared first on Golf.