Los Angeles– jacob bridgman Allowed to imagine themselves winning the Genesis Invitational, a huge crowd filled the amphitheater around the 18th green at Riviera, with the trophy presentation Tiger Woods. On Sunday, almost everything came true except one small thing.
“I saw myself walking down that hole with a four-shot lead, knowing I had won,” Bridgeman said. “Unfortunately for me, it was only a one-shot lead and that caused a lot of nervousness.”
Bridgeman started with a six-shot lead. They extended it to seven with 12 holes to play. And as the lead started to dwindle with a brilliant finish adam scott (63), Kurt Kitayama (64) And finally Rory McIlroy (67), he lost the feeling of his hands on the putter.
Bridgeman pulled it together with one last par, making a 3-foot par putt on the 18th for a 1-over 72 and a one-shot victory over McIlroy and Kitayama for his first PGA Tour title.
“It’s better than I ever imagined,” said Bridgeman, who played against Rivera for the first time since Scott in 2005 and walked away with the trophy.
Woods met him on the steps overlooking the 18th green, and as they walked toward the trophy presentation, Bridgeman said the tournament host told him how great it was to win at Riviera, a venue Woods never mastered.
“He said, ‘You’ve got one on me.’ So I guess he’s never won yet,” Bridgeman said. “I’ve got one thing. He’s got all the rest.”
It all seemed so easy for Bridgeman until it wasn’t. McIlroy needed to apply pressure in the final group and was tied after the 10-hole round.
“Since I wasn’t putting pressure on him, he probably felt like he didn’t have to do so much, but he played very well,” McIlroy said. “But it’s hard to finish in big tournaments. Even though he was stumbling a little bit going forward, he put it together when he needed to.”
Bridgeman finished at 18-under 266 and did not make any birdies over the final 15 holes. He heard constant cheers for McIlroy, one of golf’s most popular figures, who was never a threat until he holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 12th and completed birdie-birdie with a score of 67.
More cheers echoed across the Riviera — max grasserman With a hole-in-one on the 14th, tommy fleetwood A hit from the fairway for eagle on the 15th, and Kitayama holed his tee shot on the par-3 16th and then barely cleared the bunker to set up a two-putt birdie on the par-5 17th.
Bridgeman didn’t fare too badly after a wonderful approach to 12 feet for birdie on the third hole, which received only a small applause from the LA crowd. He hit a strong chip on the fourth which led to bogey. The rest of the way it was a steady diet of 20-foot birdie opportunities.
But he found a bunker on the 16th and had to make a 5-foot bogey putt to stay in the lead. His birdie chances on the 17th and 18th holes were extremely limited on the greens, where short putts can be scary.
The final par putt brought a mixture of joy and relief.
“I thought it was going to be very easy,” Bridgeman said. “It was honestly easy until I was 16 and then it got really hard. I made it as hard as I could.”
Scott, who had a sponsor exemption, had five birdies on the back nine and finished with a 63, two shots back for fourth. This was his best performance since finishing third at the DP World Tour Championships in Dubai in late 2024.
“I feel really good that I made the most of it this week,” Scott said. “It’s not a win that I’ve really focused on to try to get back into the winner’s circle this year, but the result feels good because it’s been a long time since I’ve had a good result.”
Scotty SchefflerWho had to hit a 7-foot par putt on Friday to make the cut, had a weekend of 66-65 and finished tied for 12th, his worst finish since finishing 20th at The Players Championship nearly a year ago. He ended his streak of 18 consecutive top 10 finishes.
Bridgeman is already at the Masters after reaching the Tour Championship last year. He became the first player to be ranked outside the top 50 (No. 52) and win on the PGA Tour this year. This win takes him into the top 25.
He not only won at historic courses like Riviera, but also tied with reigning Masters champion McIlroy and received the most attention until falling off the pace. So many putts burned the edge, and then the last one dropped from 30 feet that ended it big.
For a second, it looked like it might give McIlroy an extra hole in the playoff when Bridgeman left his first putt short. But like all week, Bridgeman never looked uncomfortable. Turns out he felt the same way.
“I couldn’t even feel my hands on the last two greens,” Bridgeman said. “I just hit the putt hoping it would get somewhere near the hole, and I left both of them a mile short. But I’m glad it did now.”
