– Jacob Bridgeman (-18) has won the Genesis Invitational. The young man from South Carolina, with a final card of 72 strokes, one over par on the day, thus inaugurates his record, not only on the PGA Tour but in any circuit valid for the world ranking. He wasn’t a killer, a fierce winner, but we’ll see if he gets a taste for it, because he has more than enough potential. He is, above all, a solid player. And a more than reliable putter. Moreover, and in this area is where he has made a significant leap, this week he has shown high efficiency and brilliance with irons and wedges at Riviera. The American says he has worked a lot on these clubs with his coach, Scott Hamilton, especially in recent months, aware that he needed a twist in this area to truly compete with the best. Well, here are the fruits of so much work. And they are not just any fruits…
– Because Bridgeman is already a new top 50 in the world, which is nothing less than the exclusive club of the golf elite, the master key to all the major events. And he will be for a long time, as from tomorrow he will be around the top 20 in the world. This year he is going to play the four Majors, which will become an excellent confirmation test for this player. In addition, he will always be able to boast that Tiger Woods handed him the winner’s trophy in his first professional victory…
– Bridgeman, who started with a six-stroke lead, still had to sink a one-metre putt on the 18th hole to save par and avoid going into a three-way playoff against Kurt Kitayama (-17), who had come from nowhere with a card of 64 strokes, and Rory McIlroy (-17, card of 67), who just seconds before had sunk a long birdie putt, after not having holed anything all day and leaving very good chances along the way, but who still clung to a remote chance by finishing with birdies on holes 17 and 18 (he was also about to do it on the 16th: that’s Rory, when it seems he’s not there, it turns out he is).
– He has suffered, but he hasn’t crumbled. It is true that the most important attacks came from far away, those of Adam Scott (-16), who pulled out the best score of the day (63), and the aforementioned Kitayama, that unpredictable player you can never trust. And it is also true that his stellar playing partner, the most illustrious of the candidates, Rory McIlroy, did not exert suffocating pressure until that final moment on the 72nd hole of the tournament, as already described. But Bridgeman really handled the situation with composure. The round was getting a bit long for him and his bogey on the 16th, par 3, after a bad shot from the tee, could have knocked him out, but he still looked very composed on the 18th tee and, above all, on the second shot, perfectly executed from 180 metres, which is not exactly a short distance, in line with the flag.
– Rory can also leave calmly: without having almost at any time conveyed the sensation of having put his best version on the table, he has taken a second place that really gets him going in this 2026. And even Scheffler (-11) has done his homework in the end with an excellent final card of 65 strokes, and although he has missed out on the top ten by a whisker. The Texan is not going to cry over this twelfth place at Riviera, but, although he denies any concern, he should take a look at this new phenomenon in his career of ‘dark Thursdays’, because he has chained three first rounds (Phoenix, Pebble and Riviera) that practically left him out of any winning equation, although he then managed to even threaten victory (in Phoenix and Pebble). So, off the top of my head, what seems to be the case is that, after winning in his first appearance of the year, he has then been in a hurry to keep the counter going. But tournaments are not won on Thursdays (they are lost), and, what a thing, even extraterrestrials like Scheffler overlook such a fundamental principle.
