‘I couldn’t feel my hands’: Despite a frightening finish, Jacob Bridgeman mustered just enough to triumph at Riviera

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The 100th playing of the PGA Tour’s Los Angeles stop was supposed to belong to Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, or any of the headliners who make Riviera Country Club feel like a movie set each February. Instead it delivered a final scene only Jacob Bridgeman could have scripted—though even his version had a twist far more nerve-wracking than he ever imagined.

Bridgeman, a 26-year-old in only his second Tour season, arrived at the 72nd hole with a one-shot lead, a seven-shot cushion long gone after a turbulent Sunday. Needing a two-putt par from 16 feet to post 18-under and win the Genesis Invitational, the Clemson product felt his fingers go numb.

“I couldn’t feel my hands,” he admitted afterward, echoing the same sensation close friend Chris Gotterup had described while winning in Phoenix two weeks earlier. Bridgeman coaxed his first putt to tap-in range, then rammed the three-footer into the heart of the cup for a closing 72 and a one-stroke victory over McIlroy and Kurt Kitayama.

The outcome seemed improbable at dawn. Bridgeman began the final round with a record chase in view—Lanny Wadkins’ 20-under benchmark from 1985—and a gallery that kept chanting for anyone but him. Schoolkids yelled “Ro-ry!”; crowds outside the clubhouse roared “We want Scottie!” Yet by dusk the amphitheater around the 18th green was applauding the quiet South Carolinian who had never before played Riviera and now owns a trophy no one can take away.

McIlroy provided the late surge everyone expected, birdieing the last for a 65 to reach 17-under and briefly share the clubhouse lead. Kitayama fired 64 to join him there. Adam Scott’s back-nine 31 and second 63 of the week carried him to 16-under. All three watched from the clubhouse as Bridgeman staggered home without a birdie over the final 15 holes but somehow stayed afloat.

A lone bogey at the par-3 16th, after finding the bunker, trimmed the lead to two. A safe par from the greenside bunker on the par-5 17th kept McIlroy at bay. At 18, Bridgeman split the fairway, stuffed his approach below the hole, then survived the most anxious stroke of his life.

“I was in robot mode on full shots,” he said. “When it came to feel, I had none. I just told myself don’t hit it past the hole.”

The tap-in dropped, the crowd exhaled, and Tiger Woods—tournament host and childhood idol—greeted him on the scoring steps. Woods, clad in Sunday red, congratulated the newest Riviera champion and reminded him of one fun fact: the 15-time major winner never won on this storied course in his own event.

“I got one thing,” Bridgeman joked. “He’s got all the others, but I got one.”

The win vaults the former PGA Tour University standout into elite company after a meteoric rise: Korn Ferry Tour card in 2024, five top-fives as a rookie, four more this season, and now a signature-event title in the city that loves stars—especially when the underdog steals the show.

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