PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The moans announced the doubt throughout Riviera’s 18th green amphitheater, a bowl full of thousands of fans unsure if the new guy could do it. Could Jacob Bridgeman hear the roars for Rory McIlroy’s 30-foot make and still finish? A seven-shot lead had become four, which became one, which meant this 26-year-old South Carolinian would either exit this stage with an epic first career win or an all-time heartbreak.
The crowd supported him all day, but when he left that 20-foot birdie putt so short, they saw the possibilities. McIlroy, beloved superstar, pulling off the epic comeback. That’s what they wanted to see. That’s the Hollywood ticket.
But the shockingly self-assured Bridgeman took a beat to himself, set up, and made the four-foot par putt. His first PGA Tour win arrived at one of golf’s greatest venues with Tiger Woods watching atop the hill.
“I thought it was going to be a lot easier than that,” Bridgeman said. “It was honestly easy until I got to about 16, and then it got really hard.”
That’s what the entire Genesis Invitational was this week: a collective grasping for McIlroy or another star to claim the prestigious event at perhaps the best venue on the PGA Tour.
Instead, Bridgeman announced himself with a one-shot win over McIlroy and Kurt Kitayama.
Instead, as it’s been doing all season, the PGA Tour’s youth has finally been making its own claim for a place in this sport.
And it’s doing it through a fearlessness that only youth can possess.
Chris Gotterup, 26, has been the player of the year thus far with two wins (Sony Open, WM Phoenix Open). Ryan Gerard, 26, opened with consecutive second-place finishes. Pierceson Coody, 26, has five top 20s in his six starts. Akshay Bhatia, 24, nearly won at Phoenix. And now Bridgeman, coming off his own hot start, has the biggest win of the season in dominant fashion.
Thousands followed Jacob Bridgeman on Sunday, the first time he had been in such a spotlight. (Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)
It’s the way Bridgeman did it that tells us more about him.
First, go back a week to the moment that made Bridgeman a temporary pariah. Sunday at Pebble Beach. It was his first time playing there, too. He was two back of the lead, going for an eagle on Pebble’s famous ocean-lined 18th fairway. And he went for it. Of course he did. He had to.
But it went wide left to the beach. He then took plenty of time analyzing his options from the rocky sand, with leader Collin Morikawa stuck waiting in the fairway. Bridgeman’s next shot went off a rock and bounced back toward the ocean. More mess.
It took more than 20 minutes to finish with a bogey before an iced Morikawa finally hit and birdied to win the signature event.
“I’m looking back there, looking at him pacing around, knowing that they’re just frustrated,” Bridgeman recalled. “Last thing I want to do is ice Collin and get him to mess up. So I’m glad it ended the way it did.”
Spend a few more days around Bridgeman, and you realize he really is too green to be scared. Like a man who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, and that’s a superpower. His first time playing two of golf’s greatest venues — in massive events against the best in the world — and he hunted pins all day Saturday. He gained 6.01 strokes in approach, which, per The Athletic contributor Justin Ray, is the best ball striking round at Riviera since Shotlink data began in 2004.
First thoughts describing the round?
“Fun and easy. Kind of the best that the golf world ever gets.”
Asked to describe that fearlessness, and he countered:
“I would say overall I’m very aggressively conservative, and for whatever reason, when I try to aim away from the target, I feel like most of the time the ball just starts to go towards the hole.”
Bridgeman doesn’t speak with arrogance but with a calm, aw-shucks confidence. As he walked down fairways this weekend, the fancy CBS walking cameras backpedaled right in front of him, the type of attention and exposure Bridgeman isn’t used to. He didn’t think much of it. “There’s tons of people out here, so a couple more people with cameras doesn’t really make a big deal.”
But that bravado can only last so long. For most of Sunday, Bridgeman played golf stuck in neutral, par golf through 15 holes with nobody — not even McIlroy — truly providing pressure. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Kitayama birdied 16 and 17 to get to 17-under right as Bridgeman bogeyed 16 after an ugly approach into the bunker.
The nerves kicked in.
Another bunker on 17, turning a birdie hole into a par. Then the short putt on 18 to leave too much room for comfort.
Jacob Bridgeman’s iron play was so good through the first three days of the Genesis Invitational he was able to build a big lead. (Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)
“It’s hard,” McIlroy said after watching Bridgeman up close. “It’s hard to close out big tournaments. Even though he was a little shaky coming down the stretch, he held it together when he needed to. He holed a clutch comeback putt on 13 for par. He played smart on 16 when he missed it in the bunker. That putt on the last isn’t easy. Leaves it a little bit short, and the crowd reacts, and you’ve got to take your time a little bit. I give him all the props; he did what he needed to do, and I’m happy for him.”
Bridgeman’s breakout isn’t out of nowhere. His first year on tour was 2024, and he did enough to keep his card. In 2025, a pair of early close calls got him into the rest of the year’s signature events. He missed cuts in his first two majors, but he did enough to make it first to the FedEx Cup playoffs and ultimately to the Tour Championship. He even played with McIlroy at the BMW Championship, perhaps an early preparation for Sunday’s final round alongside the five-time major champion.
Still, Bridgeman ranked outside the top 100 on DataGolf. He wasn’t anybody you needed to know, until he was. He opened the season T4, T13, T18 and T8, jumping him from 114th to 46th on DataGolf, with this win set to push him even higher. He is now somebody the world of golf needs to know, the type who might even make a run for a Presidents Cup team this fall. Who knows what else?
But the takeaway from this week at Riviera isn’t just Bridgeman but the potential of what’s to come.
The top two in the season standings are now Bridgeman and Gotterup, two good buddies who often stay together on the road. All while Bhatia and the Højgaard twins prove themselves at age 24, and while Coody, Gerard and 23-year-old Japanese talent Ryo Hisatsune have gotten off to hot starts. And don’t forget 26-year-old Ludvig Åberg, struggling so far but still a two-time Ryder Cup winner with multiple wins on tour.
Maybe the next generation is making its move. Maybe the kids are all right. But regardless of what comes with the future, Bridgeman can say he stared down the sport’s biggest star and came out with a signature win. That feeling is right now.
“This is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt it,” he said.