GENESIS – Ultra Golfing

Why short putts are a nightmare at Genesis

admin — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 22:46:33 +0000

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.”

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2026 Genesis Invitational Sunday tee times: Round 4 pairings

admin — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:01:00 +0000

The PGA Tour’s 2026 Genesis Invitational concludes on Sunday, February 22, with the final round at Riviera Country Club. You can find full Genesis Invitational tee times for Sunday’s final round at the bottom of this post.

Featured tee time for Round 4

A week ago, Jacob Bridgeman went viral for icing Collin Morikawa on the final hole of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Six days later, the Clemson product will enter the final round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational with a six-shot lead over Rory McIlroy at Riviera Country Club.

Bridgeman, who started the day tied with Marco Penge, put together a sterling 7-under 64 on Saturday to pull away from McIlroy, Aldrich Potgeiter and Xander Schauffele. Bridgeman gained 6.013 (!) strokes on approach in the third round, which was highlighted by the 7-wood that he hit to eight inches from 258 yards on the par-5 11th for a tap-in eagle.

“It was, fun and easy,” Bridgeman said. “Kind of the best that the golf world ever gets. My swing felt nice and it was fun out there, everyone was cheering, so yeah, it was a good day.”

Bridgeman will enter Sunday with a big lead, but he knows he can’t take his foot off the gas at all with McIlroy looking to go low to add Riviera to the list of cathedrals he has conquered.

“I think maybe the only thing would be I know he’s going to play well tomorrow. I know that I can’t back up at all,” Bridgeman said.

Bridgeman and McIlroy will go off at 2:20 p.m. ET.

You can watch the final round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational from 1-3 p.m. ET on Golf Channel and 3-6:30 p.m. on CBS. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide exclusive early streaming coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. ET on Sunday, in addition to featured group and featured hole coverage.

Check out the complete Round 4 tee times and groupings for the Genesis Invitational below.

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2026 Genesis Invitational tee times for Sunday: Round 4 (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

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GENESIS INVITATION: TIGER WOODS INTERVIEW

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:29:56 +0000

As Tiger Woods marks 30 years since turning pro and hosts the 100th Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, he reflects on legacy, Ryder Cup captaincy, recovery and growing his foundation’s impact beyond golf.

Tiger, it seems like we’ve done this several times through the years, but kind of feels a little different this year. As tournament host, what does it mean to you and the event to be back celebrating the 100th playing of the event?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, playing the 100th championship here is pretty amazing. For me as a So Cal kid who grew up coming here, coming to this event, LA Open, coming here to Riv, it’s an iconic site. And then to see major championships here, we’ve had our event here, and for a 16-year-old kid just to be able to start here and then now host his own tournament at the same golf course is pretty special.

2026 is a year full of milestones on and off the course, 30 years since you turned pro, your foundation is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and the original Learning Lab in Anaheim celebrating its 20th anniversary. You’ve talked about the great legacy being off the golf course for you. What do these milestones mean to you and the future of the TGR Foundation?

Yeah, our first Learning Lab opened up 20 years ago here in Anaheim. To go from that to now expansion at Lulu’s Place here in Southern Cal, and we just opened up a facility in Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia last year and now we’re going to Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia. We’re expanding quickly.

We’re serving the underserved, and I think that’s the more important thing is that yes, golf has been a big piece of my life, but it’s not the only part of my life. The educational side and the opportunities that Stanford has provided me and the people that I’ve been able to meet there and that if I didn’t work on my grades, I didn’t work on my education side of it, then I wouldn’t have had that opportunity to go to such a great university

A lot of these kids that we’re serving are first-gens. They don’t really have an opportunity that they deserve, and it’s up to us to be able to facilitate them and give them what they truly deserve, which is an opportunity to be supported. That’s what the TGR Foundation has done for 30 years and we’ll continue to do so.

Q. I’m wondering, how do you feel after all these years knowing that people admire, respect you, and you have so much influence, not only in the game of golf but in sports in general?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I mean, I’ve had a great career, I think, of 30 years. I’ve played out here, been able to chase my dream, which is playing the PGA TOUR, winning golf tournaments, winning major championships, and I’ve met a lot of people along the way, a lot of sportsmen, a lot of great people all around the world. I would never have met any of those people or had relationships with them if it wasn’t for the game of golf, or probably where it all started was with your interview.

Tiger Woods in action at the Genesis Invitational back in 2023

Q. Talk just a little bit about Pops, how he got you on the right road.

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, Dad was unbelievable. He was not only my dad, he was my best friend. He was a lot of different things.

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