Pacific Palisades, CA- Jacob Bridgeman might be seen as an ‘overnight success’ with this being his maiden PGA tour victory, but the 26-year old Clemson alum was trending even in his Pro-am performance prior to him bridging a stellar three rounds, culminated with an impressive final round of withstanding pressure against notable top competitor, Rory McIlroy and playing for “his goat” Genesis host, Tiger Woods, whom hasn’t won himself at this PGA tour signature event in its renowned venue’s, The Riveria Country Club.
“I guess he’s never won,” Bridgeman said about meeting Tiger after finishing. “I got one thing. He’s got all the other ones, but I’ve got one. Yeah.”
Bridgeman unfolded some great confidence in front of a captivated crowd after listening to them root for McIlroy to attempt a remarkable comeback then Bridgeman began to walk up to sink his final putts to seal his name in PGA tour history, breaking the scoring record and becoming a first-time champion playing for the first time since Adam Scott in 2005.
“I thought it would be a lot easier than it was. I kind of had everything under control, especially to start the day and I felt great throughout the day and then some guys started making a little run and they got a little closer,” Bridgeman said during the post round presser.
Despite no birdies after his first three holes, his consistency and composure drew more notice from his competitors that they would have to chase him with birdies rather than him contending without them.
“I think the runs that were made by some of the other guys by Adam and Kurt and even Rory were late,” Bridgeman said. “I was kind of playing pretty free until right at the end. I didn’t really have any stress the whole day. I was hitting shots to 20, 30 feet kind of just consistently. I thought the pins today were a lot more challenging than the first three days,” Bridgeman said.
Bridgeman opened the final round with a dominating six-stroke lead, which he extended to seven entering the back nine. While pressure mounted with McIlroy holing out at 12th hole from the bunker and other contenders emerging like Kurt Kitayama, who finished tied with McIlroy for second after carding a seven-under-par 64, Bridgeman watched the leaderboard confidently that he would be still be able to secure his first title with a par on his final hole.
“I had a couple unfortunate breaks and um yeah, it got a lot tighter than I wanted to, but I don’t think it’ll get any easier than a six-shot lead,” Bridgeman said.
Speaking of leaderboard, while some were not surprised about Bridgeman’s impressive debut, what did put others in an uproar was Scottie Scheffler almost missing the cut during the tournament and failing to continue his impressive streak of top 10s finishes.
“I saw all wherever the leaderboards are today. I saw them all,” Bridgeman said. “I don’t shy away from knowing where I’m at. Maybe that’s a bad thing at times, but I wanted to know if somebody was doing something and I need to press, you know, a button to make a couple birdies. I was very aware the whole day and I I felt comfortable right till the end there,” Bridgeman said.
Bridgeman is building up streak of his own with two top-10 leaderboard finishes in his first four events to begin the year that includes an eighth-place finish last week at Pebble Beach.
Bridgeman, whom had a solid last year to reach the Tour Championship, did not withhold his emotions about getting married two months ago or unable to share this moment with his parents after finishing 18-under 266 to claim the title against a formidable field for a $4 million paycheck alongside a congratulatory handshake and hug from his hero Tiger Woods atop the 18th green nearby the clubhouse.