Winners, Losers & Payouts from the 2026 The Genesis Invitational

Riviera Country Club doesn’t hand out easy wins. Just ask Tiger, who has never won the LA Open (Genesis), even though his foundation and event management company runs the tourney. No, Riviera exposes nerves, rewards patience, and usually ends with a superstar holding the trophy.

Not this year.

The 2026 Genesis Invitational turned into a survival test, and when the chaos finally settled Sunday afternoon, Jacob Bridgeman walked away with his first PGA Tour victory — and a cool $4 million payday.

The stars chased. The leaderboard lurched. And Riviera reminded everyone that closing is still the hardest skill in golf.

The week’s biggest winners were Jacob Bridgeman and the greens crew: Jacob Bridgeman — a $4,000,000 check; the greens crew, who kept the course playable even through it rained nearly 4 inches Mon-Thurs, including for 4 straight hours during a rain delay on Thursday. The crew at Riviera is one of the best in the business, and they proved it on the biggest stage last week.  

For three rounds, Bridgeman looked like he was playing a different golf course.

He built a six-shot lead entering Sunday and briefly stretched it to seven early in the final round. At that point, Riviera felt like a coronation.

Then the pressure of winning for the first time on tour, against one of the best fields we’ll see all season, came into play.

For Bridge—yes, he now has a nickname; all winners get one—started playing like a fan outside the ropes instead of a stud inside them. Beginning on the 4th Sunday afternoon, pars and bogeys started to pile up. His lead slowly started to shrink. Adversaries who once thought they had no chance started to believe in miracles. The gallery buzz shifted toward the group in front of him — where a certain Northern Ireland Hollywood superstar started heating up. Bridgeman didn’t make a birdie over his final 15 holes and suddenly the tournament tightened to a single shot.

Standing on the 18th green needing one last steady par, he rolled in a nervy three-footer to secure his maiden PGA Tour win at 18-under.

Not pretty. Absolutely unforgettable.

Winner: Riviera Country Club

Signature events are supposed to feel big, and Riviera delivered.

Pristine, fast greens (albeit stickier than usual), awkward lies, and demanding approach shots kept players uncomfortable all week. Even with a stacked field and a $20 million purse, nobody ran away Sunday.

Adam Scott fired a 63. Kurt Kitayama posted a 64. Rory McIlroy made a late charge.

And still — nobody could quite catch the leader.

That’s Riviera doing Riviera things.

Loser: The Comfortable Sunday Lead

CBS and Golf Channel advertisers don’t like a runaway champion. And neither do the ghosts swirling around the grounds of Riviera.

Bridgeman’s massive cushion evaporated hole by hole as tension built across the property. By the time he reached the closing stretch, cheers for players ahead of him echoed louder than applause for the leader.

Closing a tournament up seven sounds simple until it isn’t — and Sunday was a masterclass in how quickly momentum flips.

Winner: Rory McIlroy — $1,800,000

Rory didn’t win, but he absolutely stole the energy of the final round.

After a quiet start, he ignited the crowd by holing a bunker shot for birdie on the 12th, then finished birdie-birdie to post 67 and apply maximum pressure. The snake he drained on 18 was a magical moment.

Suddenly, a tournament that looked finished by lunchtime had playoff vibes.

However, he came up one shot short, but if you’re looking for momentum heading deeper into the season, this felt like a warning shot. What’s crazy is that he didn’t putt well and still finished T-2, posting 17-under for the week. He has a 10-shot win in his bag if he can put together an A-level putting week to match up with his new driver stinger-prowess and the darts he throws at flags when he’s grooving.

Winner: Kurt Kitayama — $1,800,000

While McIlroy grabbed headlines, Kitayama delivered the sneaky Sunday dagger.

A closing 64 forced Bridgeman to keep grinding and briefly made the clubhouse lead feel very real. Riviera rewards fearless iron play, and Kitayama leaned fully into attack mode.

Sometimes the best rounds happen before the cameras fully notice.

Winner: Adam Scott — $1,400,000

Vintage Adam Scott sighting.

The former Masters champion lit up Riviera with a Sunday 63 — one of the rounds of the young tour season  — vaulting into solo fourth place. He shot the best round of the week, twice.  

Riviera has always suited Scott’s rhythm and ball-striking, and Sunday felt like a reminder that class doesn’t expire. Like McIlroy, when Scott putts as well as he hits it, he wins. Sadly, he’s merely an average-to-below-average tour putter. So the wins are hard to come by; and at 45, they won’t be coming any faster as he creeps towards the big 5-0.

Loser: Scottie Scheffler’s Top-10 Streak

Even the world’s most consistent player eventually was going to come up short. So fart this season, his first-round scoring is close to the worst on tour. He needs to flip that streak to pick up another major championship this season.

Scheffler fought just to make the cut Friday and ultimately finished tied for 12th, ending a remarkable run of consecutive top-10 finishes.

For most players, a T-12 and a six-figure payday is a win. For Scheffler, it counts as a quiet week.

Perspective is funny like that.

The Payday Reality

Signature events hit differently.

Fifth place still paid roughly $840,000. Players finishing around the top 20 cleared more than a quarter-million dollars. Even those outside contention left Los Angeles significantly richer.

Survive Riviera, cash a massive check. That’s modern PGA Tour math.

Winners & Losers from Sunday at Riviera

Winner: The PGA TOUR.
Signature events are built for drama, and Sunday delivered exactly that. A runaway lead turned into a one-shot sweat, crowds bounced between groups, and multiple players went low enough to make the closing holes feel unpredictable.

Winner/Loser: Jacob Bridgeman’s comfort level.
He looked untouchable through three rounds, then suddenly couldn’t buy a birdie. Fifteen straight holes without one nearly cost him the tournament before he finally escaped with par on 18. When he needed to, he rolled in the 3+ foot putt on 18 with Mr. Tiger Woods looking down on him from the clubhouse and millions watching in person and on TV.  

Winner: Rory McIlroy.
A Sunday 67 featuring a hole-out bunker shot and birdies coming home turned a quiet week into a statement finish. He didn’t win — but he absolutely looked dangerous again.

Winner: Adam Scott.
An 8-under 63 Sunday charge moved him up the board in classic fashion — smooth swing, zero panic, and a reminder that experience still travels well at Riviera.

Winner Loser: Max Greyerson.

Steady Max won a car on the 14th when he aced the par three, but surprisingly finished up with final round 2-over 73, one of the worst scores of the day and a T-24 spot on the leaderboard.

Winner: Jordan Spieth.

He quietly posted a final round 66 and finished up T-12, which is one of his best finishes in the past 12 months against a top field. The question keeps coming up: Is Jordan still elite? I don’t think any of us, including him, knows the answer.

The 2026 Genesis Invitational prize money payouts

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