PACIFIC PALISADES — There was something funny about Saturday’s most spectacular shot, a soaring 7-wood from the tournament leader, a 259-yard missile that landed soft, trickled towards the hole, took a peek and settled just eight inches away for a tap-in eagle:
Hardly anybody stuck around to see it.
Perhaps that’s overstating things. There was still a smattering of L.A. faithful who’d stuck around to watch Jacob Bridgeman work his magic on Riviera’s par-5 11th — and showed their appreciation. From what I’ve gathered, Tiger Woods was impressed in the booth. But on the grounds, most of the crowd had run ahead a hole or two, tracking fan favorite Rory McIlroy rather than the relative unknown behind him.
On Sunday, they won’t have to choose. McIlroy sits second at 13 under par, punching a ticket to the final twosome thanks to a stretch of steady, sturdy golf and just two bogeys through 54 holes. But he’s six shots back of Bridgeman, who fired the round of the day on Saturday — 7-under 64 — and will now find himself in unprecedented territory, ahead by a touchdown playing alongside one of the biggest names in the game.
In some ways, golf fans should have seen this coming. Bridgeman has been among the hottest players on the planet; he has four consecutive top-20s to start the season, including a T8 at Pebble Beach last week.
In other ways, the timing is hilarious. That T8, after all, was highlighted by a bizarre sequence of events on Pebble Beach’s par-5 18th, where Bridgeman took an interminable amount of time to make bogey as leader Collin Morikawa stood in the fairway, icing away. The moment earned Bridgeman unprecedented attention. He prefers the circumstances of this week’s spotlight.
“I’m looking back there looking at him pacing around knowing that they’re just frustrated,” Bridgeman said earlier this week, reflecting on the moment at Pebble. “The 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.”
After some 20 minutes, Morikawa played his second up around the green, made his birdie and walked off with a massive win.
Now Bridgeman wants one of his own.
Bridgeman, who’s 26, grew up in South Carolina. He’s slight but sneaky strong, hits it sneaky long and putts it better than just about anybody. He’s been battling his driver, he said, but this week that’s been fine. Given he’s leading the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Putting, fine is more than good enough.
He’s been close to a win; a low final round at last year’s Cognizant earned him T2, he contended at the Valspar en route to third, he finished T4 at the Truist, T5 at the John Deere and T4 at last month’s Sony Open.
He has a feeling this time will be different. And if he was surprised by Saturday’s birdie blitz, he sure didn’t say so.
“I played great this whole week, so I don’t think it was a surprise to me that my game was the way it is,” he said. “I’ve said the whole week I feel comfortable, and I felt great today.”
The Clemson grad seemed to be one of the few players in the field with a proper plan for Riviera’s Poa annua greens, which are scary fast and get bumpier as the afternoon goes along.
“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 the break. After that I feel like I hit a lot of good putts,” he said.
He did his greatest damage with his irons, though, gaining an unprecedented six shots on the field. How? He credited his work with his coach Scott Hamilton, his newfound ability to hit the ball higher, his ball switch to a TaylorMade TP5x and soft greens that give him confidence to hit “cruisy shots” that he feels like he can control.
Bridgeman gave the air of a man unmoved by a situation — up six with Rory McIlroy beside you — that would have the average hack in horror. The two played together at last summer’s BMW Championship, and Bridgeman was pleasantly surprised by how normal it felt.
“I was a little bit uncertain how it would be last year when I played with him in the playoffs. And I had a big day in Baltimore, I had to play good to make the Tour Championship and I was paired with Rory and it was kind of a lot, I thought.
“Then I got out there and he was super nice to me and super welcoming, and the fans were great as well.”
McIlroy remembered the pairing, if not the specifics — “we played at the end of last year somewhere, maybe in the playoffs,” he said — but recognizes his position.
“I’m six back, I need to get off to a fast start, try to apply some pressure and hopefully I can do that,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to keep an eye on Jacob and see what’s happening. If he opens the door slightly, hopefully I’ll be right there to take advantage of it.”
As for Bridgeman? He plans to keep that door shut. He plans to stay aggressive. And he plans to keep an eye on McIlroy — and anyone else who mounts a charge. He’s always liked looking at leaderboards. Especially when his name sits on top.
“I’ve always wanted to know what I needed to do,” he said.
Bridgeman also knows that this weekend marks the first time some sports fans will see him in full flight. So what does he want people to know about him?
“I’m a competitor,” he said. “I haven’t had a ton of chances to win yet in my career, but I’m hoping that I’ll have a chance, a good chance tomorrow, all the way till the end. If I can get it done, I’d like to kind of start rolling and get a lot of these.”
Good news for Bridgeman: There’s no beach at Riviera. No ocean, either. Just 18 glorious golf holes. Thus far, they’ve hardly posed a challenge.
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