{"id":487319,"date":"2026-02-20T09:19:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487319\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:19:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:19:29","slug":"rory-mcilroy-among-early-pacesetters-at-stormy-genesis-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487319\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy among early pacesetters at stormy Genesis Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rory McIlroy overcame the stormy conditions that hit the opening round of the Genesis Invitational to set the joint clubhouse lead on five under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Northern Irishman is alongside American Jacob Bridgeman, one behind England&#8217;s Aaron Rai, who had two holes left to play when darkness finally ended play at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rai is one of 30 players who will return on Friday at 07:00 (15:00 GMT) to complete their first rounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">World number one Scottie Scheffler endured another difficult start to a tournament, having struggled on day one of last week&#8217;s AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The American, who has not finished outside the top-10 since last March&#8217;s Player&#8217;s Championship &#8211; a run of 19 events &#8211; sits at the bottom of the 72-man field on five over with eight holes to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Heavy rain formed puddles on the greens and led to a three-hour stoppage, with players returning to a strong and cold wind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When asked which was easier to play in, McIlroy replied: &#8220;The rain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve started to just really enjoy this style of golf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If you had asked me 10 years ago, I didn&#8217;t enjoy these conditions, but it&#8217;s been a shift in mindset and maybe just a continuation of trying to build upon the skill set that I have. Then when it does get to conditions like this, I&#8217;m a lot more prepared.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">England&#8217;s Marco Penge, in his debut year on the PGA Tour, is handily placed on three under with nine holes of his opening round to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The tournament has returned to its regular venue of the Riviera Club this year after being relocated to Torrey Pines in 2025 following the devastating wildfire in the Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy overcame the stormy conditions that hit the opening round of the Genesis Invitational to set the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-487319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}