{"id":311253,"date":"2026-02-22T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311253\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:03:07","slug":"mcilroy-lies-second-but-six-adrift-of-rampant-bridgeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311253\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy lies second but six adrift of rampant Bridgeman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy sits in second spot heading into the final round at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club but he trails the inspired leader Jacob Bridgeman by six strokes.<\/p>\n

Starting third overnight, McIlroy carded a two-under par 69 on Saturday to climb to second place, as Friday’s joint-leader Marco Penge struggled to a three-over 74.<\/p>\n

But the other leader at the midway point, Bridgeman, stamped his authority on the tournament and sped clear of the field, with a stunning seven-under par 64.<\/p>\n

It was early on the back nine when Bridgeman really copper-fastened his lead, with three birdies and an eagle between 10 and 14. The 26-year-old American even missed a short birdie putt at the end to miss a chance to get to 20-under after 54 holes.<\/p>\n

FULL LEADERBOARD<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing in the group ahead, McIlroy had an often frustating afternoon, missing several birdie opportunities on the back nine, including a three-putt on the par-5 17th.<\/p>\n

Birdies on the par-5s at the first and 11th holes and the short sixth, as well a dropped stroke at the 10th saw him post a two-under par round.<\/p>\n

McIlroy is one stroke ahead of South Africa’s Aldrich Potgeiter in third, with England’s Aaron Rai a shot further back on 11-under.<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele and Kurt Kitayama sit in tied-fifth on 10 under.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Shane Lowry had likewise carded a 69 to sit in tied-32nd on three-under par overall. Lowry was on course for a strong round, with four birdies in a blemish-free opening 15 holes, until two dropped strokes in the final three holes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy sits in second spot heading into the final round at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-311253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}