An inspired Jacob Bridgeman fired a second consecutive round of 64 to take a six stroke lead over World No 2 Rory McIlroy at the Genesis Invitational golf championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bridgeman, who shared the lead with Marco Penge after the second round, stunned the field at the Riviera to match the tournament’s 54-hole record with a 19-under par total of 194.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McIlroy, who had trailed the duo by just one stroke, fired a solid third round of 69, but sees himself drifting further back with a 13-under par total of 200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making tournament debut, Bridgeman has played the opening hole in a cumulative 5-under. The 26-year-old American chasing his first PGA Tour title, was up by three after three birdies in his first four holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He picked up four strokes in the space of three holes to pull away for good. After rolling in a 12-foot birdie at the 10th he eagled the par-five 11th — where he landed his 259-yard approach a foot from the pin. He drilled an 11-foot birdie putt at the 12th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His 194 matches Joaquin Niemann (2022) for the 54-hole tournament scoring record and just one stroke shy of the largest 54-hole lead in tournament history since Arnold Palmer in 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been an impressive start to the season thus far for Bridgeman, who already has two top-10s in four starts this season – T4 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and T8 at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McIlroy, who finished with just three birdies and a bogey in his two-under 69 for 200, sees himself facing the largest 54-hole deficit to overcome in his PGA TOUR career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He needs fast start tomorrow and hope for Bridgeman to falter to bag his 30th<\/sup> PGA Tour victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 21-year-old Potgieter, who claimed his lone PGA Tour title to date at the Rocket Classic last year, carded an eagle and six birdies in his six-under 65 to move up to sole third at 12-under, one stroke ahead of first round co-leader Aaron Rai of England, who shot a 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second round co-leader Penge, blew up with a 3-over round and is now tied seventh, ten strokes behind Bridgeman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is tied 22 at five-under par after posting rounds of posts 74-68-66 in his eighth appearance at this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, 2021 Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele is tied fifth on ten-under par total with reigning FedExCup champion Tommy Fleetwood tied ninth with eight-under par. Fleetwood is tied with two time Genesis Invitational champion Adam Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collin Morikawa, the winner of last week\u2019s Pebble Beach Pro-Am Collin Morikawa is at T15 on six-under par while defending champion Ludvig \u00c5berg tied 27th a further two strokes behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An inspired Jacob Bridgeman fired a second consecutive round of 64 to take a six stroke lead over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-9735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-golf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t