It’s perhaps a sign of the recent overachievement of Irish players on the PGA Tour that two representatives finishing 24th and 31st in one of the marquee events on the circuit can be considered an average week on the golfing world’s premier tour. But that’s what we’ve been dealt this week as Rory McIlroy and Seamus Power finished middle of the pack at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
Rounds of one-under and level-par respectively for McIlroy and Power on Sunday weren’t enough to make any real headway on the leaderboard, with the former still searching for the spark to ignite what’s been an underwhelming two events since heading back across the Atlantic and the latter seeking to play his way into The Masters which is only 50 days away.
“I think that I’m close. I’m not quite where I want to be,” McIlroy told CBS shortly after putting out for a final-round 70.
“It’s one of these courses where you know that precision is so important and putting your ball in the right areas and if you’re just slightly off your weaknesses sort of get magnified this week.”
For the second day in succession, the world number two birdied both of the opening holes, but the trademark charge up the leaderboard never materialised, with below average approach play the primary culprit as he failed to give himself good birdie opportunities thereafter.
The west coast has never been particularly kind to McIlroy, his only Californian victory coming back in 2015 when he won the WGC Matchplay Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park, so he’ll not be overly worried about another middle-of-the-road sojourn, and he’ll embark on the Florida swing feeling reasonably optimistic.
Power will be a little more disappointed with how his tournament panned out after opening his final-round with an eagle-three and still lying -2 for the day after 10 holes and with two par-5s to come.
Three bogeys thereafter, including a five on the par-4 closing hole, saw him fall from a provisional top-16 placing to 31st overall and with it, valuable rankings and FedEx Cup points, and though he’s guaranteed his place in the PGA Tour’s remaining Signature Events, he knows that he’ll need to start racking up higher finishes if he’s to force his way into the reckoning for the major championships and the FedEx Playoffs, though the former naturally takes priority.
Both players will enjoy a week off next week before retuning to action at the Cognizant Classic held at PGA National. Formerly the Honda Classic, McIlroy triumphed here in 2012 but hasn’t included the event on his schedule for some time, while Power is expected to make his first appearance since 2019.
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