Moneyball – Bridgeman one-ups Tiger and McIlroy’s last-gasp $600k roll

Jacob Bridgeman had never won a PGA Tour event before the Genesis Invitational, but after a gruelling final day and playing the final few holes under a cloud of extreme nerves, he put that to rights and did something that even Tiger Woods had never done – win at Riviera.

The 26-year-old turned pro in 2022 and made just over $5 million in 61 starts prior to 2026. Now, thanks mainly to his $4 million in earnings from the Tiger-hosted event at Riviera, he’s on the cusp of reaching the $11-million mark and has leapfrogged Scottie Scheffler and Chris Gotterup to the top of the FedEx Cup rankings.

It didn’t look as though it was going to be interesting coming down the stretch, but winning is never easy and Kurt Kitayama and Rory McIlroy turned the screw, leaving Bridgeman needing to hole a three-footer on the last to avoid a dramatic collapse, but he held his nerve.

McIlroy, who couldn’t buy a putt, finally got one to drop on 18. The dying roll that took the ball into the cup was worth $600k to the Holywood man, lifting him from a share of third with Adam Scott where he’d have earned $1.2 million, to a share of second with Kitayama that brought with it $1.8 million.

Shane Lowry’s final round of 67 lifted him eight places on the leaderboard and he takes home $178,250 which brings his total PGA Tour career earnings over the $31 million mark.

The LPGA Tour’s early season Asian swing has never been too kind to Atthaya ‘Jeeno’ Thitikul, but the world number one put that to bed by winning in her native country at the LPGA Thailand.

The $270,000 first place cheque – the eighth winner’s cheque she’s collected in her LPGA Tour career – takes her to seventh on the all-time LPGA Tour money list, having become the youngest player to crest the $17 million mark when she won the season-ending CME Globe Championship last year.

Leona Maguire’s first start of the season ended with a T32 finish and almost $13,000 in prizemoney, but the purse is almost doubled when the LPGA Tour heads to Singapore for this week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship.

At the DP World Tour’s Magical Kenya Open, South African Casey Jarvis survived a late scare in the final round to return from a suspension for lightning and birdie the 17th hole to give him a nice cushion playing the last.

Jarvis earned almost €400,000 for his efforts, while Mark Power, playing on a tournament invitation, more than covered his week’s expenses by collecting almost €10,000 as he waits for his HotelPlanner Tour season debut.

Genesis Invitational Selected Payouts

LPGA Thailand Selected Payouts

Magical Kenya Open Selected Payouts