PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Waiting to do a post-round interview with PGA Tour Live, Patrick Cantlay was asked to name his best finish at the Genesis Invitational. He shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea.
One of the writers overheard this exchange and provided the answer: “He finished third last year.”
Cantlay smiled and said, “Oh, yeah.” Indeed, his record at Riviera Country Club is pretty stellar – four top-20 finishes in the last five years, including a T-4 in 2018 in which if he made any putts on the weekend he’d already be a tournament champion here.
That could be in Cantlay’s not-too-distant future if he can keep putting like he did on Thursday. He poured in more than 127 feet of putts en route to shooting a career-best 7-under 64 at Riviera in his 29th career Tour round here and claiming a one-stroke lead over the trio of Jason Day, Cameron Davis and Luke List.
“Made every putt I should have and a couple longer ones,” said Cantlay, who gain just over 4 strokes on the field for the day on the greens and ranked second in SG: Putting. “It was a good start.”
Leader by two, @Patrick_Cantlay. pic.twitter.com/eoVsNTqtrp
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 15, 2024
Cantlay grew up not too far away – depending on 405 traffic – in Long Beach, California, and attended UCLA before turning pro, logging many more rounds at Riviera during his tenure there.
“It’s a place I’m comfortable,” he said. “It feels like a home game.”
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He birdied eight of his first 14 holes in the opening round to vault to the top of the leaderboard, including holing birdie putts of 15 feet at No. 6, 26 feet at No. 8 and 28 feet at 14.
His lone blemish of the day happened at the par-3 166-yard 16th, where his tee shot caught a sycamore tree and left him in the rough 58 yards from the hole.
“Obviously a spot I’ve never been,” he said. “I’ve been on most places on this golf course.”
He didn’t bother to have caddie Joe LaCava pace it off, chunking his next into the bunker but scrambled for bogey.
“It was a good up-and-down,” he said.
And another good start: Cantlay has three 64s in his last four starts and entered the week leading the Tour with a first-round scoring average of 64.75 and went even lower.
Asked a few weeks ago whether he’d rather win at Pebble Beach or Riviera, two of his favorite places on the planet, he took the fifth, pleading that “I don’t like that question,” but something suggests that winning this close to home and just down the road from Westwood would be the former Bruin’s personal fifth major.
MORE: Tiger battles back spasms in return to PGA Tour
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the Genesis Invitational.
Gary Woodland reacts after his birding putt on the third green during the first round of the 2024 Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo: Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Tiger Woods wasn’t the only person in his group mounting a comeback.
Woodland had brain surgery in September and made his return to action at the Sony Open in Hawaii last month. But he has missed the cut in all three of his starts entering this week and shot an opening-round 79 last week in Phoenix. On Thursday, Woodland birdied the first three holes and was 4 under through 11 before a couple hiccups coming home left him signing for 1-under 70.
“That was the best I played all year,” he said.
Woodland conceded that his comeback is off to a slower start than he expected.
“Just because physically, you know, after surgery you expect everything’s OK, now we can start moving forward and I’m still recovering, still going through MRIs, still going through that process, still on the meds,” he said. “I just figured I’d come out and start playing great again. I struggled for a long time and figured out why I was struggling and what was going on. I figured OK, now I’ll play great golf again. It’s been a little bit harder than I thought, but it’s coming. Today was, like I said, a big step in the right direction.”
Last week, after Woodland missed the cut, his caddie, Brennan Little, made Woodland go home and take the day off and go into a dark room for a couple of hours.
“Just didn’t feel like myself, very irritable, moody, just not all there really. When that happens, I’ve got to get into a dark room,” Woodland explained. “Really concussion protocol more than anything, turn the lights off, no noise, no probably overstimulation, which last week there’s a lot of stimulation going on.”
He added: “It’s hard for me. I want to get out and work.”
Jason Day tees off the fourth hole during the first round of the 2024 Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Jason Day made a triumphant return to the winner’s circle last year for the first time in five years and vaulted back into the top 20 in the world. Now, he’s set his sights on getting back to world No. 1.
On Thursday, Day’s approach game was dialed in and when it wasn’t, he scrambled for par on all five occasions that he missed the green. He carded six birdies in his round of 65.
Day also finished last year’s tournament shooting 65 to record his first top-10 finish at Riviera, a course that he said he didn’t like at first blush. Understandable given he had finished outside the top 60 in all five previous starts at the event.
“One of two things had to change, I either wouldn’t play here or you just have to change your attitude a little bit,” he said. “I think changing that mindset and that attitude saying that this is one of my favorite stops of the year (has made a difference), because it is a tremendous golf course.”
Day can relate to Woods, Woodland and Will Zalatoris trying to overcome various injuries in their career because for several years his own back problems appeared to be derailing what had the makings of a Hall of Fame career.
“There were times where I wouldn’t really practice Monday, wouldn’t really practice Tuesday, just try and get through the pro-am and just go, OK, if I can get through Thursday and Friday, then great,” he said. “To be able to kind of get that back in the rearview mirror now where I can kind of focus on actually practicing and putting good work in, it’s been nice because for a moment there I just didn’t know if it was really going to pan out for me and I thought maybe it’s kind of like I’m at the end of it in regards to my playing days.”
He added: “It would have been thoroughly disappointing to sit there and go, oh, man, like I felt like I’ve got more in the gas tank and that’s kind of why I didn’t quit on my body, it just took some time. It’s nice to be able to see kind of the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Luke List lines up his shot on the fourth tee during the first round of the 2024 Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
Luke List’s putter was lit during the opening round. He was feeling it early, holing a 48-foot birdie putt at the second but that was no fluke because he made four more birdies in the next eight holes before sinking a 75-foot par putt at 13 and 30-foot birdie at 14. For the round, he canned 224 feet of putts, the most by any player in any round at Riviera since the Tour began tracking the stat 20 years ago and the most by any player in a single round so far this season on the PGA Tour.
Stats guru Justin Ray noted that List made more feet of putts on Thursday than he did in all four rounds combined at Riviera last year when he made 221 feet.
Luke List made 224 feet of putts today, the most by any player in a single round so far this season on the PGA Tour.
It is also the most feet of putts made by a player in any round at Riviera since tracking began about 20 years ago.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 15, 2024
“Putted well when I needed to. Those pars on 12 (when he sank an 11 footer) and 13 were huge for my round,” he said. “That kind of kept the momentum going a little bit and I was able to kind of cap off the day.”
List is best-known as a great driver of the ball and solid ballstriker but his putting typically holds him back from winning more than his two Tour titles. He has sought help from multiple putting coaches over the years. He currently is working with Cameron McCormick, whose students include Jordan Spieth.
List used to live in Long Beach, California, and called Riviera his favorite course on the Tour other than courses that host majors. A bogey-free 65 has him off to a flying start.
Tiger Woods on the tenth hole during the first round of The Genesis Invitational golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
The Genesis Invitational is the first of three player-hosted invitationals along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament this season, which will have a 36-hole cut to the top 50 and ties or any player within 10 strokes of the lead.
Those in the 70-man field who will need to step up on Friday include Tiger Woods at 1 over (eight back after the first round of the leader) along with Justin Thomas, Cameron Young and Adam Scott, a two-time champion of this event. Max Homa, the 2021 Genesis Invitational champion and runner-up a year ago, shot 72, snapping a streak of 15 consecutive scores of even-par or better at the event dating to the first round in 2020.
Rory McIlroy was skating along at 3 under through 11 holes when he tripped up coming home, making a double bogey at 15 and triple at 16 and coming home in 41. He’s 3 over and 10 back. That’s still a stroke better than Matt Fitzpatrick, who stumbled to 75 despite an eagle and two birdies.
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