Jacob Bridgeman followed his good friend Chris Gotterup by winning on the PGA Tour in 2026, after triumphing at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday.
Bridgeman won his first ever PGA Tour event at Riviera on Sunday, and despite entering the final round of the Genesis Invitational with a six-shot lead, he certainly didn’t make things easy on himself.
Gotterup missed the cut at Riviera, but he’s enjoyed plenty of success over the past seven months, winning three PGA Tour events including the WM Phoenix Open three weeks ago.
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The two close friends could become regular winners on the PGA Tour now over the next decade or so, after proving to themselves that they belong among the upper echelons of the game.
Bridgeman was congratulated by Tiger Woods after winning the Genesis and that must have made his victory extra special.
One thing’s for sure, the 26-year-old from South Carolina will never forget just how difficult it was to actually get over the line when coming down the stretch at Riviera.
Jacob Bridgeman shares how nerves affected him at the Genesis
After winning at Riviera, Bridgeman opened up on how he genuinely couldn’t feel his hands when putting during the final few holes.
In fact, the 26-year-old admitted that he had no idea how hard he needed to hit his putts on the 17th and 18th holes.
“Poa annua is such a tricky surface to putt on, I feel like the speed is hard to gauge,“ Bridgeman admitted.
“Especially the slope is hard to see in the shadows sometimes and with kind of the spotty grass.
“So I don’t see the slope as well so I didn’t really know what’s uphill, what’s downhill, all kind of things.
“Was talking to Rory after the round, he said poa annua is one of the places where sometimes you don’t know if it’s downhill, uphill.
“So I knew what was required for the shots, the putts coming down the stretch, but I had — normally when I’m over the ball I know exactly what my body’s going to do and I had no idea.“
Thankfully, Bridgeman got the job done in the end and now he should be a lot more comfortable the next time he is in contention.
Jacob Bridgeman totally understands Chris Gotterup’s comments now
Bridgeman spoke after his win at Riviera and shared how he now completely understands what Gotterup told him after he won in Phoenix three weeks ago.
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“After the Waste Management we were sitting on the green watching our buddy Chris win and he said, ‘I couldn’t feel my hands’.
“We were like, ‘what were you doing? You hit your putt so hard, it was going to go four feet by the hole’.
“He said, ‘I have no idea, I couldn’t feel my hands’.
“I thought he was kind of crazy until I got to this moment and then I was like, yep, I understand what you’re talking about now, Chris, I had no idea what to do.“
Winning on the PGA Tour is one of the most difficult things to do in sport, regardless of how many shots you have to play with on Sunday.
Now Bridgeman knows exactly what it takes, just like his good friend Gotterup does.