PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – That’s more like it. After a blustery, wet day on Thursday at Riviera Country Club, Friday was the kind of day that fans, sponsors and the PGA Tour dream about. Plenty of sun, a great mix of big-name players and upstart rookies getting into contention and some awesome shotmaking. The day was straight out of central casting.
As the sun set in the Pacific, Marco Penge, a PGA Tour rookie who earned his card by being among the top 10 players on the DP World Tour last season, sits tied for the lead at 12 under with former Clemson standout Jacob Bridgeman.
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Just below those two supporting actors is a trio of stars whose names have been on plenty of marquees.
Rory McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam by winning the 2025 Masters, followed up an opening-round 65 with a 66 on Friday to reach 11 under. Xander Schauffele, the winner of two majors and the 2020 Olympic gold medal, posted 68 to finish at 9 under, along with Adam Scott. The Australian, who won the 2013 Masters, torched Riviera for a front-nine 30 before going eagle-birdie-birdie on 11, 12 and 13. A poor tee shot and a missed 7-foot putt on the 18th left him three shots behind the leaders
Here are five things we learned on Friday at the Genesis Invitational.
Putting pep talk pays off for Marco Penge
Marco Penge Friday at Riviera Country Club during the 2026 Genesis Invitational.
We knew Marco Penge could play, but even he wasn’t sure if he could putt to the level of the PGA Tour stars that he is now competing against. So far, however, the Englishman is doing just fine after a well-timed arm around the shoulder from Phil Kenyon.
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After experimenting early in the week with a left-hand low setup, Penge admitted the speed of the greens “kind of freaked me out.” The mechanics weren’t the issue, and in fact he said the ball was starting online. The problem was mental clutter.
“I’ve been in my own way on the greens,” Penge said Friday evening after signing for a 66 that put his name atop the leaderboard at the Genesis Invitational heading into the weekend. But Kenyon, his putting coach, stepped in Wednesday with what Penge described as a necessary pep talk.
So far, its worked, because through two rounds, Penge ranks second in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting and he’s holed over 173 feet of putts.
But the more telling detail isn’t the number, it’s the shift in mindset.
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“Just forgetting about where’s my line aiming, forgetting about ‘What do I need to think to stroke it well,’ forgetting about all the technical stuff,” Penge said. “It’s more scoping the putt out from the sides and walking around the hole and really visualizing and getting into the putt.”
In other words, less mechanics, more feel. Less stroke theory, more imagination.
On fast greens, which Penge admits he’s still getting used to, it’s made a huge difference.
Ball flight is the key for Rory
Rory McIlroy plays a shot on the 12th hole during the second round of The Genesis Invitational.
After switching from a TaylorMade TP5x to a TP5 before the start of the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which he won, Rory McIlroy said that the ball helped him embrace partial shots and touch shots, and it helped him control spin and trajectory more effectively.
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He’s playing the updated, 2026 TP5 this week at Riviera, and it sounds like he thinks the same type of shots will be critical for success.
“I feel you have to control your ball flight really well downwind or into the wind depending on what you need,” McIlroy said Friday evening. “Like 18, for example. That’s typical very hard shot, that second shot, because the back pin is straight downwind. You’re a little scared of going long and then having that downhiller. So, I eased up on mine leaving it 30 feet short. It’s a tough one.”
McIlroy noted that the soft greens are still fast, which echoed comments Collin Morikawa made Thursday evening.
“It’s hard to get it really close because the greens are soft, but then they’re also fast and they’ve got quite a lot of pitch to them,” he said. “Once balls get momentum away from the hole, they just sort of keep going. It’s hard to get the ball really, really close, I’ve found, but just kept giving myself sort of 20, 25-footers knowing that pars on some holes are good and you take advantage of the more scorable holes.”
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Scott plays his best round ever at his favorite event
Adam Scott on the 17th tee during the second round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational.
Just as Fred Couples seems like he was made to play Augusta National, Adam Scott seems to come alive when he arrives at Riviera Country Club. This year marks his 18th time playing here. Scott has won twice, been a runner up twice and earned seven top 10s.
When asked where his Friday 63 ranked among all his rounds played here, he didn’t hesitate.
“It’s probably my best round out here,” Scott said. “I know there were a lot of good scores today. I did shoot … I remember one, I think it was the year I won recently (2020) that I shot, I think it was on Thursday, I shot 7 under in the morning. It was a drier week, maybe more challenging, but there’s always a challenge. Like just getting the ball to the hole is hard when the greens are soft here, so this is great.”
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In fact, Scott was recalling a Friday 64 back in 2020, but that’s fine. At age 45, Scott is appreciative just to be at the Genesis Invitational again.
“It’s awesome. I’m lucky to be here this week on an invite, obviously. It’s my favorite stop on Tour of the year, so I’m wanting to make the most of it,” Scott said. “I’ve been feeling like I’ve had a lot of good golf since last summer, and got absolutely no results thanks to average putting, I would say. The standard’s incredibly high out here week in and week out, and average putting just isn’t going to get it done. So, nice to see myself kind of up on the first page of a leaderboard, and hopefully I can play a couple more good rounds and be in the hunt.”
Fitzpatrick is not a fan of No. 10
Matt Fitzpatrick waiting on the 10th hole during the second round of The Genesis Invitational.
Matt Fitzpatrick followed-up a first round 66 with a 69 on Friday to finish the day tied for eighth at 7 under. After signing his card, the 2022 U.S. Open champion was pleased with his round and how he’s playing, but he was less than pleased with one hole.
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“Yeah, it was a great round. I felt like I played really solid. Just a bogey on 10, the world’s most impossible golf hole. I’ll leave it there,” he said.
The 10th hole at Riviera is one of the most famous and studied drivable par-4s in golf. At just 300 yards, nearly every player in the field can reach it easily, but the green is angled from front-left to back right and is guarded by bunkers in the front and back. Missing your tee shot right is death. Missing into the front bunker leads to a dangerous sand shot that oftentimes rolls into the back bunker.
Most players go for the green’s left side, and then either hit a pitch shot to the hole or, if they happen to hit the green, attempt a long putt. Of the 72 players who took it on Friday, Ryan Fox made the lone eagle when he holed a bunker shot. Twenty-seven players made birdie, 33 scored a par, 10 made bogey and one player, Si Woo Kim, made a double-bogey six.
Asked about his strategy on the 300-yard par 4, Fitzpatrick, who is one of the most analytically-minded golfers around, bit his lip.
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“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really want to talk about it too much, I’ll just get wound up,” he said. “But hit and hope, let’s leave it at that.”
Scheffler’s slow start doesn’t mean he’s done
Scottie Scheffler Friday at the 2026 Genesis Invitaional.
The Genesis Invitational is Scottie Scheffler’s fourth event of the PGA Tour season. He won the first, the American Express, shooting 63-64-68-66, but since then he’s had three terrible (by his standard) opening rounds. There was a 73 at the WM Phoenix Open and then a 72 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This week, Scheffler posted a 74 that was interrupted by darkness Thursday evening and completed on Friday. He had to make a clutch birdie on 17 and then get up-and-down on 18 just to make the cut at even-par 142.
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Asked if there was a reason for his slow starts recently, the world’s No. 1 player said, “I wouldn’t say anything in particular. I think in both the last two, teeing off late, is never the easiest and I’ve gotten off to slow starts. Like, teeing off yesterday when we did was pretty challenging around this golf course. I mean, the wind, and with how soft the greens were, and how bumpy they can get along with wind and they’re fast.” He added, positively, “It was nice to get out this morning on some fresh greens and hole some putts and do what I needed to do in order to get to the weekend.”
Scheffler will start the final 36 holes 12 shots behind the leaders, which probably means that he won’t be in the mix on Sunday evening. We say probably because even after his sluggish opening rounds at his last two events, Scheffler finished T-3 and T-4, respectively. He’ll have an early tee time Saturday, so Scheffler should play on perfect greens and in ideal conditions. We’re not counting him out yet.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 5 things we learned Friday at the 2026 Genesis Invitational
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