Before the Genesis Invitational, the surrounding Los Angeles area Riviera Country Club was struck by the rain. When more rain came during Thursday’s opening round, Riviera’s putting surfaces became so soft Collin Morikawa said he had “never seen greens like this”.
He wasn’t the only star swept off Riviera’s soggy greens on Thursday. World number 2 Rory McIlroy detailed his confusion about the “soft” but “fast” green conditions, while Adam Scott he was robbed of a hole-in-one after his fingernail was lodged near the cup.
Here’s what you need to know.
Collin Morikawa at Riviera: “I’ve never seen greens like this”
Morikawa is currently on a roll. He captured his first victory since 2023 with a clutch performance at last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Then on Thursday, the two-time major champion opened with a solid three-under 68 The invitation of Genesis.
But you’d never know Morikawa was tied for fifth based on his comments about his Thursday night round. Riviera’s unusually soft greens left Morikawa sounding confused.
“I honestly don’t know how they did it. Like I’ve never seen greens like this,” Morikawa began during his post-round interview.
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He went on to explain how the super soft conditions allowed him to attack the greens from unenviable lies and distances where he would normally worry about holding onto the putting surface.
“I mean, you can stop any club from anywhere, you know, from fouls, I mean, I think I had two or three shots today, flyers off the first cut and rough and like I’m not worried about missing the buy at all,” he explained. “It’s just kicking and hoping.”
Counterintuitively, some greens still played fast despite being extremely wet and soft. Morikawa saw this reality in action when he witnessed McIlroy land his approach on 18 near the hole, only to see it roll 30 feet short of the front edge of the green.
“And then, I mean, you saw Rory’s shot on 18, like it’s unfair, it’s not the right word,” Morikawa explained. “You just have to get those 30 feet and go out and make some birdies somewhere else.”
Rory McIlroy explains the ‘difficult’ challenge of the greens at the Genesis Invitational
After his opening round at Genesis ended, McIlroy also spoke to the media, and he was asked about Morikawa’s comments about the condition of the Riviera greens.
McIlroy echoed Morikawa’s sentiments, arguing that driving the Riviera greens on Thursday was extremely difficult because they were somewhat “soft” and “fast” at the same time.
“Yeah, it’s like they’re soft but they’re fast, I think that’s the hard thing. It’s like last week at Pebble they were soft but they were slow because they were worried about the wind,” McIlroy explained. “Look, they’re very fast.”
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He continued: “The ball, like, it just starts to get away from you a little bit, especially if it spins back. It’s just taking more clubs and getting it off. I’m hitting a lot of 7-irons and 8-irons.”
He also added his thoughts on his surprising approach to 18.
“And even that 9-iron on the last one I hit, it was 186, I hit a full-blooded 9-iron thinking, you know, 25 miles an hour into the wind, it’s not going to spin much and, you know, it spun 30 feet,” he said.
The steep nature of Riviera’s heralded greens added to the challenge.
“I think it’s a combination of how soft they are, but also how fast they are, too. And a lot of the greens here are pretty hard back to front, so it’s tough.”
Despite the confusion, McIlroy’s card did not appear to suffer from the difficult conditions. Rory made six birdies and a bogey on Thursday for him shoot a 66 and take a shot off the lead.
Adam Scott is robbed of a hole-in-one when the ball hits the Riviera green
If there was one shot that perfectly illustrated how strange the Riviera greens were playing in Round 1, it wasn’t McIlroy’s approach on 18. Instead, it was Adam Scott’s odd performance on the par-3 16th.
Arriving at the 165-yard par-3 with one under, Scott hit a near-perfect iron shot off the tee. After the shot, the shot tracker showed Scott’s ball flying straight toward the pin and on point. Scott’s ball landed 7 inches short of the cup.
But instead of bounding and rolling into the hole, Scott’s ball went into the wet 16th green right where it landed. Check out the shot below.
With that, a potential hole-in-one turned into a 2-birdie, and Scott was left shaking his head, as Morikawa and McIlroy had done before.
