Rory McIlroy did not win the 2026 Genesis Invitational on Sunday. But he broke Riviera’s back nine late in the final round, narrowly missing Jacob Bridgeman’s 54-hole major winner.
The five-time major winner, who finished T2, sounded excited about his performance on Sunday evening, calling it, “all in all a really good week.”
At least according to his bank account, he wasn’t kidding. McIlroy got a big payday for his runner-up finish at the Riviera, thanks to Genesis’ status as a PGA Tour Signature event.
However, his payout would have been much smaller had he not dropped a long birdie putt on his final hole of the tournament. That fact was not lost on McIlroy after his round, and he used it humorously in response to a reporter’s question about his “brutal” miss at Genesis.
Rory McIlroy’s birdie bomb on the 18th earns him a big payday at Genesis
McIlroy’s final round started slowly. Trailing Bridgeman by six shots to start the day, he traded a birdie at the start for a bogey on 6 to finish the back nine at even par.
However, once he made the turn, McIlroy kicked it into another gear. He birdied at 11, then pulled off a stunning shot at 12.
When Bridgeman later bogeyed 16, only three shots separated him from McIlroy on the leaderboard.
Rory made 17 birdies to take another stroke. At 18, he holed a 30-footer and, unlike most other chances on Sunday, finished it off with an unexpected birdie.
It wasn’t enough to stop Bridgeman, who went on to win by one, but it was enough to move McIlroy up one spot on the leaderboard. And there were huge financial consequences as a result.
In his post-round interview, a reporter asked McIlroy if it was “cruel” to watch his long birdie putt on 18 considering that many of the previous putts had missed.
That’s when McIlroy offered his witty response, using his increased winnings as a punchline.
“No, it’s not,” McIlroy began. “It probably made me more than 400, 500 so it’s good.”
However, McIlroy’s rapid statistics have led to considerable underestimation. In fact, his 18-year-old long bird increased his salary more than he could have imagined.
If Rory had put in two stages in 18, he would have finished T3 with Adam Scott. That two-way tie for third would have earned McIlroy $1.2 million. An alarming figure, no doubt. For reference, that’s a bigger payday than Rory earned victory the 2025 Irish Open in September ($1.02 million), his most recent victory.
But McIlroy sank his birdie putt on Riviera’s 18th hole. And as a result, he improved from a T3- to a T2-finish with Kurt Kitayama. That significantly boosted his pay from $1.2 million to $1.8 million.
In short, McIlroy’s 30-foot make on 18 got him $600,000 morehe increased his salary by 50 percent.
And based on his closing remarks, McIlroy will continue to focus on the positives as the year’s major tournaments approach.
“I feel like my game is in great shape. I’m looking forward to getting on the Bermuda greens in the next few weeks,” McIlroy said in closing Sunday. “But you feel good, you feel much better than in Dubai, which is a big step in the right direction. You have to keep working.”
