00:00You know, kind of as we moved into the afternoon, of course, we had the final round of the Genesis
00:05Invitational at Riviera.
00:07And, man, this one, it looked like we started the day where Jacob Bridgman had, I believe, a six-shot
00:13lead over Rory McIlroy.
00:14He started the day at 19-under, Rory at 13.
00:17And so it was going to take a lot for someone to come from behind to win this thing.
00:21But we got it down.
00:23He had a one-shot lead coming in that final hole.
00:25Kurt Kitayama had posted the 17-under.
00:27Rory was on the tee at 16-under.
00:29Jacob Bridgman was at 18-under.
00:31And Rory made a long birdie putt to get to 17.
00:35So there was a chance.
00:36Bridgman hit a really nice approach shot in there on 18.
00:39But leaves that putt up the hill and has a nerby short, has a nerby four-footer that needs to
00:44clean up to win his first PGA Tour event.
00:46But that is exactly what he did to win by a shot over Kitayama and McIlroy.
00:51And this has been a guy, Smiley, it's been on our radar for a while.
00:55You suggest some a couple weeks ago and one and done.
00:56And I just want to kind of retrace some.
01:00You did.
01:01You did.
01:02That's something.
01:02I remember it vividly.
01:04I'm glad you don't remember.
01:05It might have been one of those weeks when we suggested like nine guys.
01:11So this is a guy that I want to kind of retrace the steps a little bit for people who
01:16he's just landing on the radar for the first time.
01:1826 years old.
01:19He went to Clemson.
01:20He actually, I went back and looked at this, finished second in the 2022 PGA Tour U standings behind Pearson
01:26Cootie.
01:27And so he ends up on the Corn Fairy Tour, ends his PGA Tour card after the 2023 Corn Fairy
01:33Tour season.
01:34So this is his third year as a PGA Tour member.
01:37And if you go back, he landed on my radar for the first time last year, 2025 Cognizant.
01:43So almost exactly a year ago.
01:45So he's had 30 starts since then.
01:47He's had 13 top 20s, 8 top 10s, and 6 top 5s.
01:53He played some really good golf over that stretch.
01:55So I want to kind of go back and compare, look at his 2025 stats.
01:59What did he do well to 2026?
02:02So for his 2025 stats through the Tour Championship, not including the FedEx Cup ball, 14th and strokes game putting.
02:08His superpower really is putting.
02:10And they mentioned that as much on the broadcast today of like how he kind of gets it done when
02:14he plays well.
02:15Pretty solid around the green.
02:16He was 63rd in strokes gained around the green this last year.
02:19But 114th in strokes gained approach and 111th in strokes gained off the tee.
02:24So those were kind of his areas to improve.
02:27If you look at the splits off the tee between last year and this year, he averaged 302 yards off
02:32the tee in 25.
02:33This year, he's up 5 yards, 307 yards off the tee.
02:37His ball speed last year was a shade under 173.
02:40This year, he's got it to 175.2.
02:42He gained nearly 2.5 miles per hour of ball speed off the tee.
02:45And then this week was, of course, first in strokes gained putting, was first in strokes gained approach.
02:50That Saturday effort just flushed it.
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