00:00Let's kind of dive into the week of Riviera.
00:03So you've obviously got off to a great start this 2026 season.
00:07And I think if you would have looked at it,
00:09you could have seen Jacob Bridgman having a breakout week at Riviera.
00:12But did you feel that way coming into the week?
00:15No, not really.
00:17At Pebble, I felt like, I think I said this in one of my interviews,
00:20I felt like I faked it the whole week.
00:21The first day I played great and everything felt good.
00:24But over the course of the week, I'd hit so many shots in the wind
00:27where I was just taking the club back about halfway and chipping them.
00:31And then when I had to step up and hit a driver,
00:33I had no idea where the ball was going.
00:35So like at Spyglass, I think I hit maybe three or four fairways
00:38and shot seven under just because the rough was nothing.
00:40And it honestly was better to miss in the rough
00:42because the greens were so soft, I could just hit and plug it.
00:46And my putter was just acting the way it was supposed to, I guess.
00:50That's good.
00:51As most golfers would say, it wasn't doing anything wrong.
00:54It was making a lot of putts.
00:55So I somehow got myself in contention that week.
00:59And driver, I would say a little bit let me down coming down the stretch,
01:04but not anything crazy.
01:06But I didn't expect to hit it the way I did at Riv the following week,
01:10especially since I didn't do really that much prep on the range.
01:13I was just kind of worn out.
01:14I wanted to rest.
01:15I had maybe an hour and a half with Scott Hamilton
01:18to just kind of work through things and reset.
01:20Did y'all find anything?
01:22Yeah, I think the main thing was I was getting so short and tight in my swing
01:25from hitting little punch shots that we just needed to widen and slow down the rhythm.
01:29Wow.
01:30And it was like an instant click, I guess.
01:33I hit it okay in the Pro-Am.
01:34Yeah.
01:35And then Thursday through Sunday, I just striped it.
01:38Was that the first time you've ever stepped foot on property at Riviera?
01:41Mm-hmm.
01:42So what was your first impressions?
01:43You know, going around a golf course like this,
01:46and I'm sure you've watched on TV plenty of times,
01:49but it's a place that, did it fit your eye?
01:52You know, when you got out there,
01:52did it seem like a place that you could go out and do what you did?
01:56Yeah, it was a full rain out Monday.
01:59It rained like three inches.
01:59I think they only get 12 a year, so that was like a fourth of the...
02:02You're like, all right, same thing as last week.
02:04I'm going to be having to deal with spin control.
02:07Yeah, it was crazy.
02:08And I think that was a blessing in disguise,
02:10all the rain that we got because it softened up the course.
02:12And I don't know, I haven't played the firm Riviera yet,
02:16but it makes me think that you need a little bit more experience
02:18to have success there, knowing all the slopes,
02:21knowing how the ball is going to react and some bad spots.
02:24But the way it was played so soft, I mean, you could hit it short-sided
02:28and just hit a normal chip, and it would just hit and stop.
02:30So I think that helped me out a bit, especially early in the week
02:34when I had to try and learn the place.
02:36I hit it in a few bad spots, and I was able to get out of it.
02:40Anything at 10?
02:40I was probably the first person to ever get up and down
02:43short of the bunker for the right pin on 10.
02:45No, you didn't.
02:46Yeah.
02:47That is stupid.
02:48You can't miss right at the 10th old Riviera, especially short right.
02:52I mean, was it just a straight up in the air flopper?
02:55Did you hit it with a bunch of spin sitting on top of it?
02:57They get cuckoo you rough.
02:58Yeah, so I was thinking, you know, I've seen this course a million times,
03:01and I'm like, this is the worst spot you can possibly be in.
03:03I'm going to hit it in the back bunker, you know?
03:05So I just tried to hit it as high as I possibly could,
03:07and it landed probably three feet over the bunker and plugged.
03:11And I was like, wow, you couldn't have rolled out at least three feet.
03:13That is, that's not the 10th old Riviera.
03:15That's a, that's an imposter.
03:17That's not supposed to happen, but great up and down.
03:19Yeah, that one was sweet.
03:20And then I, I chipped a nine iron out from under a tree.
03:24I think my head was like in the tree and on 10, same hole.
03:28It was a lot that went down that hole.
03:30And I tried to lay it up like 15 feet, right?
03:33And GW kept telling me this thing goes further left.
03:37And you think it goes further left.
03:38And I was like, all right, man, whatever.
03:39I got it, you know?
03:40And I hit it and it, I was trying to hit it 15 feet, right?
03:43And it went to three feet.
03:44So that kind of worked out nice in my favor.
03:46But, um, overall, I, yeah, I, I love the course.
03:50I, I really enjoyed getting to know it kind of as the week went on Thursday felt like my
03:55first real, um, practice round because Wednesday was going so fast.
03:59We're entertaining, you know, playing 18 old pro.
04:01I'm kind of grueling.
04:02Um, Thursday, I got to know it and figured out where I didn't need to hit it.
04:07And then, yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I just hit it so good.
04:10It didn't really matter.
04:11Gosh, Saturday, man.
04:13Uh, that ball striking clinic that you put on, on Saturday.
04:17Have you ever had a ball striking round like that where you've hit it that good?
04:22Not that good.
04:23I think my perspective has probably changed now because I expect a little bit better,
04:27but the only thing I could compare it to is back in college, right after COVID, um,
04:32we were all itching to play.
04:33We hadn't played a golf tournament in like a year and we played down at a course in, um,
04:38Panama city, I can't remember the name of it, but Florida state hosted.
04:42Oh, uh, water sounds.
04:44Yes.
04:44Yeah, that's right.
04:45Um, whatever the course was called.
04:47Davis loves got a, it might be the one that he did down there.
04:49Okay.
04:50It was very challenging.
04:52Um, and I was for whatever reason, just hitting it.
04:56Perfect.
04:57And I made one bogey in 54 holes.
04:59It was a three putt.
05:00I was furious because I missed your great putter too.
05:04I misread it like five feet to the right and then missed the five footer.
05:07And that was the only bogey of the week.
05:09I hit it everywhere.
05:10I was looking at one by like eight or nine or something.
05:13Just perfect execution.
05:14Yeah.
05:15Like that, that until this past week was like my best tournament ever.
05:19For more information, visit www.fema.org
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