Genesis Roundup: Primed For A Stellar Final Round At Riviera With Scott, Kuchar, McIlroy Tied At The Top

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Golf Gods, you’ve gotten us this far. Now don’t mess up the glorious 2020 Genesis we’ve got on our hands.

After three days of ideal weather and nine of the world’s top 10, it should come as little surprise to see a leaderboard topped by names like McIlroy, Kuchar and Scott, with lurkers like Johnson and writer’s dream story Harold Varner, the former Sifford Exemption recipient. Oh, and 16 within four of the lead.

Riviera’s greens are as fast and firm as I can recall and Tiger might agree after taking 33 putts, including four at 13 to shoot 76. It was his second 4-putt on the 13th in his career.

Following his round, Woods admitted to some overall body stiffness and feeling “run-down". Ryan Lavner reports.

More impressively, even with such a premium on speed and firmness, the field has managed to score well, taking advantage of relatively little wind and remarkable conditioning by Matt Morton’s crew. The field posted a 70.397 scoring average Saturday, with a low of 64 by Talor Gooch and a high of 81 from Ryan Palmer.

(Palmer took five to get out of the 14th hole’s greenside bunker.)

As for our leaders, a few post-round highlights, starting with Adam Scott, coming in hot after layoff and a former winner here, whose 2005 title does not count as an official win.

Q. Adam, jumping back to the one you won here in the one-hole playoff and it rained all week and finally on that Monday morning the sun came out, do you remember what happened and what was it like for the week and the playoff itself?

ADAM SCOTT: I remember spending the most amount of time ever in a locker room that week. It was at least two days of eight hours sitting in the locker room and just waiting around. Then Monday I think they were looking at trying to tee guys off for a round and at least have a third round, but maybe a group teed off and after a hole they just said -- it was still raining a bit and they said the course is so unplayable. The only hole really was the 18th way up positive.

I kind of -- I guess it was good that it was called off. And then you win and then you're told it's not a win, that was not so good. Even though I had the trophy, it's not official. Maybe at the time it would have been better to try to plug it out for an official win, but it was still fun, fun to take a trophy home and kind of be a champion here.

ADAM SCOTT: I think all of that is just a bit of motivation for me to win tomorrow here and have an official victory at Riviera and the Genesis Open and I think that would be extremely satisfying for me.

Kuchar, who has led at the end of each round, is in his best position ever at Riviera. He’s never had a top 5 here despite 11 starts.

MATT KUCHAR: I absolutely love the course. I think it gets rave reviews across the board by everybody. You see a great leaderboard up there, it's one that has truly withstood the test of time. It's fun to see it this way in firm and fast conditions. I think so many years we've been here we've seen it kind of wet and cold and greens being a little bit softer. Anytime you get greens firm, it is hard to get them close to the hole, a golf course just plays that much harder.

And this place, you kind of learn it well enough and have to manage where you miss, where you don't. Chipping out of this kikuyu is so difficult, particularly with the little bounce in the greens. I mean, there are good scores out there and there are really bad scores out there and I think that's the sign of a good golf course.

And McIlroy, looking for win No. 19, explains why Riviera has a permanent place on his schedule.

I typically didn't play the West Coast Swing earlier on in my career, especially when I got to this tournament and this golf course, I regretted that decision because, okay, sometimes it can get -- if it's soft the greens can get a little bumpy or whatever, but the course is phenomenal. The whole place. I mean, staying in Santa Monica and doing all that, it's a really nice week, but obviously topped off by the fact that we're playing one of the best courses that we play all year.

So the only year that I didn't play here was 2017 and that was because of injury, because I couldn't. I said it back then, it will be a regular stop on my schedule because I love the golf course.

A few more notes on the co-leaders from the PGA Tour:

Matt Kuchar (T1/-10)

  • After being bogey-free on the back nine entering Saturday, made bogeys on Nos. 13, 15, 16 in the third round  

  • Holds the 54-hole lead/co-lead for the 10th time on TOUR (most recent: 2019 RBC Canadian Open/T4); converted four of previous nine into victory

  • In search of 10th career PGA TOUR victory to join 115 players with 10 or more wins in a PGA TOUR career; won twice in 2018-19 after going four seasons without a win

  • Made 12 cuts in 13 previous appearances at The Genesis Invitational with T8 in 2016 his lone top-10

  • The Genesis Invitational is one of three PGA TOUR events he has made 11 or more starts without a top-five finish (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am/14, The Genesis Invitational/13, Valspar Championship/11)

  • Owns 106 career top-10s on PGA TOUR but seeking first of the season

  • Won the SMBC Singapore Open in January

Rory McIlroy (T1/-10)

  • Leads the field in par-5 performance for the week, being 8-under with two eagles and four birdies 

  • Has been inside the top three on the leaderboard in nine of 15 rounds this season

  • Has three top-threes in as many starts this season: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP/T3, WGC-HSBC Champions/1st, Farmers Insurance Open/T3; is one of four players who have finished inside the top 10 in each start of the season (minimum two starts)

  • Playing in his first start since reclaiming the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings

  • Making fourth start in the event; Finished T20 (2016, 2018) and T4 in 2019

  • Seeks 19th win in his 172nd PGA TOUR start

Adam Scott (T1/-10)

  • Through 54 holes, leads the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (10.382), having hit 40 of 54 greens

  • Was declared winner of 2005 The Genesis Invitational which was shortened to 36 holes due to rain; the win is not recognized as an official victory

  • Making fifth start of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season and first of the calendar year; Won the 2019 Australian PGA Championship in December, his most recent worldwide start

Coverage begins at 8:30 am PT on PGA Tour Live, with Golf Channel doing live at 9 am PT and CBS coming on a noon PT.