Genesis Invitational Recap: Scott Wins at Riviera

When thinking of the past 20 years in golf, there are far bigger names than Adam Scott. But he's accomplished more than maybe many people think. He hasn't been the best golfer or even close. He has just one major. But the total body of work is very impressive. And just when it seemed that this certain Hall of Famer's career was in permanent disrepair, he has found the proverbial second act, which often is what the great ones do.

Exactly five months before turning 40, Scott spent a sunny Sunday at Riviera deftly stiff-arming world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and almost a dozen others on his heels to capture the Genesis Invitational by two strokes. It was his first start of 2020 after almost a two-month break, which began right after he won his final start of 2019 at the Australian PGA Championship.

Scott shot a 1-under 70 at his self-described favorite course on Tour, which doesn't sound like much until you know that the best round of this treacherous day was 3-under. Final-group partners McIlroy and Matt Kuchar couldn't break par. And even on Scott's one really bad hole all day, a double-bogey on No. 5, he still bettered McIlroy's triple. There wasn't one player in the field who had a clean card on Sunday.

Before these back-to-back titles, the former world No. 1 had gone close to four years without a worldwide win and for a short while tumbled outside the top-75. This period overlapped with Scott starting a family with his longtime girlfriend-turned-wife –  they now have two young children – so it may not have been a case of the sweetest swing in golf suddenly disappearing.

Get this: Scott quietly totaled eight top-10s on the PGA Tour in calendar 2019, and none of them was a cheapie: Torrey Pines (runner-up), Riviera, the Memorial (runner-up), the PGA, the U.S. Open and all three playoff events. He didn't win, but even Tony Finau had to be impressed.

Suddenly, the veteran Aussie is back to No. 7 in the world. (See, there's still hope, Jordan Spieth fans.)

"I'm stoked with this," Scott told reporters in Pacific Palisades, Calif. "It's a big step, whatever point in my career I'm at. I haven't won for three years. This feels very special."

Winning used to be a regular occurrence for Scott. He now has 29 worldwide titles since arriving on the golf scene in 2000. Yes, he has only one major, and no one forgets how he gift-wrapped the 2012 Open Championship for Ernie Els, but Scott also has won two WGCs, a PLAYERS Championship and the Tour Championship. He also has an Augusta runner-up, part of a resume that features 70 podium finishes and almost 100 top-10s in his 471 career starts. Do the math, and he has finished in the top-three nearly 15 percent of the time spanning two decades.

Of course, Scott has done almost all of it while struggling with a conventional putter or that hideous broomstick (and by "struggling" we mean he was horrendous). At Riviera, Scott ranked 27th in the field in strokes gained: putting, a number that would have delivered one of the world's top ball-strikers a lot more tournament wins through the years. In limited play so far in 2019-20, Scott is 15th on Tour in SG putting; for all of last season, he was 31st. In the 13 years prior, Scott was outside the top-100 in putting 11 times, often closer to 200th.

We've seen what Webb Simpson has done by figuring out how to putt – he's now No. 8 OWGR, bumped down a notch by Scott – so what's to say Scott hasn't figured things out himself? He doesn't even have to approach Simpson's elite level; he just has to be less awful.

"I've chipped away at the putting," Scott said. "The putting has always been something that's temperamental with me, certainly mentally, but I think I've found what works well for me in the way I practice my putting and also in the type of putter that I'm using."

Scott won the Masters when he couldn't putt, almost won it a second time, almost won the Open Championship. Imagine if he could actually putt decently?  

"My career is in a good spot, I guess," Scott said. "You know, even before winning this week, I feel like physically and somewhat mentally I'm okay after 20 years out here. You know, I really do believe if I can maintain motivation and focus, the next five years can be my best years on Tour."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy will maintain the No. 1 ranking after ending up tied for fifth after closing with a 2-over 73. He just didn't have it Sunday, and this was his worst showing in his past five starts. That's right, McIlroy's worst finish in his past five was a tie for fifth. Would anyone be surprised if he won this week at the WGC-Mexico?

Matt Kuchar
Kuchar got out of the gate quickly and held the first-round lead. He hung close to Scott all day Sunday but wound up in a three-way tie for second after a 1-over 72. No shame in that. This was easily his best Riviera finish and he's back up to 15th in the world. (And at $7,800 on DraftKings, Kuchar was quite a play for those who had him.)

Sung Kang
A week after missing the cut at Pebble and two weeks after a T52 at Phoenix, Kang naturally was a co-runner-up. Seriously, this is how these lesser PGA Tour golfers roll – they parlay a handful of good weeks, disregard the 20 to 25 bad ones and make a pretty good living. Perhaps that's unfair to Kang, who has won on Tour and is now up to a career-best 54th OWGR.

Scott Brown
Okay, the handful of good weeks definitely applies here. Brown hadn't so much as made a cut in his first four 2020 starts, and he tied Kuchar and Kang for second. He had missed 7-of-11 cuts this season with only one top-25. Last season, Brown made only 15-of-27 cuts, but used four top-10s – one in Puerto Rico, another in the Zurich – to keep his card. Keep in mind for next year that Brown also was runner-up at Riviera in 2017. They are the two best weeks of his career in 232 starts in terms of world-rankings points. He jumped from 369th OWGR to 157th.

Dustin Johnson
Johnson was a shot off the lead at one point, but couldn't get anything going on the back, had two bogeys coming in and tied for 10th. Still, it's his third top-10 in four 2020 starts. He now heads to Mexico, where he's the defending champion and has won two of the three years since the WGC tournament moved from Doral.

Harold Varner III
Like we saw last year at the PGA, Varner again couldn't handle the bright lights of being in contention on Sunday. He incredibly chunked his tee ball on 10, leading to a double and then three more bogeys on the back. He shot 40 and fell to a tie for 13th. Still, coming off four straight missed cuts to begin the year, this was far better than nothing, but it sure didn't feel like that to Varner. "I missed the ball – completely missed it," Varner told Golf Channel afterward. "Just sucks, man. You're f----- pretty much. Terrible timing, huh?" Indeed.

Russell Henley
Playing with Varner in the penultimate grouping, Henley fared even worse, tumbling to 17th. He had missed five straight cuts coming in. On one hand, it's a shame neither Varner nor Henley could hang on for another nine holes to get a really high finish. But it goes to show the pressure felt when contending. There's been some talk on Twitter about the term "backdoor top-10" being unfair, that a top-10 is a top-10. But coming from far off the pace on Sunday is far easier than being in the thick of things from the get-go. Look no further than Varner and Henley.

Max Homa
Homa is up to a career-best 74th OWGR after tying for fifth, his third top-10 in four starts. After winning the Wells Fargo last spring, Homa got only one top-10 the rest of the year, and that was in Japan. Sometimes young golfers get these hot streaks and then fade back to where they came from. But it feels different with Homa. He could be for real.

Joel Dahmen
Dahmen tied for fifth with Homa, his second best finish ever on Tour behind only his runner-up to Homa at the Wells Fargo last year. Dahmen, who famously accused Sung Kang of cheating at the 2018 Quicken Loans, has now turned in three top-15s in five 2020 starts. He's now ranked 86th, not far from his best of 80th.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa faded on Sunday to wind up tied for 26th, but it was enough to get him into the top-50 in the world for the first time and, thus, a trip to Mexico this week. He still has not missed a PGA Tour cut as a professional.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth shot 5-over on Sunday, better than only Tiger Woods' 6-over, to tumble down the leaderboard. Spieth is back outside the top-50 in the world, but he nonetheless will be in the Mexico field this week.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat
The Thai star missed the cut at Riviera, his third in a row to start the year. Aphibarnrat has tumbled from the top-50 at this time last year to the 130s. He thus will be in Puerto Rico this week instead of Mexico, where he tied for third a year ago.

Francesco Molinari
Molinari still hasn't recovered from landing in Rae's Creek. He finished 117th in the 120-man field for his third straight missed cut of 2020. Molinari does not have a top-10 anywhere in the world since tying for fifth at Augusta in April. He's down to No. 25 in the world, and he's playing far, far worse.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout
It's not often, or ever, that you see a guy win a secondary tour event and reach the top-50 OWGR. But the 25-year-old South African won something called the Dimension Data Pro-Am, a cosanctioned event of the Sunshine Tour (South Africa) and Challenge Tour (Europe's version of the Korn Ferry). Bezuidenhout moved from 60th in the world to 48th, so he too will be in Mexico. He also won the Andalucia Masters last year. So winning a European Tour event and being in the top-50 in the world is no fluke. He also lost in a playoff last month in Dubai.