Jacob Bridgeman Reacts to First PGA Tour Win at Tiger s Genesis Invitational

All right, we'd like to welcome our 2026 Genesis Invitational Champion, Jacob Bridgman. That was amazing. You made a pretty interesting tournament there in the end. Gained your first victory on the PGA Tour and right here at Tigers tournament. Just what are your emotions right now? This morning I wouldn't say it's a bad thing to let myself think about winning but I did and I thought it would be a lot easier than it was. I kind of had everything under control especially to start the day and I felt great throughout the day and then some guys started making a little run and they got a little closer. I had a couple unfortunate breaks and yeah I got a lot tighter than I wanted to but I don't think it'll get any easier than a six-shot lead so I gotta figure out how to make it a little bit, how to make that gap bigger to finish the day but first win here probably one of the coolest places that I could have done it and of course having Tiger as the host is a dream come true. You just talk about that last hole, hit a really good shot in there and you needed two putt to win, left a little short. What was your feelings in your hands or your mind at that point? Yeah, I was very comfortable with a full shot. I felt like I was just kind of in robot mode and autopilot. I could just swing the club and it do exactly what it's supposed to do but then when it got to times when I had to have it rely on my feel and I didn't have much of it at the end of the round, 17 and 18, those putts, I had no idea how hard to hit them. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I'm just glad they weren't 30 feet. I'm glad they were only 20. I just somehow got it you know three feet short of the hole and the only thing I wasn't going to do was hit it fast. I definitely wanted to leave it up the hill for I know if I could make a three-footer up the hill it'd be a lot better than down. All right, we'll take questions and we'll just raise your hand. We'll get your mic and we'll start with Doug and then go back to Jeff and then we'll come in. Quick one, Jacob. I know that three feet probably looks like 30 when you're trying to win but with your shadow over the hole, does that bother you at all? Does that add to it? No, the hole is really white and it looked pretty big for whatever reason on 18. I was just hoping that the ball would roll where it's supposed to roll. Everyone always says the hole looks small when you have pressure. I thought it looked pretty big. I felt good in that moment but I was just hoping the ball would go right. And then from I guess after the drop shot on seven, you didn't seem like you did a whole lot wrong in terms of just like a steady diet of 20 footers. Did anything feel funny and were you, I know you watch leaderboards, did what you saw Kurt or Adam or anyone else doing, did that change your thinking at all? No, I think the runs that were made by some of the guys by Adam and Kurt and even Rory were late. So I had really, I was kind of playing pretty free until right at the end. I didn't really have any stress the whole day. I was hitting shots to 20-30 feet kind of just consistently. I thought the pins today were a lot more challenging than the first three days. They were harder to get to especially for me. I had a lot of numbers that were kind of half, half shots and half clubs. So I feel like I played very conservative but also aggressive to those to those targets and for whatever reason I had a bunch of putts that I thought I was going to make and when I got over the ball I thought they were going in and they just bounced out and didn't go in whatever it may be and I thought I would be a few under going into the last three and I was one over or even or whatever it was and so that made it a lot more stressful but luckily those guys didn't make a run until late. We'll go to Jeff and then Jacob. Did you, going in today, were you aware of the potential to break the tournament's scoring record? I had no idea. And did, and I know Doug kind of asked there about leaderboard watching, at the very end were you, was 16-17, did you catch a glimpse of where exactly you stood? Yeah, I saw all the, wherever the leaderboards are today, I saw them all. So I don't shy away from knowing where I'm at. Maybe that's a bad thing at times but I wanted to know if somebody was doing something and I needed to press a button to make a couple birdies. So no, I was very aware the whole day and I felt comfortable right until the end there. And then lastly your caddy, my understanding he was a tour caddy and came out and worked with you on the Corn Fairy tour. Do you mind just telling us a little bit about that? Yeah, so when I turned pro in 22 he was looking for a bag and I asked my agent Jimmy at the time, or still now, but I asked him at the time, I said, who do you think should caddy for me? And he said, I got the perfect guy. It was GW Cable. And in a separate conversation I asked my college coach Jordan Bird. I said, you know, I'm, this is what I'm looking for in a caddy. And do you know anybody from your experience? His brother's Jonathan Bird. He said, I got the perfect guy. I think GW's looking for a bag. So both of them recommended him at the same time, kind of without talking to each other, thought that couldn't have been a coincidence. And he was gracious enough to come down and take a pay cut, work on the Corn Fairy for me and take a kind of a gamble. Because he could have got a bag on tour, I'm sure, no problem. So yeah, he took a gamble on me and luckily we only spent one year down there and I think he's pretty pleased with his gamble. What was the read on that last three footer? Was it anything besides the middle? No. However long my birdie putt was, 20 feet or so, I thought it was dead straight. And I hit it not near hard enough, but it was still rolling dead straight. And the three footer was nothing different. It was just hit the ball somewhere in the hole and hope it falls. And then what does it mean to you to win with Tiger Woods as the host? And what memories of watching Tiger do have from growing up? Knowing he was the one to be waiting to shake the winner's hand made it definitely a little bit more nerve wracking. Just because when I was growing up, my youngest golf memory was watching him on TV. When he was in his prime, I was learning to talk and walk and play golf. So he's the best player of all time by far. I think some of the things that he's done on the golf course are incredible, will never be beaten. So I'm still kind of in awe of him. And if you ever want to pass some time, just look up some Tiger Woods highlights. It's pretty incredible. Jacob, yesterday or two days ago, you talked about your work with Scott and the iron play in particular, you led the field and strokes game approach this week. Just wondering when that work really set in? Was that off season stuff that really came to fruition? And if you can kind of just detail that just a little bit more of what you guys did. Yeah, so I think Scott is sneakily the most probably the smartest guy that I've ever met. He found a way to change my golf swing without me really knowing over the course of two years. I started working with him in the fall of 22 and we had a lot of work to do. I was pretty good. I had some talent. I was a good putter and chipper and I didn't hit the ball straight, didn't hit it high, didn't have a lot of control with my irons. And when I first saw him, he said, we're going to do a couple of things and we're going to look back in a year and you're going to be mind blown. And we did. And then he said the same thing. He's like, we're going to do a couple more things. And I'm not going to tell you everything I want to do right now, but when, when it all comes to fruition, it's going to be great. Um, and I've never led this field and stroke scan approach ever. I've probably never been close. I don't know. I've done putting before. I'm always good at that, but I've never become close with approach. And, um, that is hats off to Scott because he's done some amazing things for me. Do you just feel that confidence wise? I mean, you were hitting a lot of pin high shots today. Like you said, with some in between clubs, I imagine two years ago, wouldn't have maybe felt as comfortable as it did today. Yeah. So from a technical standpoint, I, I used to have a lot of lean with my irons and that would deal off the club. And there was kind of some fluctuation in how much lean was there. So the loft was changing through the hit. Um, and now we've got it to a place where it's very consistent. So I know how far the ball is going, which is mind blowing for a pro to say, but I actually do now I didn't before. Um, and that's kind of changed my game. Again, Chris at the front, Jacob, you mentioned, uh, you let yourself think about winning this morning. Did you do anything to distract yourself? Obviously there's a pretty big hockey game on this morning. Do you watch any of that? Or do you try any other mental tactics? No. Um, I don't think maybe I'm different from other people, but I don't think I should try and forget about it or not realize what's going on. The magnitude of the situation almost just makes me focus more. Um, I was, I wouldn't say I was super, um, unsettled this morning, but I was definitely a little bit nervous. I, I slept well until about six 30 and then I was trying to sleep till seven 30 and I had an hour. I was just couldn't do anything. I was already up. My mind was going, I was ready to, ready to go. Um, yeah, I, I thought about it. I'm, I'm not going to shy away from that. I think I will in the future. And then what specifically did you picture? Was it shaking hands with tiger? Was it walking up the 18th fairway with the lead? What was the specific picture in your mind? Yeah, I've seen so many guys walking up 18 with the crowd kind of behind you, the amphitheater, um, surrounding the green is such a cool moment. And, you know, I, I pictured myself walking up that hole with a four shot lead and knowing that I'd won. Um, but unfortunately for me, it was only a one shot lead and it became a lot more nervous. So I kept my head down, didn't really look, look up until the end. Um, I felt like if I had kind of become overwhelmed by that moment, it might've distracted me. Todd, go first, Todd, and then we'll come to you, Jeff, Jacob over here. Um, I think you described on TV that you couldn't feel your hands, the last couple of holes, um, for a professional golfer who had never been in such a situation. How does that feel? How did that feel? And how do you overcome it? What, what did you say to yourself? Could you talk to yourself about it or just try to ignore it? Um, Po Ana is such a tricky surface to put on. I feel like the speed is hard to, hard to gauge, especially the slope is hard to see in the shadows sometimes. And, um, with this kind of spotty grass. So I don't see the slope as well. So I didn't really know what, you know, what's uphill, what's downhill, all kinds of things. And, um, I was talking to Rory after the round and he said, Po Ana is one of the places where you, sometimes you don't know if it's downhill or uphill. And, um, so I, I knew what was required for the shots, the putts coming down the stretch, but I had normally when I'm over the ball, I know exactly what my body's going to do. And I had no idea. And so after the waste management, we were sitting on the green, watching our buddy Chris win. And he said, I can't feel my, I couldn't feel my hands. We were like, what were you doing? You hit your putt so hard, there's going to go four feet by the hole. And he said, I have no idea. I couldn't feel my hands. And I thought he was kind of crazy. Um, until I got to this moment and I'm like, yep, I understand what you're talking about. Not Chris. I had no idea what to do. Uh, Jeff, go ahead and we'll get Mike to Doug, uh, Jacob, uh, speaking of, uh, Chris, good friends with him. I'm just wondering, have you learned anything from watching him operate over the last few weeks with his two wins? Um, his confidence is always, he's always had quite a bit and he's won it kind of all levels. So I wouldn't say he was lacking confidence before, but now after winning what four times now, he's, he's one of the guys that at the start of the week, you know, you've got to beat, um, he's going to probably produce some good scores and have a chance to win. So it's been amazing watching him, how, how well he's been playing and, um, climb up the ranks. I'm glad I got one. I got a, I got a few more to catch up to him. And has he said anything to you in conversations that you were able to take and use any advice or any pointers, anything? No, I don't think we've had that kind of, um, serious competitive talk. We're, we're more of just kind of goofy joking around, having fun with each other on the road. Um, when we're hanging out at houses and whatever dinners and stuff, we last thing we want to talk about is golf. So I think we've, we've had some good, some good jokes though. Go ahead, Doug. I might've missed the answer. Did you watch the hockey game or not? I didn't, I honestly thought it was a little bit later because yesterday when I was warming up in the truck, um, we were watching Canada play. So I figured that I would see it again in the truck this morning. And then Haley said on the way to the course that it was already over and they won. Um, what did Tiger say to you? I don't know what he said when I first walked up the Hill, but walking down the Hill, he was saying, um, kind of how amazing walking down and seeing the amphitheater, all the people, how amazing the 18th hole is here and how cool it is to win here. And he said, he got one on me. So I guess he's never won. Yeah. Maybe I got, I got one thing. He's got all the other ones, but I've got one. Yep. And lastly, um, I know you got it. Are you playing next? Are you still going to play next week? I hope so. We'll see you're in the field. I didn't know if you're still in. Okay. Um, when you still get a month ahead, but, but what does this do for you going into your first trip to the masters? Um, yeah, the confidence level, I think the same thing I talked about with Chris, I've getting the monkey off my back of winning for the first time. I think it's huge. I think the masters in itself is going to be a whole nother challenge. Um, just because that's the golf term that every golfer growing up wants to win, wants to play in, wants to compete in. So I know that one will be a little bit more mental and physically taxing on me, but I'm very excited for it. I'm hopefully going to take a couple of trips down there and see the golf course a little bit more. I haven't played since college, so I want to do some prep and, um, maybe learn something from some of the older guys. The last one with Dylan. Yeah. You're Jacob. Uh, just take us through the bunker shots on, um, 16 and then 17, both clearly really tough shots. I'm just curious what you saw and what you were trying to do with those. Yeah. 16. I thought the ball was going to be kind of on the upslope. I thought it was going to be a pretty easy shot or even be able to use the side slope to bring it back in. And we got up there and the ball had barely even fell in the back edge. So if I wanted to go at the hole, I was going to have to kind of chop down on it. And that was just asking for a disaster. I could have chunked it or scolded or whatever. Um, and my caddy didn't even hesitate. He didn't want me to entertain the idea. He just said, you got to go right. You got to hit it right. And he was right. That's exactly what I needed to do. I was going to make a bogey regardless one out of a hundred. Maybe I hit the, hit the shot at the hole and it goes close, but, um, I think that was kind of a risk that I was not willing to take. I had a little bit of lead to play with there. So I just played it to the right and two putted. Um, but 17 might've been harder because either take the shot on or you kind of dump it out to the left. And, um, the, the lip was so steep that I felt like I needed to hit a gap wedge to get it all the way there, but I didn't think I could get it up. Um, so I had a sandwich about as far as I could explode it out of there without trying to pick it, um, to be as safe as I could. And then luckily it got maybe 15 feet short. Is that the first time all week that it felt like you had to play a little bit of defense? No, there's definitely, there was some approach shots there. I had to do that. Um, I didn't hit a ton of fairways this week, but the rough wasn't, um, too, too penalizing to where you could still go at the green. So it had to be some kind of defense there, but definitely around the green. That was the first time that I'd had to play defense. Congrats. Thanks. All right, Jacob, I just want to say thank you. You led or had a share of the lead every day. You gave us a lot of time. We appreciate that. And congratulations once again on your first PGA tour victory. Just before you go, we, we have a little surprise, something to show you. All right. Watch out for the camera behind you. Say congratulations on the Genesis. I've been watching all day today as much as I could and been following you. It's been a lot of fun watching you all weekend and congrats. It's such a big win. You're playing awesome. It's been really fun to watch. Can't wait to watch you the rest of the season. And when you go out there and play some golf soon, it won't be as fun to watch me play as it is to watch you, but, uh, we'd have a great time, but congrats, man. I'll be rooting for you the rest of the way. Keep killing it. That's sick. Hey, Jacob, it's Coach Sweeney. Hey, man. Super proud of you. Just want to say congratulations. Everybody that's been following you knew this day was going to come, but today is the day. So, this is a great win. Your first win on the PGA tour and the first of many, many more to come. So, congrats again. Enjoy the moment and let's get back to work next week. God bless you and go Tigers. Just some thoughts on seeing those two messages. Yeah, Trevor and I were the same age at Clemson, but he was so famous before he even got to school that he couldn't really hang out with anybody. And, um, I met him a few times, talked to him. He's a super nice guy. Um, I've been a fan of his kind of my, since his whole NFL career. I'm so glad that he had an amazing season this past year and, um, almost won an MVP. So super nice guy. I'm glad he was watching and that's super special that he sent that. And Davo has been probably the most important guy in Clemson history, the last 20 years or so. Amazing man. He, he would show up the golf facility all the time. Um, just run by, talk to the guys, ask for a couple of tips on this chipping and, uh, and scoot on by. So very, very nice guy that I'm glad that they're supportive of me. That means a lot. Excellent. Well, thanks again.