Adam Scott continues love affair with Riviera Country Club
Even a disappointing bogey at his final hole could not take away from Adam Scott’s very impressive second round of 63 at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club this morning.
Scott, who has a self-confessed love affair with the park-like layout in suburban Los Angeles, began his round with an eagle at the par five 1st after his second from 190 yards finished less than two feet from the hole. The roll continued, and by the time he reached the 14th tee, he was 9 under for the day, and the course record of 62 appeared very much in jeopardy.
Scott kept the momentum going with fine par saves at the 15th and 16th holes but poor drives at the 17th and 18th would eventually cost him a shot, and at 9 unde,r he sits in a share of 4th place and three shots from the lead held by PGA Tour rookie, Marco Penge, and Jacob Bridgeman.
Scott has won at Riviera Country Club on two previous occasions, though one of those victories was over just 36 holes at his first appearance in 2005. He has been runner-up twice, so the comfort zone with the historic layout is clear.
“I have a slight sour taste after coming off the last there, but it’s probably my best,” said Scott when asked if this was his best round at Riviera. “I mean, I actually couldn’t really believe it through 13, I think I was 9. I don’t even imagine that going out there.
“I’m lucky to be here this week on an invite, obviously. It’s my favourite stop on Tour of the year, so I want to make the most of it. I’ve been feeling like I’ve had a lot of good golf since last summer and got absolutely no results, thanks to, like, average putting, I would say.
“The standard’s incredibly high out here week in and week out, and average putting just isn’t going to get it done. So nice to see myself kind of up on the first page of a leaderboard, and hopefully I can play a couple more good rounds and be in the hunt here. It would be pretty awesome to get a victory here again.”
Min Woo Lee added to Australian interests for the weekend when he produced a round of 65 to be at 8 under, one behind Scott and four off the lead. He too would bogey the last but it continues some good early season for the West Australian.
“I guess stressless golf,” said Lee. “Been pretty confident with my game and yeah, everything’s working quite nicely. There are some tough holes out there but I managed to play them really good. Yeah, got off to a hot start this morning when I came back from the restart. Yeah, I mean, everything’s just clicking, which is really nice. The game was always kind of trending, but yeah, it’s nice to see an end result.”
Ryan Fox is two shots behind Lee in a share of 12th, his highlight coming when holing a bunker shot for eagle at the driveable 10th.
World number one Scottie Scheffler was forced to make a ten-foot par-saving putt at the last to make it to the final 36 holes, recovering from a slow start on Thursday with a round of 68 to keep his great streak of cuts made alive.
