Collin Morikawa played alongside Rory McIlroy during day one of the Genesis Invitational on a rain-drenched Riviera on Thursday.
McIlroy posted a round of five-under par 66 while Morikawa finished two strokes worse on day one of the Genesis Invitational at three-under-par.
A deluge of rain has hammered down on Riviera over the past two days.
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The golf course is incredibly soft and while that’s usually helpful for the best players in the world, it made distance control on approach shots very challenging.
McIlroy was delighted with how he played in the wind at Riviera and it certainly wasn’t easy out there on Thursday, given how hard it was for the players to control their spin when hitting into the receptive greens.
Morikawa addressed the media in Pacific Palisades on Thursday and shared why he actually felt bad for McIlroy during their first round.
Why Collin Morikawa felt bad for Rory McIlroy on day one of the Genesis
Morikawa was pleased with his opening round of the Genesis on Thursday.
And he highlighted just how difficult it was to get the ball close to the hole at Riviera on day one, when speaking to reporters after his round.
“Yeah, I honestly don’t know how they got it to this,“ a visibly stunned Morikawa admitted.
“Like I’ve never seen greens like this. I mean, you could stop any club from anyplace on, you know, from the rough, flyer lies.
“Like, I mean, I think I had two or three shots today, flyers out of the first cut and rough and like I’m not worried about missing the green at all. It’s just purely hit and hope.
“And then, I mean, you saw Rory’s shot on 18, like it’s just unfair’s not the right word, you just have to really take those 30-footers and go out and make some birdies somewhere else.
The golf course at Riviera was softer than it has ever been before.
McIlroy and Morikawa thrive despite softness of Riviera’s greens
Players were spinning their ball back from shots out of the rough, with long irons and sometimes even with fairway woods.
The softness of the greens was actually more of a hindrance than a help.
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Combined with the fact that the greens were actually incredibly fast, and with the wind gusting up to 25 mph, Riviera actually played extremely difficult on Thursday.
However, with benign weather forecast for the next three days, there should be some fantastic scores during the final three rounds.
Both McIlroy and Morikawa will be happy with their first day’s work at the Genesis Invitational on Thursday.
They’ll be hoping that the sun and wind dry out the greens between now and Sunday, though.
It has to be said, golf balls dropping out of the air and stopping on a dime does not make for great viewing on television.
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