On a day at Riviera Country Club that saw heavy rain, a three-hour weather delay and wind gusts of nearly 30 miles per hour, a man who accomplished just about everything in the game of golf rose to the top of the leaderboard. Rory McIlroy had a near-perfect performance in the first round of the 2026 Genesis Invitational, posting a career-low 5-under 66 through the first 18 holes at Riviera to put him one stroke ahead of Aaron Rye.
The first round was suspended due to darkness, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth will have to complete most of the back nine on Friday, when play resumes at 7 a.m. Friday.
Scheffler is 5 over after 10 holes, 11 strokes behind the lead and tied for last place when play was called, so he will take the suspension in stride. For the third week in a row, the game’s best player has slipped out of the gate.
McIlroy, on the other hand, was one of the first players on the golf course. Therefore, he was able to finish the first round. He now aims to do what neither tournament organizer Tiger Woods nor legend Jack Nicklaus were able to accomplish in their careers: win at the historic Riviera venue. At stake is not just a trophy or a handbag to represent the event, but a five-time major champion reaching the 30-win mark on the PGA Tour.
“It’s definitely gotten easier over the last few years to play in these conditions. I’m more comfortable controlling the flight of the ball and I’m able to use more club and hit the ball lower,” McIlroy said. “I’m really starting to enjoy this style of golf.
“If you had asked me 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have enjoyed situations like this. But it’s been a change of mindset and maybe I’ve just been trying to further enhance the skill set that I have. Then when situations like this come up, I’m much more prepared. I can’t say I enjoy them, but I’ve certainly learned to handle them better.”
If McIlroy plays the next 54 holes as well as the first 18, he will win the tournament. As he battled and overcame the conditions, he played the true essence of golf: hitting drives depending on the wind direction, leaving easy reefs and caring for scoring holes.
Attacking the early stages of both nine holes, McIlroy started the round strong and birdied three of the first four holes to move to the top of the leaderboard. Birdie on the newly extended par-3 fourth No. 4 came off a rain delay and made a 30-foot birdie on his first stroke.
When the rain stopped and the wind joined in, McIlroy responded in style. Displaying all the tools in his belt, the 36-year-old headlined a bracket that featured another round of Tommy Fleetwood’s 60s (the Brit has broken 70 in 20 straight PGA Tour races) and a nifty 68 from last week’s winner Collin Morikawa.
“We’re basically just trying to keep the same mindset,” Morikawa said. “I don’t want to relax too much, but I also want to find a zone to go out and play some golf. It’s been a long day, raining on and off, no rain, no wind. Just being able to put the ball in the hole and that was kind of the overall goal.”
leader
1. Aaron Rye (-6): Known as a Point A to Point B type of player, Lai kept everything in front of him Thursday and was rewarded with a strong performance on the green. The Englishman started with an eagle and made six more birdies, making a nearly 80-foot putt on the ninth, a seven-foot putt on the 11th, a 21-foot putt on the 13th, a 12-foot putt on the 15th and finally a 7-foot putt on the 16th. He will have a chance to extend his lead Friday morning when he opens the field on the par-5 17th.
contestant
T2. Rory McIlroy, Jacob Bridgman (-5)
4. Ryan Fox (-4)
T5. Pierceson Coody, Akshay Bhatia, Collin Morikawa, Aldrich Potgieter, Max Glaserman, Siwoo Kim, Marco Penji (-3)
T12. Jonathan Vegas, Taylor Pendrith, Maverick McNeely, Viktor Hovland, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Ryo Hisatsune, Harry Hall (-2)
Only two weeks into the PGA Tour season, Hovland is already searching for answers with his drivers. He might have found them on Thursday. After only missing two fairways, the Norwegian was visibly more comfortable with the big stick in his hands and was sensational from tee to green. All three bogeys were due to sloppy play in that area, so you’ll need to fix your play on and around the green, but if you have a full swing in place, you’ll like the position.
“You may have seen the band drill I was just messing around with. It’s still trying to serve the same purpose, but I actually feel like it’s made it easier to find something tangible to take to the golf course,” Hovland said. “Rather than trying to bring my arms closer to me on the downswing, I tried to spread them out a little bit. That’s what the floaty was for, trying to get some space on the downswing. When I took the floaty off, it was hard to feel it.”
“But the band forces your body to push against the tension, and when you remove that, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is what it’s supposed to look like.’ It’s been a great round of golf, but I’m not quite there yet, but it was a big step in the right direction.”
Schaeffler’s Thursday struggles continue
Scheffler found the surface on an easy par-5, but left the green with a par after just three putts, giving him an unlucky start from the world No. 1 ranking on the first hole. This ultimately told the story of his day, as Scheffler never made it easy on himself.
After two bogeys in his first six holes, he then three-putted for a head-scratching double bogey on the 8th and began to move further down the leaderboard. He turned four over, made an ugly bogey on the devilishly short par-4 10th, and made par on a scoring chance on the par-5 11th to end the day.
Like the past three weeks, Scheffler faces a long climb back, and unlike last week, players tied for the top 50 (and those within 10 strokes of the leader) will be staring squarely at the cut line to secure tee times over the weekend.
2026 Genesis Invitational odds and nominations updated
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
- Rory McIlroy: +350
- Aaron Ray: 10-1
- Kim Si Woo: 13-1
- Jacob Bridgman: 15-1
- Collin Morikawa: 15-1
- Tommy Fleetwood: 18-1
- Hideki Matsuyama: 19-1
Scheffler is 26-1, and if that bothers you, let’s focus instead on Matt Fitzpatrick, 36-1, another player on the golf course with a first-round hole remaining. The Englishman is at 1 under after 15 holes and will have some chances to score on Friday morning. He couldn’t do anything on the greens on Thursday, so if his fortunes change, he could recover some.
