McIlroy gives Saudi tour last rites after top ten California finish

Rory McIlroy carded a final round of 68 to earn a top ten finish at the Genesis Inivitational in California.

The Northern Irishman secured five birdies in total on Sunday to go with a pair of dropped shots, good for a tied-10th finish nine strokes behind the winnie Joaquin Niemann.

Chile’s Niemann survived an early stumble and late scare to complete a wire-to-wire victory.

Niemann carded a final round of 71 at Riviera Country Club to finish 19 under par, two shots clear of world number two Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young.

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The 23-year-old, who is the youngest winner of the event since World War II, saw his three-shot overnight lead cut to a single stroke when he bogeyed the seventh after playing partner Young had birdied the first.

However, Niemann bounced straight back to birdie the next as Young bogeyed and a second PGA Tour title looked to have been effectively secured when Niemann chipped in for an eagle on the par-five 11th to open up a five-shot lead.

Niemann bogeyed the 14th and 15th to give the chasing pack renewed hope, the latter coming after Young had holed out from 53 yards for an unlikely birdie.

That meant the gap was down to just two shots, only for Young to bogey the 16th after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

Morikawa birdied the 16th and 17th but missed from 10 feet for another on the 18th, allowing Niemann the luxury of making two closing pars to seal victory.

Saudi Arabia

Meanwhile, McIlroy said on Sunday that the Saudi-funded breakaway league hoping to rival the PGA Tour was “dead in the water” after former world number one Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau committed to the American-based circuit.

Johnson, DeChambeau and several other top-ranked players have turned down the Super Golf League (SGL) project, which is being spearheaded by former world number one Greg Norman.

“Who’s left? Who’s left to go? I mean, there’s no one. It’s dead in the water in my opinion. Yeah, I just can’t see any reason why anyone would go,” McIlroy said.

“No one really knew where Bryson stood. I was really glad to see DJ and Bryson put out those statements this week. We all want to play against the best players in the world and they’re certainly two of the best players in the world.”

The 32-year-old Northern Irishman also criticised comments made by Phil Mickelson about the breakaway competition in an interview which took place in November but was only just published on the firepitcollective.com website.

The six-time major champion described the Saudi regime as “scary”, and added he was only using the threat of the SGL as leverage to prise more concessions out of the US-based PGA Tour.

“I don’t want to kick someone while he’s down obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant,” McIlroy said.

“A lot of words to describe that interaction he had. It was just very surprising and disappointing, sad. I’m sure he’s sitting at home sort of rethinking his position and where he goes from here.”

Players who sign up for the breakaway competition face potential bans from the PGA Tour and European-based DP World Tour, as well as the Ryder Cup.

Collated Collated final round scores in the USPGA Tour The Genesis Invitational, Riviera CC, Pacific Palisades, California, United States of America

(USA unless stated, Par 72):

265 Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 63 63 68 71

267 Collin Morikawa 67 67 68 65, Cameron Young 66 62 69 70

270 Viktor Hovland (Nor) 71 64 65 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 65 71 66

271 Justin Thomas 67 64 70 70

272 Maverick McNealy 68 68 67 69, Scottie Scheffler 66 72 65 69

273 Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 67 70 69 67

274 Max Homa 66 70 67 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 69 70 67 68, Chez Reavie 74 68 66 66

275 Xander Schauffele 69 70 66 70, Cameron Tringale 69 68 69 69

276 Paul Casey (Eng) 68 71 66 71, Matt Jones (Aus) 70 67 71 68, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 66 67 73, Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 71 67 67 71, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 70 68 68 70, Sepp Straka (Aut) 74 68 66 68

277 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 70 65 73, Danny Lee (Nzl) 70 70 65 72, Taylor Moore 69 69 69 70, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 70 66 69 72, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 73 70 65

278 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 68 73 68 69, Jason Kokrak 67 72 66 73, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 72 67 67 72, Peter Malnati 69 68 69 72, Sam Ryder 70 69 68 71, Jordan Spieth 66 67 73 72, Will Zalatoris 69 70 68 71

279 Patrick Cantlay 70 72 66 71, Tony Finau 69 71 71 68, Russell Henley 72 66 69 72, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 71 66 75 67, Russell Knox (Sco) 68 67 74 70, Cameron Smith (Aus) 67 68 74 70

280 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 69 72 68 71, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 68 69 72, Lanto Griffin 74 66 68 72, Martin Laird (Sco) 68 71 68 73, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 72 70 68 70, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 68 71 68 73, Pat Perez 70 68 70 72, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 74 65 68 73, Lee Hodges 71 70 68 71

281 Keegan Bradley 69 68 71 73, Cameron Davis (Aus) 71 71 70 69, Beau Hossler 69 69 68 75, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 70 72 69, Andrew Putnam 70 70 69 72, Sahith Theegala 69 72 69 71, Kevin Tway 68 69 74 70

282 Rickie Fowler 71 71 69 71, Harry Higgs 75 67 69 71, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 70 74 68, Matthew NeSmith 69 73 70 70, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 70 72 68 72, Nick Watney 71 67 74 70

283 James Hahn 72 69 69 73, Patton Kizzire 68 72 69 74, Scott Piercy 70 67 72 74, Aaron Rai (Eng) 72 70 68 73, Doc Redman 69 70 70 74, Brian Stuard 73 68 71 71

284 Cameron Champ 72 70 70 72, Matt Kuchar 69 73 71 71, Hank Lebioda 69 73 70 72, Aaron Wise 70 70 71 73

285 Charley Hoffman 67 75 72 71

286 Alex Smalley 69 72 72 73

287 Si Woo Kim (Kor) 69 69 74 75

288 Joel Dahmen 70 72 73 73

290 Adam Long 68 73 74 75

ends

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