Genesis Invitational
Patrick Rodgers would like to toss for good the heavy weight of Tiger-like expectations
Patrick Rodgers reacts to his drive from the second tee during the third round of the Genesis Invitational.
Icon Sportswire
SAN DIEGO — Patrick Rodgers found the Hollywood ending in his private life. The PGA Tour veteran is married to actress and longtime movie industry insider Jade Olivia Gordon, a Briton who played Astoria Greengrass in the eighth Harry Potter movie. They have two children, Rafi and Rosie. And in an 11-year playing career, Rodgers has earned a living of $16 million that keeps them more than comfortable.
It's a wonderful life.
But the notes in the margin that darken this script are these: The former amateur phenom, who tied his childhood idol, Tiger Woods, for Stanford’s victory record and drew comparisons to the superstar, has not lifted a trophy on the PGA Tour in 286 starts.
And if you think that all of the other nice trappings in Rodgers’ life salve that particularly sting, you’d be wrong.
“It’s clearly something I’ve battled in my career,” Rodgers said on Saturday at Torrey Pines. “It’s the thing that whenever my name is mentioned, that's the first thing that everybody says, professionally, so it's something that I have to deal with.
“I think I've struggled with it for a long time, but I feel like I'm viewing my career from a different vantage point now and I'm excited about the opportunity to cross that finish line tomorrow.”
The wire is in sight. By crafting a round of impressive shot-making that led to a four-under-par 68 on the difficult South Course—the only blemish being a bogey at the par-5 18th when he dumped his wedge approach into the pond—Rodgers has a prime chance to change the narrative about him. For only the third time in his career, the 32-year-old takes a solo lead into the final round, standing at eight under in the Genesis Invitational.
He wasn’t able to close those other chances and has four career second-place finishes. One of those previous opportunities ended brutally in the 2017 John Deere Classic, when Bryson DeChambeau won his first tour event and clipped Rodgers by one shot with a closing 65.
This time, Rodgers is one stroke up on another veteran, Denny McCarthy, who also is wealthy ($17.8 million) but without a win in 193 starts.
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The chance to get beaten by bigger stars also looms. Ludvig Aberg, who won PGA Tour and DP World Tour titles in his first 14 pro starts, shot 70 on Saturday and is two behind. The next four, at three back, are tour winners Tony Finau (67) and Patrick Cantlay (68), seven-time European tour winner Tommy Fleetwood (69) and American Davis Thompson (76).
If ever there was a time for Rodgers to crush the demons it would be this week, with a stellar field (46 of the top 50 in the world started the week) and a signature $20 million purse, with $4 million going to the winner. Oh, and there's the potential to receive the trophy from his fellow Cardinal Woods, whom Rodgers so admired while growing up in Indiana that he dressed up like him just to practice.
Rodgers, who is ranked 108th in the world after five middling results this season, has tried to reverse the psychology of the position he’s been in for more than a decade. While he said expectations once weighed heavily, he’s trying to look at the potential his career still holds.
“Instead of playing with a lot of expectation, I need to play to achieve,” Rodgers said. “That's what I've always set out to do, and it kind of felt like early in my career with the amateur résumé that I had, I felt like there was a lot expected of myself internally and it was something where when immediate success, immediate wins didn't come straight away, it was kind of fighting who I saw myself to be, to be honest with you. So instead of playing with a monkey on your back that gets bigger and bigger over time when it doesn't happen, I'm trying to play from a perspective that feels fresh and new and exciting and full of opportunity because that's what this game is.”
The most eye-opening stat for Rodgers this week is how he’s putted on Torrey’s soft and sometimes bumpy Poa annua greens. He entered the Genesis ranking a poor 173rd in strokes gained/putting, but is third on the South.
“It's been a difficult start to the year,” he said of his putting. “I tried to implement a few changes in my putting to improve at the start of the year, and I didn't like the direction that I was headed, so I kind of got back to the way that I have always putted. I've always been historically a really good putter.”
Another critical strength this week while facing four-inch rough has been Rodgers’ driving, with him ranking second. Torrey Pines does seem to fit his eye; in 10 starts here he has got three top-10 finishes. But, strangely, he’s also missed the cut five times. That’s not the consistency Woods showed in winning seven tour events at Torrey.
“I would be interested to see other guys, but basically if you're playing well you can shoot a round like I did today, and if you're playing not very well you're going to struggle to shoot 75,” Rodgers said. “That's kind of how it's been. If you're putting the ball in the fairway, you feel like you can attack and if you're hacking out of the rough, par is a really difficult score. That's kind of a reflection of my results over the years."