0 wins in 37 starts: the combined record of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy at Riviera through the years. Compare this with their 184 wins in 1,199 starts on every other course they have played, and suddenly, you will feel the “Riviera Curse” is very much real. With the weight of history on his shoulders, McIlroy delivered a resilient message to CBS’s Amanda Balionis about his intent to finally conquer the course where legends have failed.

“I’ve given myself a chance. That’s all I can ask for. It’s not as big a chance as I think, but as I said, I’m going to be in that final group. I’ll be able to see what Jacob’s doing. But yeah, I’d love to win here. I’d love to win at Memorial, and you know, get that handshake from Jack, and you know, it’s the same thing with Tiger here. I’ve won at Bay Hill, but Arnold wasn’t around, so I’d love to do that one day. I think that’s one of the really cool things about our game. And I’m going to play my hardest tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens,” McIlroy told CBS Sports’ Amanda Balionis after completing his third round, despite a tough six-shot deficit to Jacob Bridgeman.

McIlroy never won at the Memorial Tournament, Jack Nicklaus’s tournament. His best performance at Muirfield Village was a tie for fourth place in 2016, and he skipped the 2025 Memorial Tournament. But in 2018, McIlroy won the Arnold Palmer Invitational (API) at Bay Hill, but he missed the chance to receive the famous handshake from Arnold Palmer. Palmer had passed away in September 2016, on the same day McIlroy won the Tour Championship.

Now, to win at the 2026 Genesis Invitational would allow him to experience that moment with Tiger Woods, a man who has played Riviera 14 times as a professional without ever securing a victory and is now hosting there.

And heading into the final day in 2026, McIlroy is chasing closely. He sits in second place at thirteen-under par after three very tough rounds. McIlroy opened with a 5-under 66, handling heavy rain and cold winds to share the lead with Jacob Bridgeman. The next day, he played a 6-under 65. The third round was comparably bad. A 2-under 69 with three birdies and one bogey left him at 13-under total.

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Still, McIlroy remains confident because he has had several dramatic final-round surges. He has previously overcome a seven-shot deficit to win at Wentworth in 2014. And in the 2022 Tour Championship, he erased a six-shot gap against Scottie Scheffler to win the tournament. And most importantly, in 2018 at Bay Hill (API), McIlroy began the final round two shots back and eventually won the tournament.

While McIlroy chases a historic win, the ‘Riviera Curse’ has claimed other victims. Even world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler hasn’t been immune to the course’s challenges, finding himself in a surprising battle just to make the weekend.

Scottie Scheffler’s struggle at the Genesis Invitational 2026

Scheffler had a disastrous opening round at the Riviera Golf Course. Before coming here, Scheffler was already struggling every Thursday throughout the season so far, but in the Genesis Invitational, he carded a 3-over 74 that included three bogeys and a double bogey on the front nine. It was his worst round so far, surpassing his previous all-time high score of four-over through 10 at the Byron Nelson when he was a 17-year-old amateur in 2014.

However, Scheffler displayed his trademark resilience in the following rounds. He rallied with a second-round 68 and survived the cut by the “smallest of margins” with a 7-foot par putt on the 18th hole. After that, he followed that with a 5-under 66 in the third round to climb into T22 at 5-under par. But despite coming back to his old self, Scheffler admitted Riviera still feels very weird.

“At times, yeah, maybe a little bit, but then at times it still felt weird,“ Scheffler admitted. “No, I played solid today. The golf course is playable in the morning; the greens are fresher. So I was able to hole a few putts, which is key. I don’t necessarily know what else to say.”

But beyond the immediate battle at Riviera, McIlroy is focused on a much larger goal, which is to defend his Masters title. After completing the Career Grand Slam last year at Augusta, McIlroy is making changes to his 2026 schedule to ensure he arrives in Georgia in peak condition. That’s why he has decided to skip the Cognizant Classic in Florida next week. Instead, he is heading straight to Augusta National for an early scouting trip.