LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jacob Bridgeman felt great about his game and his swing, and it wasn't long before everyone at Riviera took notice Saturday at the Genesis Invitational.
They had no choice. Bridgeman played in the final group and posted the lowest score at 7-under 64. He was tied for the lead when he started. He was six clear of Rory McIlroy when he finished.
Click to Gallery
Scottie Scheffler walks on the 18th hole during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, hits from the ninth fairway during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, waits to putt on the third green during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Jacob Bridgeman hits from the 15th fairway during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Jacob Bridgeman prepares to hit from a bunker on the 14th hole during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
“It was fun and easy, kind of the best that the golf world ever gets," Bridgeman said. “My swing felt nice and it was fun out there. Everyone was cheering, so yeah, it was a good day.”
Most of the gallery was tagging along with McIlroy and Xander Schauffele, who have combined to win seven majors. They missed seeing Bridgeman in the final group behind them hitting a 7-wood high and true to 30 inches on the 262-yard fourth hole for another birdie.
It was like that all day — seven birdies for Bridgeman, and an eagle on the par-5 11th when he hit another 7-wood from 259 yards that narrowly cleared a ridge. He couldn't see where it ended up, the cheers were such he thought it might have gone in. It settled 8 inches from the cup.
Now he goes after his first PGA Tour title, and considering the gorgeous weather on tap, he will have a chance to break the longest-standing 72-hole record on the PGA Tour.
Bridgeman was at 19-under 194. Lanny Wadkins won at 20-under 264 in 1985.
McIlroy was cautious on the greens, fast and bumpy late in the afternoon, and closed out his round of 69 with seven straight pars.
“I hung in there,” McIlroy said. “I wish I was a couple closer to the lead. It looks like I’ll be in the final group. Hopefully, put a little pressure on Jacob tomorrow. I’ve given myself a chance, and that’s all I can ask for.”
McIlroy is among nine players on the PGA Tour who have won when the 54-hole lead was six shots. He rallied to beat Scottie Scheffler in the Tour Championship in 2023 to win the FedEx Cup.
“I’m six back,” McIlroy said. “I need to get off to a fast start, try to apply some pressure and hopefully I can do that.”
Bridgeman, a 26-year-old from Clemson, sure didn't play as though he had not won on the PGA Tour. He opened with two birdies in three holes, hit the closest shot of the way on the par-3 fourth, and his best was still ahead of him.
Bridgeman had a two-shot lead going to the back nine when he went birdie-eagle-birdie, hitting that 7-wood to tap-in range following with a chip 6-iron to a right pin on the difficult 12th for a 12-foot birdie putt to stretch his lead to six shots.
From there, it was a matter of who would join him in the final pairing.
McIlroy and Bridgeman played together for the first time on the final day at the BMW Championship, where Bridgeman did just enough right to secure a trip to the Tour Championship. They also were paired in the second round at East Lake.
The stakes are higher this time.
“I know he’s going to play well tomorrow. I know that I can’t back up at all,” Bridgeman said. "But I think I feel comfortable. I was a little bit uncertain how it would be last year when I played with him in the playoffs. And I had a big day in Baltimore — I had to play good to make the Tour Championship and I was paired with Rory and it was kind of a lot.
“I think if it was my first time maybe it would be a little unsettling,” he said. “But now I’m not worried about it.”
Bridgeman, who missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole, didn't have a chance to feel any weekend nerves with his fast start. He really only missed one drive, on the par-4 eighth, when he hit into the middle of the barranca that divides the fairways.
Otherwise, it was a clinic.
“To be doing this on this stage at Riviera is a dream,” Bridgeman said.
No one else was particularly close. Aaron Rai (66) was eight behind. Xander Schauffele had a chance to stay close until missing four short putts — three for birdies — on the greens so severe that every short putt required so much attention.
Marco Penge of England, who shared the 36-hole lead with Bridgeman, shot 74 to fall 10 behind.
Scottie Scheffler, who made the cut on the number, finished about the time the last group teed off. He shot a 66, his lowest round at Riviera, and was 14 shots behind. Scheffler's only hope was to try to extend his streak of top 10s on the PGA Tour to 19.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Scottie Scheffler walks on the 18th hole during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, hits from the ninth fairway during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, waits to putt on the third green during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Jacob Bridgeman hits from the 15th fairway during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
Jacob Bridgeman prepares to hit from a bunker on the 14th hole during the third round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Being gay in Morocco is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. But it was the violence from her family that forced Farah, a 21-year-old gay woman, to flee the country.
After a long journey to the United States and a third-country deportation by the Trump administration, however, Farah said she is now back in Morocco and in hiding.
“It is hard to live and work with the fear of being tracked once again by my family,” she told The Associated Press, in a rare testimony from a person deported via a third country despite having protection orders from a U.S. immigration judge. “But there is nothing I can do. I have to work.”
She asked to be identified by her first name only for fear of persecution. The AP saw her protection order and lawyers verified parts of her account.
Farah said that before she fled, she was beaten by her family and the family of her partner when they found out about their relationship. She was kicked out of the family home and fled with her partner to another city. She said her family found her and tried to kill her.
Through a friend, she and her partner heard about the opportunity to get visas for Brazil and fly there with the aim of reaching the United States, where they had friends. From Brazil, she trekked through six countries for weeks to reach the U.S. border, where they asked for asylum.
“You get put in situations that are truly horrible," she recalled. "When we arrived (at the U.S. border), it felt like it was worth the trouble and that we got to our goal."
They arrived in early 2025. But instead of finding the freedom to be herself, Farah said she was detained for almost a year, first in Arizona, then in Louisiana.
“It was very cold,” she said of detention. “And we only had very thin blankets.” Medical care was inadequate, she said.
She was denied asylum, but in August she received a protection order from an U.S. immigration judge, who ruled she cannot be deported to Morocco because that would endanger her life. Her partner, denied asylum and a protection order, was deported.
Farah said she was three days from a hearing on her release when she was handcuffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put on a plane to an African country she had never visited, and one where homosexuality is illegal: Cameroon. She was put in a detention facility.
“They asked me if I wanted to stay in Cameroon, and I told them that I can’t stay in Cameroon and risk my life in a place where I would still be endangered,” she said. She was flown to Morocco.
She is one of dozens of people confirmed to be deported from the U.S. by the Trump administration to third countries despite having legal protection from U.S. immigration judges. The real number is unknown.
The administration has used third-country deportations to pressure migrants who are in the U.S. illegally to leave on their own, saying they could end up “in any number of third countries."
The detention facility in Cameroon's capital of Yaounde, where Farah was held, currently has 15 deportees from various African countries who arrived on two flights, and none is Cameroonian, according to lawyer Joseph Awah Fru, who represents them.
Eight of the deportees on the first flight in January, including Farah, had received a judge's protection orders, said Alma David, an immigration lawyer with the U.S.-based Novo Legal Group who has helped deportees and verified Farah’s case. The AP spoke to a woman from Ghana and a woman from Congo, who both said they had protection orders, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Another flight on Monday brought eight more people. Three freelance journalists reporting on the deportations to Cameroon for the AP were briefly detained there.
Deporting people to a third country where they could be sent home was effectively a legal “loophole,” said David.
“By deporting them to Cameroon, and giving them no opportunity to contest being sent to a country whose government hoped to quietly send them back to the very countries where they face grave danger, the U.S. not only violated their due process rights but our own immigration laws, our obligations under international treaties and even DHS’ own procedures," David said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier confirmed there were deportations to Cameroon in January.
“We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period,” it said, and asserted that the third-country agreements “ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution.”
Asked about the deportations to Cameroon, the U.S. State Department on Friday told the AP it had “no comment on the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments." It did not reply to further questions.
Cameroon’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Farah was one of two women from the first group of deportees to return to Morocco.
“They were given two impossible choices,” David said, and asserted that claiming asylum was not clearly presented as one of them. “This was before the lawyer had access to them."
She said International Organization for Migration staff in the facility did not give them any indication that there was a viable option other than going back to their home countries.
Fru said he has not been granted access to the deportees. He said the assistant to the country director for the IOM, a U.N.-affiliated organization, told him he must apply to speak to them. Fru plans to do that Monday.
The IOM told the AP it was “aware of the removal of migrants from the United States of America to some African countries” and added that it “works with people facing difficult decisions about whether to return to their country of origin." It said its role is providing accurate information about options and ensuring that "anyone who chooses to return does so voluntarily.”
The IOM said the facility in Yaounde was managed by the authorities in Cameroon. It did not respond to further questions.
Cameroon is one of at least seven African nations to receive deported third-country nationals in a deal with the U.S. Others include South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea.
Some have received millions of dollars in return, according to documents released by the State Department. Details of other agreements, including the one with Cameroon, have not been released.
The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report released last week by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
According to internal administration documents reviewed by the AP, 47 third-country agreements are in various stages of negotiation.
In Morocco, Farah said it was hard to hear U.S. officials refer to people like her as a threat.
“The USA is built on immigration and by immigrant labor, so we’re clearly not all threats,” she said. “What was done to me was unfair. A normal deportation would have been fair, but to go through so much and lose so much, only to be deported in such a way, is cruel.”
This story has been corrected to state that the two women who spoke to the AP had been on the first flight in January, not on last week’s flight. It also corrects that eight of the initial deportees had protection orders while the ninth was stateless.
FILE - Cars drive through an intersection near a monument in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Sept. 12, 2025. (AP Photo / Welba Yamo Pascal, file)
FILE - A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight operates out of King County International Airport-Boeing Field, Aug. 23, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
