Genesis Invitational 2022 R1
February 17-20
The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, CA
$12,000,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Chilean Joaquin Niemann shot the best opening score on Thursday, an 8-under 63, to take a three-shot lead in the Genesis Open.

Genesis Invitational 2022 R1

"I think everything. I hit the ball great off the tee. My iron play, I was
hitting it really close so that makes it a lot easier. The greens were pretty good also today and it wasn't that windy. So yeah, I think the whole game was pretty good today."

His score matches the record lowest-opening score at Riviera Country Club and he is the ninth to play it from Charlie Sifford in 1969 to J.B. Holmes in 2019, four of whom went on to win the tournament.

Genesis Invitational 2022 R1

"I think it's got to be one of my best days on the golf course, especially in a place like this with this history," said Niemann. "Riviera Country Club is one of my favorite golf courses and this event is my favorite during the year.

"You always work to have these kind of days. Yeah, you always know that you're never going to have these days four days in a row. It's a good way to start. I know it's going to be different days during the week, so I've got to be ready for everything and have the best attitude for it."

Genesis Invitational 2022 R1

Americans Jordan Spieth, WM Phoenix Open winner Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young and Max Homa are tied in second place at 5-under.

"I think my trainer and I were pretty excited about not being in that little first-off group, which is nice, get a few more minutes of sleep," said Scheffler. "Those tee times are tough, people don't realize if you're teeing off at 6:40 in the morning what time you're waking up, what time you're getting out here. Half the places we show up in the morning then are closed. I'm sure the locker room was locked for all those guys this morning and trailer's barely open and you're warming up a literally in the dark basically until you tee off so you don't really get a good feel for where your body's at and how you're swinging that day, so it's definitely more challenging than people know."

Genesis Invitational 2022 R1