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Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott blew up when the broadcast went off air. Here’s what happened

February 16, 2020

Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and a few others were trading punches early during the final round of the Genesis Invitational on Sunday… and then the broadcast went off air.

That’s when the leaderboard flipped.

Per usual, Golf Channel had the early afternoon broadcast rights, which ended at 2:45 p.m. ET. CBS took over at 3 p.m., although it was more like 3:05 p.m. since the college basketball game ran a couple of minutes late. And that “coverage gap,” as it’s often called, came at a crucial time of the round.

When the broadcast returned to the air, we saw co-leaders McIlroy and Scott cleaning up disastrous holes on the 5th green. McIlroy made triple bogey and Scott made a double bogey, which plummeted both down the leaderboard at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

So what did you miss on the 443-yard par-4 5th hole? Let’s break it down.

Scott, McIlroy and Kuchar started the day tied for the lead at 10 under, and after four holes it was Scott and McIlroy on top tied at 11 under.

McIlroy and Scott both missed the 5th fairway and then missed the green with their second shots, falling into the collection area behind and left of the green. Thats’ where things got worse. McIlroy tried to bump a chip on top of the hill, deaden it and let it trickle toward the cup, but he didn’t get it up far enough onto the green and it rolled all the way back down. The same thing happened to Scott, who tried to flop it over the gully but came up short and saw his roll back as well. McIlroy got on with his second shot but three-putted from 20 feet. Scott got up with his second, too — this time putting it — and two-putted from eight feet for double bogey.

McIlroy dropped to eight under and and Scott to nine under, which left Kuchar, Harold Varner III and Russell Henley as the new leaders at 10 under. McIlroy went on to bogey the 6th and drop further off the pace. He shot 73 and tied for 5th. Scott, meanwhile, birdied 6 to tie for the lead and later won by two.

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