PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Aaron Rai of England held a one-shot lead at the Genesis Invitational on Thursday at Riviera Country Club despite being unable to complete his round during a rainy and windy day.

Rai was at 6 under par through 16 holes before the rain-delayed opening round was halted by darkness. He can still pad his opening-round advantage Friday morning when play resumes at 7 a.m. local time.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy shot a 5-under-par 66 and was tied with Jacob Bridgeman for second place. Ryan Fox of New Zealand was alone in fourth place at 4 under as the tournament, hosted by Tiger Woods, returned to the Los Angeles area.

The signature event was relocated south to Torrey Pines last year following a devastating wildfire in Pacific Palisades in January 2025.

A morning rain shower delayed play three hours, with many in the field unable to finish their opening rounds. Windy conditions proved to be a challenge the remainder of the day.

McIlroy, a 29-time winner on the PGA Tour, opened his round at 3 under through four holes before the rain delay. He moved to 5 under with a birdie at No. 11, lost a shot with a bogey at No. 16 and moved back to 5 under with a birdie at the par-5 17th.

“I’ve started to just really enjoy this style of golf,” McIlroy said about the wet, windy and cool conditions. “If you had asked me 10 years ago, I didn’t enjoy these conditions, but it’s been a shift in mindset and maybe just a continuation of trying to build upon the skill set that I have. Then when it does get to conditions like this, I’m a lot more prepared.”

Bridgeman, who is in his third season on the PGA Tour without a victory, had an erratic start to his round with an eagle 3 at No. 1 and a double bogey at the long par-3 fourth hole. He then went 5 under through a stretch of 10 holes starting at No. 8.

“I’ve never really had any success on the West Coast in my career, but I think I’m starting to understand more of how to play out here and be a little more confident with it,” said Bridgeman, a South Carolina native. “We never played out here in college, I never played in junior golf out here. So really my (first time) coming out for the West Coast was as a pro. I’m starting to get a little more comfortable.”

Collin Morikawa, a Los Angeles-area native who won last week at Pebble Beach, opened in a seven-way tie for fifth place at 3 under.

“Nice to get off to a good start and kind of be around the lead,” Morikawa said. “This course is going to play very different, I think, the next three days, not quite with the softness and speed of the greens but just score-ability with the wind being down.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler struggled in the opening round for the third consecutive week and was at 5 over par through 10 holes.

Defending champion Ludvig Aberg of Sweden opened tied for 44th place at 1 over par, while Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama was tied for 12th place at 2 under. Matsuyama won the tournament the last time it was played at Riviera in 2024.

–Field Level Media

In response to the persistence and increase in NBA teams allegedly tanking to ensure better draft-lottery odds, commissioner Adam Silver told all 30 general managers that the league will make rule changes to combat the practice starting next season, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday.

The league has owned up to the issue, with Silver saying at a press conference during All-Star weekend that the problem is “worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory.” A meeting of the NBA’s competition committee in January reportedly also focused on tanking.

The Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were fined $500,000 and $100,000, respectively, earlier this month for conduct detrimental to the league related to the player participation policy. Utah, in particular, sat its two best players, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., for the entire fourth quarter of back-to-back games that were both winnable.

ESPN and The Athletic reported that several options were under consideration, including flattening the spread of the odds for all lottery teams; freezing those odds at the trade deadline or another date in-season; and no longer allowing a franchise to pick in the top four in consecutive years, or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.

Extending the lottery to include teams in the play-in spots (Nos. 7-10 in each conference) is also on the list, along with basing lottery odds on teams’ two-year records, which is currently the policy of the WNBA.

As the NBA resumes play Thursday after the All-Star break, no team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but five teams (Brooklyn, Indiana, New Orleans, Washington, Sacramento) have winning percentages below .290.

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia said in a social media post earlier in the day that tanking was “losing behavior done by losers” and “much worse than any prop bet scandal.”

–Field Level Media

UFC 326 has added a lightweight fight between Drew Dober and Michael Johnson to the March 7 card in Las Vegas, according to a report by MMAJunkie.com.

Max Holloway will face Charles Oliveira in the main event at T-Mobile Arena in a highly anticipated rematch 10-plus years in the making. But before the main event gets started, Dober and Johnson will face off in an intriguing lightweight fight.

Johnson (25-19), a finalist on The Ultimate Fighter 12, is beginning his 16th year in UFC, and the 39-year-old is riding a three-fight win streak following a split in a four-fight stint across 2022-23.

Dober (28-15) ended a three-fight losing streak with a third-round finish of Kyle Prepolec in his most recent outing on Oct. 18.

No. 7 ranked middleweight contender Caio Borralho (17-2) will face No. 8 Reinier De Ridder (21-3) in the co-main event.

UFC 326 FIGHT CARD

Main Card

–Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira: Main Event for UFC “BMF” Championship

–Caio Borralho vs. Reinier de Ridder: Co-main event

–Rob Font vs. Raul Rosas Jr.

–Gregory Rodrigues vs. Brunno Ferreira

–Renato Moicano vs. Brian Ortega

–Cody Garbrandt vs. Long Xiao

–Cody Durden vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel

–Dusko Todorovic vs. Donte Johnson

–Sumudaerji vs. Jesus Aguilar

–Gaston Bolanos vs. Joosang Yoo

–Luke Fernandez vs. Rodolfo Bellato

–Alberto Montes vs. Ricky Turcios

–Drew Dober vs. Michael Johnson

Holloway beat Oliveira by TKO in a featherweight bout on Aug. 23, 2015, that lasted less than two minutes after the latter said he suffered a freak neck injury.

Holloway, 34, is a former UFC featherweight champion and current unofficial holder of the UFC’s “BMF” designation (a symbolic title representing the promotion’s “baddest” fighter). Holloway (27-8) retained the BMF title with a unanimous-decision win over Dustin Poirier in July at UFC 318 last July.

The 36-year-old Oliveira (36-11, 1 no contest) is a former UFC lightweight champion, the class at which both he and Holloway currently compete.

–Field Level Media