ORLANDO, Fla. — All through the ultimate spherical Sunday on the Arnold Palmer Invitational, it was as if somebody was taking part in a prank on the world’s greatest golfers.
Easy duties had been abruptly not possible, like needing fewer than three makes an attempt to sink a putt from one yard away. Greenside chips had been no much less wayward, often lengthy or brief however hardly ever in between. The gamers, one after one other, had been left scratching their heads, stomping their toes in anger or smiling sardonically.
One tour veteran, Matt Jones, merely flung his putter right into a pond after one such vexing expertise. That was on Saturday, but it surely set the stage.
Had the golf balls been changed with tricked-up orbs designed to wobble off line? Was the joke on high golfers who usually make a befuddling sport look simple?
Alas, it was not a merciless ruse. If there was a conspiracy, it was one borne of thick tough, laborious greens, gusting winds and the stress to win one of many PGA Tour’s signature occasions. Ultimately, Scottie Scheffler, a rising younger star, endured the exasperating problem within the fewest strokes. With an even-par spherical of 72 on Sunday, Scheffler, 25, gained his second PGA Tour occasion this 12 months, rallying for a one-stroke victory at Palmer’s Bay Hill Membership.
Scheffler, a New Jersey native raised in Texas who entered the Palmer Invitational because the sixth-ranked males’s golfer on the planet, has an Everyman, self-effacing type that tends to overshadow his consistency and a powerful current document that has made him one among golf’s hottest gamers. Scheffler completed within the high 10 of the final three main championships he has performed, and after Sunday’s title, he rose to the highest of the FedEx Cup standings.
Befitting his no-nonsense picture, Scheffler summarized his efficiency Sunday with few phrases: “I simply saved grinding.”
Three golfers, Billy Horschel of the US, Viktor Hovland of Norway and Tyrrell Hatton of England, completed tied for second.
Whereas the course circumstances had been demanding all through the event, the ultimate cost on Sunday got here after a number of hours of jockeying among the many leaders. Scheffler started the day two strokes off the lead and had an uneven entrance 9 with three bogeys and two birdies. However he settled down on his second 9 and took a one-stroke lead with 5 consecutive pars heading into the par-4 18th gap. His tee shot on the ultimate gap missed the green by a couple of toes, however his strategy shot from 148 yards landed on the left facet of the inexperienced about 69 toes from the opening.
It was the sort of prolonged putt that had led to myriad misadventures — and bogeys — for the remainder of the sector on Sunday. Scheffler calmly stroked his birdie to inside 9 inches of the opening and tapped the ball in for a reassuring par. Hovland, his taking part in associate, missed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th gap that will have tied Scheffler. Horschel was within the last group on the course, however he additionally missed a prolonged birdie putt to tie Scheffler.
About half-hour earlier, because the closing holes performed out, Gary Woodland dramatically grabbed a one-stroke lead when he sank a 24-foot eagle putt on the par-5 sixteenth gap. On the following par-3 seventeenth gap, Woodland’s tee shot discovered a bunker. Worse, he left his second shot within the sand, then missed a 5-foot bogey putt. That double bogey was adopted by a bogey on the 18th gap, which left Westwood in a tie for fifth place, two strokes behind Scheffler.
Hatton, the 2020 champion within the occasion, had one of the vital topsy-turvy last rounds with 4 bogeys and 7 birdies, three of which got here within the last seven holes.
The day started with Horschel and Talor Gooch atop the leaderboard and two strokes away from the sector. Gooch, 30, is having fun with his greatest 12 months on the tour, however his troubles with the Bay Hill format started early Sunday when he overshot the primary inexperienced from 100 yards within the fairway and needed to accept a bogey. Gooch missed the inexperienced by 70 toes on the par-3 second gap, which led to a second bogey.
A birdie on the third gap appeared to regular Gooch till he grew to become a notable casualty of the course’s greens, which had been dried out each by the wind and a cloudless day with temperatures within the mid-80s.
On the par-4 fifth gap, Gooch had a birdie putt of 19 toes. He missed it with the ball working two and a half toes previous the opening. That putt additionally missed, as did a 4-footer coming again towards the opening. When Gooch sank his fourth putt for double bogey, he was on his approach to a 43 on the entrance 9 and out of competition for the title.
Horschel, Gooch’s taking part in associate, was additionally staggered by the entrance 9, with three bogeys, a double bogey and a birdie. Rory McIlroy, a favourite coming into the occasion who was solely 4 strokes off the lead heading into the ultimate spherical, shot three-over-par 39 on his first 9 to tumble down the leaderboard.
Jon Rahm, the world’s top-ranked males’s golfer, shot even par on his entrance 9, which, given the circumstances, was an accomplishment. However Rahm couldn’t proceed that momentum and completed the ultimate spherical with a 74 that left him two over for the occasion.