Scottie Scheffler Plays It Straight to Win Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, Fla. — All through the ultimate spherical Sunday on the Arnold Palmer Invitational, it was as if somebody have been enjoying a prank on the world’s greatest golfers.

Easy duties, like needing fewer than three makes an attempt to sink a putt from one yard away, have been out of the blue not possible. Greenside chips have been no much less wayward, normally lengthy or quick however not often in between. The gamers, one after one other, have been left scratching their heads, stomping their ft 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, nevertheless it 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, exhausting greens, gusting winds and the strain to win one of many PGA Tour’s signature occasions. In the long run, 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, received 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’s now the fifth-ranked males’s golfer on the earth, has an Everyman, self-effacing fashion that tends to overshadow his consistency and a formidable current document that has made him one in all golf’s hottest gamers. Scheffler completed within the high 10 of the final three main championships he has performed, and he now leads the FedEx Cup standings.

However even Scheffler, who was five-under par for the event, felt drained from Sunday’s 18 taxing holes.

“The golf course was a complete beat-down,” he mentioned. “I’m very happy I didn’t must play any additional holes in the present day.”

Befitting his no-nonsense picture, Scheffler summarized his strategy on Sunday with few phrases: “I simply stored grinding.”

Three golfers, Billy Horschel of america, 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 pivotal par-4 18th gap. His tee shot on the ultimate gap missed the green by a couple of ft, however his strategy shot from 148 yards landed on the left aspect of the inexperienced about 69 ft from the opening.

It left the type of prolonged putt that had led to myriad misadventures — and bogeys — for the remainder of the sphere on Sunday. After his spherical, Scheffler conceded that the wind on some holes had despatched putts as many as eight ft off line.

“Happily, the 18th inexperienced is type of sheltered,” he mentioned. “So once I hit my putt, I didn’t assume the wind was blowing very exhausting.”

Nonetheless, it took nerve and confidence to calmly stroke his birdie try to inside 9 inches of the opening.

“I used to be simply joyful to see it subsequent to the opening,” Scheffler, who tapped the ball in for a reassuring par, mentioned with a large smile.

Moments later, Hovland missed a 20-foot birdie putt from a tough lie on the perimeter of the 18th inexperienced that will have tied Scheffler for the lead and compelled a playoff. Horschel was within the closing group on the course, however he additionally missed a prolonged birdie putt to tie Scheffler.

Hovland, who’s 24 and could possibly be a rival for Scheffler for a few years to return, was particularly disenchanted by Sunday’s consequence.

“This one stings,” Hovland mentioned. He referred to as the arduous circumstances “the identical for everybody,” however added that the wind may make putts “a guessing sport” and a “check of persistence.”

About half-hour earlier than Scheffler was placing on the ultimate inexperienced, 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. His double bogey was adopted by a bogey on the 18th gap, which left Woodland in a tie for fifth place, two strokes behind Scheffler.

Hatton, the 2020 champion within the occasion, had probably the most topsy-turvy closing rounds with 4 bogeys and 7 birdies, three of which got here within the closing seven holes.

The day started with Horschel and Talor Gooch atop the leaderboard and two strokes away from the sphere. Gooch, 30, is having fun with his greatest 12 months on the tour, however his troubles with the Bay Hill structure 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 ft on the par-3 second gap, which led to a second bogey.

A birdie on the third gap appeared to regular Gooch till he turned a notable casualty of the course’s greens, which have been dried out 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 ft. He missed it with the ball operating two and a half ft previous the opening. His subsequent 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 strategy to a 43 on the entrance 9 and out of rivalry for the title.

Horschel, Gooch’s enjoying 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. He completed one over for the occasion.

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.