Despite being six shots off the lead when making the turn Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rory McIlroy was in the lead by one shot while standing on Bay Hill’s par-3 14th tee box. He just didn’t know it.

McIlroy subsequently produced his worst swing of the day, one he desperately wishes he could have back. He hit the tee shot short and left of the green, the ball landing in a greenside bunker. He did well to get out and end 13 feet from the hole, but he two putted for bogey to drop back into a four-way tie for the lead with Jordan Spieth, Tyrrell Hatton and eventual winner Kurt Kitayama.

“If I look back on today the one thing I’ll rue is the tee shot on 14,” McIlroy said. “I birdied 13 and got on to 14 tee and I honestly thought I was still like one or two behind the lead. As I was walking to the 14th green, I looked behind me at the scoreboard, and I was leading by one. And if I had of known that, I wouldn’t have tried to play the shot that I played on 14, which was unfortunate, but I ended up making bogey there and then a bad swing off the tee on 15 and a bogey.

“So I had a chance at the last. I hit a good putt. It just missed on the low side. But it was a good week. I saw some positive signs. Game’s rounding into form for the bulk of the season.”

RELATED: Chased by some of the biggest names in the game, Kurt Kitayama did not back down

On the par-5 15th, McIlroy hit his drive way left, but it found a tree and fell down into gnarly rough. He hacked out, but didn’t reach the green, failed to get up and down and made a second consecutive bogey.

McIlroy made seven birdies and five bogeys on the day to shoot two-under 70. He and Harris English tied for second place, one shot behind Kitayama.

“Even though I didn’t get the win, I’m still pretty happy with how everything went this week,” McIlroy said. “But it was a great back nine. It was great to be involved with. I’m really happy for Kurt. He’s been playing well for awhile now and I’m happy to see him get his first win.”

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With one hole remaining in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, there were as many as five players who had a chance to claim the title—and the $3.6 million prize money payout—in PGA Tour’s latest “designated” event.

Rory McIlroy was six shots off the lead when he made the turn at Bay Hill Club & Lodge Sunday but somehow was atop the leaderboard late in the day. Despite making four birdies on the final nine holes, he did not win.

Patrick Cantlay made eagle on the 12th hole then birdied three of the last four holes. But he didn’t win.

Jordan Spieth bogeyed three of four late in the round. He didn’t win, despite leading for a portion of the day. His putter turned ice cold at the worst possible time.

World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler barely missed birdie on the 17th hole and then bogeyed the last after his approach shot came up close and nearly found a watery grave. He did not win.

Third-round leader Kurt Kitayama led after eight holes but made triple bogey on the par-4 ninth after his tee shot landed an inch out of bounds. He made par on the next seven holes, rolled in a birdie on the par-3 17th from 13 feet, then finished with a par on the home hole after a two-putt from 48 feet, the first putt tantalizingly hanging on the edge of the cup.

He won. Go figure.

A 30-year-old from Chico, Calif., Kitayama outlasted all the aforementioned heavyweights to shoot even-par 72 at Arnie’s Place and collect $3.6 million for his first PGA Tour victory after several close calls. He was in contention all week, and many believed that he would find a way to let the pressure get the best of him. After the ninth-hole debacle—the second time over the weekend that Kitayama hit a drive OB—the vibe began to shift, with the gallery feeling the likes of McIlroy, Spieth or Scheffler would be donning the winner’s red cardigan sweater by day’s end.

Kitayama shot 67-68-72-72 for a nine-under 279 total. McIlroy and Harris English tied for second place at eight under. Cantlay, Spieth, Scheffler and Tyrrell Hatton tied for fourth place at seven under.

“It went south on 9 all of a sudden I’m not leading anymore,” said Kitayama, who went from two shots ahead to only one shot back. “I fought back, I fought back hard. I’m proud of that.

“I didn’t feel rattled at all.”

While McIlroy, Spieth and company were jockeying for position, Kitayama kept calm and managed pars on Nos. 10-16, although there were a couple holes where the score was in question. He stood on the 17th tee tied for the lead and hit a laser to 13 feet that he would convert for birdie to take a one-shot lead to the last.

On the 18th hole, Kitayama drove it left into thick rough. He did well to get his approach on the green and then from 48 feet he nearly made the birdie putt and tapped in for victory.

“Just get it on the green,” Kitayama said of the approach on 18. “Just wanted to give myself an opportunity to win.”

RELATED: Kurt Kitayama had the sauciest move when he marked his tap-in for $3.6 million

Kudos to Kitayama, who was ranked 46th in the world and previously finished second at the Genesis Scottish Open last summer and then last fall to McIlroy at the CJ Cup in South Carolina.

This time McIlroy finished second place to Kitayama. He seemingly came out of nowhere on the back nine after being well out of contention. He birdied 9, 10, 12, 13 and 16—with bogeys at 14 and 15—but he left a birdie putt low from 10 feet on the last hole that would’ve ultimately put him in a playoff.

“I feel like this week was much better than L.A. or Phoenix,” McIlroy said. “Definitely heading in the right direction.”

Then there is Spieth who was cruising through 13 holes and absolutely was the man to beat. He opened with four birdies in the first five holes to take the lead and then made birdies again on 10 and 13. But Nos. 14-17 were bizarre as Spieth missed four putts from inside eight feet on those four holes, resulting in three bogeys and a par on the par-5 16th hole.

“I wouldn’t have hit any of the putts differently,” Spieth said. “I hit my line on every single one of them. I misread all four by just barely.

“I feel really good about where things are. It’s no different than how I’ve been feeling over the last month.”

No one, however, left Bay Hill feeling better than Kitayama.

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If only everyone had an opportunity to figure out exactly how they’d react if they were about to win $3.6 million.

That’s the situation that Kurt Kitayama found himself in late Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only a couple hours after it looked like an ugly triple-bogey 7 on the ninth hole had ruined his chances of winning for the first time on the PGA Tour.

But Kitayama, 30, a man nicknamed “Quadzilla” by Xander Schauffele because of his prodigious thighs, told his caddie Tim Tucker that he was not rattled and that he knew with nine holes remaining, that anything could happen.

It did. Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth were among a group of top-ranked players who had a chance to win the trophy at Bay Hill but each of them faltered. Ultimately, it was Quadzilla who only needed par on the last hole to win, which he did.

But even that was eventful.

After hitting his drive in the thick, left rough, Kitayama was able to punch out his approach and onto the green 48 feet from the hole. From there he only needed to two putt.

He sent the first putt on the way and as it was tracking it looked for a moment as if it was going to go in. But it stopped mere centimetres short.

And, yet, Kitayama marked it. That’s right he marked a putt from inside a half inch for $3.6 million. (Side note: Before this week Kitayama’s career earnings on the PGA Tour were $4.2 million, his biggest payday $1.13 million for his second at the CJ Cup.)

“I thought I was going to set it and it was going to just roll in,” Kitayama confessed.

A nice problem to have.

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The difference between Arnold Palmer Invitational leader Jon Rahm and second place after one round is two shots. But the difference between the World No. 1 and his fellow PGA Tour pros is probably the standards he holds himself to.

Most PGA Tour pros would look at Rahm’s seven-under-par 65 at Bay Hill—last season the fourth-hardest golf course on tour—and think the Spaniard played perfect golf.

Not Rahm. Not the man who has won three PGA Tour events in this calendar year and has victories in five of his last nine starts worldwide.

Asked if he was firing on all cylinders Thursday, Rahm answered with “no.”

So, what could improve? “Gosh, go through the round and you’ll see plenty of mistakes,” Rahm said. “I just took advantage of, let’s say, minimizing mistakes and I converted a couple situations into really good scores. But it can always be better.”

Last year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Cameron Young, shot a five-under-par 67 at Bay Hill to sit just two behind Rahm, along with Chris Kirk, who won the Honda Classic last week, and Kurt Kitayama. Eight players are at four under, including the star trio of Jordan Spieth, defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Rickie Fowler.

To be fair to Rahm, he was just answering a question. And, if you’re splitting hairs, you could point out Rahm found eight of 14 fairways, which contributed to missing five greens. But the context needed is that warm, windy Orlando is fast drying out Bay Hill’s narrow fairways and even good drives are finding the gnarly rough.

“Those fairways are getting firm and they’re not easy to hit,” Rahm said. “When you miss the fairway, you’re going to be chopping it out of the rough and hoping for dear life.”

Rahm didn’t need to hope for dear life with his short game, which allowed him to save par four times from those five missed greens. A tricky lie in the greenside bunker at the par-3 14th and a 35-footer for par at the next kept his back nine bogey-free for a 31.

“That one on 15 was huge. I made my worst swing of the day,” he said. “I accepted making a bogey; I put it in a bad position off the tee. [But] sometimes you make ‘em like that.”

He also made ‘em when there were birdie and eagle putts. Or, as the former U.S. Open champion described it, he “converted a couple situations.”

The only eagle of the day on No. 16 belongs to leader @JonRahmPGA ? pic.twitter.com/qTOUGJHqf7

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 2, 2023

Those situations included a trio of birdies to start his round. A bogey at the par-4 eighth was offset by a birdie at the par-5 12th. The last three holes, Rahm showed why he’s won five times worldwide since August. A towering 5-iron from the fairway at the par-5 16th set up a 24-foot eagle putt he drained for his first-ever eagle at Bay Hill. Rahm then hit his tee shot at the par-3 17th to two feet, and then his approach to six feet on the 18th. He made both to finish four under in his last three holes.

Asked which was better, his opening three holes or closing three, Rahm said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if I’m going to be as picky as possible, I struck it and hit better quality shots on the first three, but that’s just nit-picking. I heeled my 3-wood on 18. I slightly over-faded my 5-iron on 16. And then that’s about it. That’s all I can say. But if I go by difficulty of holes, I think obviously the last three holes you take it.”

Most would certainly take it on around one of the most difficult trio of closing holes on the PGA Tour. Even Tiger Woods, who won eight times at Bay Hill, would likely take four under in that stretch.

So, does anything need to improve for Rahm to hold on over the next three rounds and capture a fourth PGA Tour win before April?

“It’s the first day,” Rahm said with a smile. “Ask me that on Sunday if I keep playing like this and I’ll probably change my answer.”

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The drastic changes to the PGA Tour plans for its $20 million designated events announced on Wednesday were largely welcomed by stars such as Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, and even last week’s feel-good story at the Honda Classic, rookie Eric Cole. But there also were mixed feelings expressed about the exclusivity of the events and how quickly things are moving.

In 2024, at least some of the tour’s designated $20 million events will feature limited fields of between 70 and 80 players and no 36-hole cut. On Tuesday, the Policy Board voted to approve a new structure before PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan made the news official in a memo to members on Wednesday.

As first reported by Golfweek, fields in the elevated events are set to be filled by the top 50 players who qualified for the BMW Championship in the previous season’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, plus the top 10 players in the current year’s FedEx Cup standings not already exempt. Five places also will be available for top performers in non-designated events. Criteria will also consider the Official World Golf Ranking.

Scott, the Australian who was recently elected chairman of the Player Advisory Council (PAC), said the changes could help the tour when negotiating future TV and sponsorship deals.

Adam Scott says there has to be a “give and take” from players on the changes made by the PGA Tour. Darrian Traynor

“These are not overnight decisions made by the board,” Scott told Golf Digest on Wednesday at Bay Hill. “A lot of things are taken into consideration. There are a lot of positive steps being made on the PGA Tour. You’ve also got to look at the big picture, not just what happens next year. What’s best for the product for the next decade, as it moves beyond this TV contract and, and sponsorship period, and into the next one?”

Under these proposed changes, the tour could guarantee when and where the stars will play—but also that the big names will be there on the weekend because of no cut.

“That sounds pretty good to me,” Scott said. “I think there certainly has to be some understanding from all the players that if we’re going to maintain these kinds of prize funds, and think about having any growth, there’s got to be some give and take. Things can’t just stay the same.”

Four-time major winner McIlroy, a player director on the PAC, said it hadn’t been confirmed that all 12 designated events [those outside of the four majors and Players Championship] would do away with a cut. The Northern Irishman said a case could be made to keep a cut at the invitationals—the Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament in Ohio and Tiger Woods’ Genesis in Los Angeles.

“They have got a ton of history behind them,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Is there an argument that because of that historical context we try to keep a cut in those events? Maybe. That’s all to be decided.”

There have been some questions and concerns raised about playing opportunities from lower-ranked golfers on the PGA Tour since news of the changes broke.

Kevin Chappell, a one-time PGA Tour winner in 271 starts who currently ranks 191st in the current FedEx Cup standings, tweeted, “The (carrot) sure has gotten bigger, but it seems to have been moved further away from the majority of those playing professional golf. I believe this could lead to shorter but more lucrative careers like tennis.”

Max Homa says he “loves the changes” to the tour’s elevated events. Sean M. Haffey

Chappell, who has made $16.7 million on the PGA Tour, also tweeted, “If your LIV, it becomes easier recruit players. Look for players 51-70 on FedEx list to leave and go take the guarantee elsewhere.”

World No 8 Max Homa finished his pro-am on Wednesday and said he saw mixed reaction.

“I understand the sentiment … about maybe the avenues getting smaller, but the prize is much larger. I’m not so sure I agree with the negative connotation,” he said.

Homa is now a six-time PGA Tour winner and bona fide star. But the Californian lost his PGA Tour card twice and had to regain it through the secondary Korn Ferry Tour. He has seen every tier of pro golf.

“I love the new changes; I could rant on this for a while, which I might,” Homa jokingly warned reporters. “I’ve seen all levels of professional golf. It’s easy to frame these changes as [putting] more money in the top players’ pockets … it’s low-hanging fruit to [call] it a money grab. This is to make it better for the fans. It is a guarantee on who will be at events.”

Brian Harman, who is a member of the PAC, felt the news had travelled fast. The two-time PGA Tour winner told Golf Digest on Wednesday that he found out about the changes via social media while he was playing his pro-am at Bay Hill. He said he needed to read further into the new structure in order to process them.

World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, the defending Palmer champion this week, was playing on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019. In January last year, he hadn’t won a PGA Tour event. But the Texan caught fire, winning the WM Phoenix Open, API, WGC-Match Play and the Masters in six starts. He added another victory this year by repeating in Phoenix.

Scheffler made the point that regular tournaments will be more advantageous for some players who don’t qualify for designated events. It has been reported the new-look 2024 schedule would see two designated events followed by three non-designated tournaments. The top five earners in points from the three non-designated stops would qualify for the next two designated events.

“[The] 120 guys in the field [in the Palmer] this year, those 50 additional guys … who may not be able to get into those 70-man fields are going to be playing a lot of other events where the purses aren’t going down. I think it’s going to benefit the membership as a whole.”

Added McIlroy: “You don’t have to wait an entire year for your good play to then get the opportunity; it presents itself straight away.”

The changes were received positively from Cole, a PGA Tour rookie who has less certainty to be in the designated events in 2024. Cole has been a pro golfer 14 years and finally graduated to the PGA Tour for this season. The 34-year-old was a surprising and uplifting story at last week’s Honda Classic, when, in just his 15th PGA Tour start, he took Chris Kirk into a sudden-death playoff before falling on the first hole.

“If you play good golf, you’re gonna get rewarded,” Cole told Golf Digest. “It seems like there’s an opportunity for guys that aren’t in that top 50 to end up being there. It seems like there’s a decent opportunity for the guys who are playing really well right before the designated events to get into them. We’ll just have to see how it ends up shaking out.”

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Jason Day has a classic Arnold Palmer story.

Yes, many golfers do, given that the King stayed in touch with players at all levels through meetings and his famous letters. But it was Day who had the honour of winning the last Arnold Palmer Invitational before Palmer died in late 2016 at age 87.

Sunday night of the 2016 Palmer event, Day had just finished his wire-to-tire victory at Orlando’s famed Bay Hill course. It was customary for champions of the invitational to do two things after winning: shake Palmer’s hand off the 18th green and come into his office inside the Bay Hill clubhouse to share a celebratory beverage.

“So, this is a unique story,” Day told Golf Digest after a practice round Tuesday ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, a $20 million designated PGA Tour event. “Typically after every time you win here, you would go and have a celebratory drink with him. His drink was Ketel One vodka on the rocks. No mixer and it was like a good dose of Ketel One.”

Day, however, did not know Palmer’s usual drink.

“It was like 90-degree weather, and I was hot and hadn’t eaten really that much [all day]. So I go in and I say, ‘I’ll have whatever he has.’ And Arnie poured me a drink and I thought, I better finish this now. After that, I had to go on Golf Channel and I felt pretty buzzed.”

Back then, Day was in career-best form. The 2015 PGA Championship winner would go on to win the 2016 WGC-Match Play and the Players Championship to take the World No.1 spot and not relinquish it for almost a year. But the Australian star has not won on the PGA Tour since a pair of victories in 2018 and struggled with his form for several years after that. Last year, Day’s world ranking even dropped as low as 164th.

Day, now 35, has begun to turn things around. He’s getting comfortable with a swing rebuild under coach Chris Como, which aims to shallow the club and produce a fade in his full swing to alleviate chronic back injuries. The changes have seen Day record top-10 finishes in his past three starts leading into Bay Hill.

“It’s the best [my swing and body] have felt since I was No. 1 in the world,” Day said. “Over the last two years, I was just hoping to get through four days [pain-free at a tournament] I’d wake up every day with pain.”

Day’s tie for ninth at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera two weeks ago brought Day back inside the top 50 in the world and has him eyeing a return to the Masters. Day, who finished second at Augusta in 2011 and tied for fifth in 2019, only qualified for one major last year, the PGA Championship, which he did through a lifetime exemption as a winner.

“It’s been consistent hard work, being really disciplined with my body off the golf course and then being really disciplined with my swing,” Day said of the process.

“It’s also been about the drive to get back inside the top 50, little goals I set for myself. Then get back inside the top 25 and then top 10, hopefully.”

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By Ryan Herrington
It would be a cliché to say that playing the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was like being in a heavyweight fight, Bay Hill Club in Orlando packing quite the wallop on the field. However, we’re not the ones who brought up the boxing analogy on Sunday. Rory McIlroy did the honours.

After a second straight four-over 76 to fall from T-6 to start Sunday to T-13, the four-time major winner (and 2018 API champ) couldn’t hold back any longer. “I feel punch drunk, to be honest,” McIlroy said. “The weekend, it’s like crazy golf.”

The scoring average Sunday at Bay Hill was a 75.481, almost five shots higher than final-round mark of any other tournament during the 2021-22 season. Scottie Scheffler’s winning 72-hole score of five under par was the highest in relation to par on the PGA Tour since Jon Rahm won the 2020 BMW Championship at four under. Scheffler’s 283 total tied for the second-highest winning score on tour since the start of the 2014-15 season behind Tyrrell Hatton’s 284 at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational and Danny Willett’s 294 at the 2016 Masters.

It wasn’t just that scores were high and birdies were tough to come by that led to McIlroy’s frustrations. Rather, it was the notion that his game actually was pretty solid (he did shoot an opening-round 65 to lead on Thursday), but that a tricky course setup—firm, fast greens combined with five- and six-inch rough and windy conditions—resulted in players were unfairly penalised at times.

“Sort of the way the conditions are, it makes you feel as if you’re not playing as good as you are,” McIlroy said. “Like, I’m playing good. I’m hitting good shots. I’m swinging the club well. I’m chipping well. I’m putting well. But it can knock your confidence whenever the conditions are like this. I’m certainly playing better than shooting eight over, over the weekend.”

McIlroy says this isn’t something new at Bay Hill, that it’s actually been happening for three years running, the course allowed to get dramatically harder as the tournament moves into the weekend. And that by allowing the trend to continue, the tournament is developing a reputation that might cause some top players to re-consider playing in the future, particularly given when the tournament is held.

“Yeah, they need to do something about it,” McIlroy said. “There’s a lot of guys that sort of stay away this week to get ready for [the Players Championship] next week. Next week’s become such a big event, $20 million purse. The four majors are sacred in this game, but it’s very close to being among them with the way it’s going.

“As I said, I just need a day off tomorrow to forget about what’s happened this week and then just sort of focus on next week.”

The comments are interesting in light of the tough stance McIlroy took in 2019 about course set-ups on the European Tour and his disappointment in conditions not being tough enough.

“I’m sort of honestly sick of coming back over to the European Tour and shooting 15 under par and finishing 30th,” said McIlroy after the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in 2019. “I don’t think the courses are set up hard enough. There are no penalties for bad shots. It’s tough when you come back and it’s like that. I don’t feel like good golf is regarded as well as it could be. It happened in the Scottish Open at Renaissance. I shot 13 under and finished 30th [actually T-34] again. It’s not a good test. I think if the European Tour wants to put forth a really good product, the golf courses and setups need to be tougher.”

But not so tough that good shots are penalised.

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By Joel Beall
ORLANDO — Scottie Scheffler stood on the 10th tee with one hand on his bag and the other on his hip, staring in the direction of a massive black canvas adorned with guidance in white. “You must play boldly to win,” read the billboard, a quote attributed to the player, or should we say The King, whose namesake drapes this event. If Scheffler saw the directive, however, he did not take it, and that was the right call, for Sunday called for something else.

Bay Hill had gone from brute to bully with a set-up that delivered pain and, as some players grumbled, unwarranted punishment. What decided this Arnold Palmer Invitational wasn’t merely playing boldly, but rather having the mental power to be undisturbed by the volatility that engulfed every shot … and bounce … and roll … during the chaotic final round. Which is how and why Scheffler leaves as its champ.

“To be completely honest with you, right now I’m exhausted,” Scheffler said after a one-shot victory over Viktor Hovland, Billy Horschel and Tyrrell Hatton, the 25-year-old looking very much in need of an ice bath and perhaps a cold one or three. “I’m very pleased I didn’t have to play any extra holes today.”

It was not pretty. Nothing about this weekend at Bay Hill was pretty. Prize fights usually aren’t. Scheffler won with a final-round 72, the highest finish by a winner of a non-major on tour since Jon Rahm shot a 75 at the 2020 Memorial Tournament. His five under par 72-hole score was the highest in relation to par since Rahm won the 2020 BMW Championship at four under. And Scheffler’s 283 total is the second-highest winning score on tour since the start of the 2014-15 season, behind the 284s from Tyrrell Hatton at the 2020 API and Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters.

Just two players broke 70 on Sunday while 18 posted scores of 78 or higher including an 87 by Troy Merritt. For the third straight year, the final-round scoring average exceeded 75. Bay Hill boasted the highest Round 2, 3 and 4 scoring averages to date in the 2021-22 season, and its 73.88 overall average is the tour’s highest mark by a whopping 2½ strokes this year. If that’s the identity tournament organizers are going for, well, they may want a second opinion. “I feel punch drunk, to be honest,” Rory McIlroy said after a 76-76 finish. “The weekend, it’s like crazy golf. You just don’t get rewarded for good shots.”

McIlroy wasn’t wrong. Yes, Arnie’s place calls for accuracy off the tee and brings the hammer on anything less than perfect. The rough was rough. There were also plenty of approach shots that were solid until they weren’t. A shocking number of balls plugged in bunkers, pins were placed in spots reminiscent of superintendent’s revenge outings, and greens got so dry they were 50 shades of anything but green. Making matters worse was the wind couldn’t make up its mind. Starting, stopping, blowing heavy and blowing light, going this way, then that. It was like trying to dance with a DJ changing songs every five seconds.

“There’s not a lot of friction on the greens, and with the way the wind is blowing, any little bit of a gust has such an extreme effect on the golf ball,” Scheffler said. “It’s so difficult.”

Scheffler called it “a complete beatdown.” Hovland said the conditions turned the tournament into a “scrambling contest” on Saturday night, which is as close to damnation as the polite Norwegian gets. McIlroy was visibly frustrated multiple times Sunday, and despite being a past winner there’s certainly a sense he was not keen on getting in an emergency nine on Sunday.

Kevin C. Cox

“Yeah, they need to do something about it,” McIlroy said when asked if players should think twice about signing up for future APIs. “There’s a lot of guys that sort of stay away this week to get ready for [the Players Championship] next week. Next week [has] become such a big event, $20 million purse. The four majors are sacred in this game, but it’s very close to being among them with the way it’s going … I think it’s just a golf course setup issue and maybe just trying to make it a little less penal when you miss, I guess. Or not even less penal when you miss. I don’t mind golf courses being penal when you miss, but it’s not rewarding good shots. I think that’s where it starts to get across the line.”

In all due respect to Mr. Palmer, forget bold; on an afternoon like this you’re just trying to make it to the clubhouse with limbs attached.

Maybe that’s why Scheffler was the one left standing. Yes, on a tour not short on talent, the former Texas All-American is among its most skillful, possessing the power and precision and touch that allows for few if any holes in his game. He is also among the most even-keeled customers in the twentysomething bunch, belied by his imposing stature. Scheffler is very much—in the parlance of a nice and Ketel One-upped gentleman by the 11th tee—“one bad hoss.” It’s often impossible to tell how Scheffler is playing because the man runs cool, forever and always.

“I think I’m pretty fiery on the inside,” Scheffler said. “I just … when you get on such difficult golf courses like this, you just have to kind of keep your head down and know that mistakes are going to come. You’re going to get bad breaks, you’re going to hit really good shots that turn out really bad. And it’s just stuff that can happen out here just because the golf course is so difficult.

“Today and really all this week I did a good job of kind of fighting back, really just kind of battling the golf course the whole time.”

It is a disposition that allowed Scheffler to shrug off three bogeys on the front and a missed nine-footer for birdie at the 10th. He had one of those “nice swing … oh wait” approach shot on the 11th, his second shot seemingly flag-high only to ricochet off the back. He saved par, but Hovland made birdie to take a two-shot lead, and though Scheffler bounced back with a birdie at the par-5 12th, it felt like a stinger given he faced a 20-footer for eagle.

However, Hovland made 5 on the 12th and three-putted the 13th to make things all squared at five under. That’s how it remained heading to the 15th, and if you’re looking for beauty in the ugly, Scheffler’s next two holes will do the trick. At 15, he tried to hit a cut but his ball stayed straight, his ball settling behind a tree in a pile of pine needles. Unfortunately for Scheffler he caught more pine needle than ball, his second travelling no more than 20 yards.

“I was trying to hit like this low hook runner and get up there around the green somewhere,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know what happened. It just didn’t come out. There was pine straw in front of me that I couldn’t move. There was a leaf behind my ball … I thought I’d hit it at least through the fairway.”

But his third managed to find the putting surface some 20 feet from the cup, and he cleaned that 20 feet up for authority to stay afloat.

The par-5 16th was supposed to provide a respite, one of just three holes playing under par on Sunday. Only a slight miss off the tee ended in the worst of ways, Scheffler’s ball finding a brutal lie in the bunker. “It was a pretty big penalty for not that bad of a shot,” Scheffler said. His ball made it just 50 yards and the lie, though now in the rough, had not improved, having to lay up his third. With Gary Woodland dropping an eagle ahead to move to six under, Scheffler needed an all-world scramble to remain one back … which is what he did, knocking his fourth from 70 yards to six feet and converting the putt.

Woodland made a mess of the par-3 17th to the tune of a double bogey thanks to needing two swings to get his ball out of a greenside bunker. It’s the same bunker Hovland also found en route to a bogey. When it was Scheffler’s turn, he found the safe part of the green and made a sensible lag to make par and take a one-shot lead. He replicated the feat at the closing hole, with Hovland and then Billy Horschel missing birdie putts to tie. It was a sequence that won’t make any highlight reels, yet it delivered a Peruvian Alpaca cardigan and a $2.16 million check to Scheffler.

Kevin C. Cox

“It’s not really a comfortable position having to hit it to 50 feet and try and two-putt with the lead,” Scheffler said. “But I just trusted myself and played conservative the last two holes, and pars were good enough.

When a young player with such highly touted prospects like Scheffler wins—and wins in this way—it’s easy to wonder what it says about who he is and where he’s going and what it means. This is especially true since this is Scheffler’s second victory in his past three starts and his sixth finish of T-7 or better in his last nine. He seems on the precipice of capital-S Stardom, a sentiment supported by the fact he has the chance to become World No. 1 at the Players Championship next week.

That is all well and good, but Scheffler has no appetite for conjecture and rumination. He’s a man who lives in the moment then promptly moves to the next. That wasn’t always the case, however.

“I’ve gotten significantly better over the years at handling failure. I don’t place my value in golf,” Scheffler said. “It’s kind of a tough balance because I spend so much of my time trying to improve and to be good at this game. You’ve really got to look at the motivation for why I play. For me, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s why I play golf. I’m out here to compete because that’s where He wants me. He’s in control of what happens in the end. So just really staying the course and staying faithful and letting Him be the guidance for me versus anything that I do.”

Scheffler said it with conviction and said it because it’s true. Perhaps permitting the past to stay in the past is what makes his future so bright. There is no defeating a man who has the confidence in what he’s doing while understanding the context of where it fits.

Putting those pieces together at 25, to go with his game and gumption and grit, Scheffler does indeed have the makings to be one very bad hoss.

The post Scottie Scheffler hangs on at brutal Bay Hill by being one bad hoss appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
There are days when Rory McIlroy makes this most vexing game look impossibly easy, when he’s swinging freely, putting like a kid and bouncing around like he owns the place. Thursday was one of those days. McIlroy opened the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a seven-under 65 on a Bay Hill track with juicy rough and ever-present water hazards, and he finds himself in a familiar position after one round: alone, on top of the leader board. Here are four takeaways from the first round of Arnie’s event.

Start the Rory-Augusta hype train

Any time McIlroy plays well in February or March, the temptation is to judge his form vis a vis Augusta National. Rory and the Masters are star-crossed lovers; it remains the lone major championship he has not won, the last checkpoint he must pass to complete the career Grand Slam and stake his place among golf’s immortals. We’re still more than a month away from that ceremonial first tee shot, but McIlroy’s play will absolutely have his fans dreaming of a green jacket.

Loosening COVID travel restrictions have allowed McIlroy to fly his longtime coach, Michael Bannon, out to the U.S. from Northern Ireland. (You may recall he had a brief stint working with Pete Cowen, a stint that now appears to be over). Bannon and McIlroy have been hard at work trying to get his clubface more neutral at the top and to feel like the left arm is driving the backswing, not the right. It might sound like gibberish to you but it’s clearly clicking for Rory, who’s quietly putting together a pretty tasty stretch here. Dating back to his victory at last year’s CJ Cup, McIlroy has had official finishes as follows: WIN/T-6/T-12/3rd/T-10.

McIlroy began Thursday’s round on the 10th tee and bogeyed his second hole of the day, only to bounce back with back-to-back birdies and a 41-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th. Per the Golf Channel broadcast, it’s the longest eagle putt McIlroy has made in his entire PGA Tour career, and he played Bay Hill’s four par 5s in five under par. He turned in three-under 33 and played his back nine in bogey-free 32 to put himself in ideal position to add a second API trophy (he won it in 2018) to his mantle.

McIlroy said he’s felt more comfortable putting as of late—he has a tendency to get a bit loose with his reads and setup—despite losing a weapon in his arsenal when the calendar turned to 2022.

“I’ve actually really enjoyed not having a green book. I feel like it’s got me more into the putts. I feel like I’m more … I’m not consulting a green book as much. Honestly, I feel like it’s benefited me these last few weeks, and that’s been a nice thing.”

You know who also doesn’t allow green books? Augusta National.

Don’t be fooled by one round—Bay Hill can bite

Michael Cohen/R&A

McIlroy’s score may give the impression that Bay Hill played like a normal PGA Tour setup. That would be incorrect. The rough is always longer than average at Arnie’s place, but this year’s lettuce seems to be extra thick—and the grainy Bermuda greens already have that slickness.

“They’re already baking out,” said Will Zalatoris, who shot 68. “Scottie [Scheffler] and I were joking about how we were having a tough time getting our putter heads solid on the green because there’s so much grain and so glassy. This is the best I’ve ever seen it, too.

“It’s going to be fun. The weekend’s going to be tough.”

Adam Scott managed the same score despite not having a driver in his bag—he’s going with a 3-wood for accuracy—getting his shoes dirty all day.

“The rough is incredibly thick,” the Aussie said. “It’s a half-shot penalty almost every time you hit it in it. I didn’t think it was that easy because I didn’t hit every fairway either.”

Sepp Straka, who won the Honda Classic four days ago, shot 76. Tom Hoge, who ranks third in the FedEx Cup, shot 78. So did Cameron Tringale, the PGA Tour’s ATM machine, and Garrick Higgo, the promising young South African. Seamus Power, who’s been terrific for the past six months or so, couldn’t break 80. Should the wind pick up at all over the weekend, we could be in for a repeat of the 2020 API, when Tyrell Hatton won at four under and just one player broke 70 on Sunday.

For Rory and Adam, the feeling is mutual

Kevin C. Cox

Ask around about the best golf swings on tour and you’ll hear a whole lot of two names: Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott. The two happened to play together on Thursday, and both played quite well, as we just discussed.

“I like playing with Rory,” Scott said. “I really enjoy watching him play. He’s a guy I can watch play and get positive swing thoughts for myself. I love watching him swing a golf club. I think almost everyone in the world would say that. But he’s a guy I like watching play. Generally, he can lift my level of golf, especially when he’s playing the way he did today.”

McIlroy was then made aware of Scott’s glowing review.

“Yeah, any time I play with Adam, it’s a good pairing,” McIlroy said. “We chat about all sorts of stuff. I feel like we’ve got quite a bit in common. Yeah, anyone could watch Adam Scott swing the club all day long. He’s got a nice rhythm. Yeah, it’s nice. If he feeds off me, I certainly think I feed off him a little bit too.”

Awwww.

Is Jon Rahm … slumping?

Sam Greenwood

It’s a patently ridiculous question to even ask, but Rahm has been on a patently ridiculous run of consistency … until the last few weeks. The World No. 1 saw his streak of 34 straight rounds of par or better end on Friday at the Genesis Invitational and needed a nervy five-footer on his last hole just to make the cut. A six-under final day crept him up to T-21, but that’s still a disappointing week for a guy who’s been living on the first page of leader boards.

Rahm would’ve shot one-under 71 on Thursday at Bay Hill had he not stubbed a putt that couldn’t have been more than eight inches. No, seriously, that actually happened.

“I really couldn’t tell you,” Rahm said of the mishap. “I wish I could give you all the excuses in the world, but no, it’s as simple as … you know, it just didn’t feel good in my hands, and I tried to stop, and I didn’t. I just simply didn’t stop. I don’t know. It was very odd.”

But the six-inchers count the same as the 300 yarders in this game, and so Rahm stands at even par and could conceivably find himself in another battle with the cut. That would make Collin Morikawa’s path to world No. 1 a bit more straightforward. Now that we wrote that, Rahm shoot six under tomorrow. Book it.

The post Rory McIlroy (unknowingly) drums up the Augusta hype train, Jon Rahm struggles and Bay Hill bites back appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
When you think of Adam Scott’s golf game, you think elite tee-to-green play and poor putting, which is why he’s done so much tinkering with the putter throughout his career. That said, the former Masters winner has quietly improved in that area of late, finishing inside the top 50 in strokes gained/putting in each of the last three seasons (currently, he ranks 28th on tour).

Thanks to the marked improvement on the greens, Scott has now focused his attention on another club in his bag: the driver. No, he’s not trying out a longer driver like he did at the Masters in 2020, and he certainly didn’t switch to another $800 shaft like he did a year ago. This week, ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Scott simply left the driver at home.

The (early) results proved fruitful, as Scott opened with a four-under 68 on Thursday at Bay Hill. Per Golf Monthly, Scott swapped out the driver for a 13-degree 3-wood, this despite the Aussie averaging 311.8 yards off the tee this season, good enough to rank 17th on tour. The motivation behind the move? Scott ranks a paltry 183rd in driving accuracy, hitting just 52.71 percent of his fairways this year.

“Trying to hit fairways,” Scott said Thursday. “If you look at my driver stats, accuracy is not its best thing. Distance is fine, but accuracy is not good. If it’s not in the bag, it’s not a temptation.”

It’s no surprise that Scott chose this week to place a premium on accuracy. There are reports from the grounds that the Bay Hill rough is as long as it’s been in decades, long enough for Scott to make the decision to give up precious distance in favour of fairway-finding.

The leaving-the-big-stick-at-home move is hardly a new phenomenon. Phil Mickelson has championed it many times in some of golf’s bigger events, and Ariya Jutanugarn did not use a driver en route to a win at the 2016 Volvik Championship. Sometimes, circumstances can also force a players hand, like when Dustin Johnson cracked his driver at last summer’s Northern Trust and then put an extra 3-wood into play and shot a one-under 71.

Now for the ironic part: Scott didn’t exactly put on a fairway-in-regulation clinic. He hit seven of his 14 fairways, a percentage clip that’s actually less than his season average (52.71 percent, 183rd on tour), and mostly relied on some stellar short-game play (+2.135 SG/around-the-green) and solid putting. But one could argue it’s a mindset thing, too. Scott, playing with Rory McIlroy (who shot a seven-under 65), was unphased by McIlroy’s bombs.

“I know better than to get into a big-hitting contest with Rory McIlroy,” Scott said.

When asked if he’ll keep the driver out of the bag the rest of the week, Scott said he isn’t even sure if he’ll stick to the strategy on Friday. Whatever he did on Thursday worked, that we know.

The post Adam Scott ditches driver, opens with four-under 68 at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.