Boston Herald

Hatton hangs on at Bay Hill

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Tyrrell Hatton went from losing his mind to winning the tournament.

Bay Hill served up the most demanding test this side of a major, and Hatton kept it together down the stretch Sunday by playing bogey-free over the last seven holes for a 2-over 74 to win the Arnold Palmer Invitation­al.

It was his fifth victory worldwide, and first on the PGA Tour, and it came in just his second start since returning from surgery on his right wrist during the offseason.

But the 28-year-old Englishman could only smile when he tapped in a 3-foot par putt on the 18th for a one-shot victory over Marc Leishman, one of the few players who kept moving forward — barely — on another day of blustery, brittle conditions at Bay Hill.

Hatton finished at 4-under 284, one of only four players who beat par for the week, the fewest at Bay Hill since 1980. So severe was the course that Matt Fitzpatric­k closed with a 69, the only player to break 70 on the weekend.

Rory McIlroy, one shot behind going into the final round, had a 76 for his highest closing round in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event since a 76 in the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion. He still tied for fifth, his eighth consecutiv­e finish in the top 5 world wide dating to September.

Sungjae Im, trying to become the first player since David Duval in 1997 to win his first two PGA Tour titles in consecutiv­e weeks, was there with a chance until he came up shockingly short and into the water on the 13th for a double bogey.

He wasn’t alone in making big numbers, a list that includes Hatton.

He had a three-shot lead when he drove into the water on the par-4 11th into the wind, went well over the green with his third shot, chipped short of the putting surface and had to make a 6-footer for a double bogey.

The gestures, the temper, it was all on display. And it didn’t calm down when he eliminated a good birdie opportunit­y on the par-5 12th and then sent his tee shot on the 13th — a front pin on a green guarded by water — into the ankle-deep rough.

Jorge Campillo lost a twoshot lead with three holes to play Sunday, stayed alive with two long birdie putts in a playoff and won on the fifth extra hole to beat David Drysdale in the Qatar Masters.

On the sixth time playing the 18th hole for the day, Campillo rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt and raised his arm. Victory was not assured until Drysdale’s 18foot putt to extend the playoff missed to the left.

“It was a tough win, but I’m glad I pulled it off,” said Campillo, who won for the second straight year on the European Tour.

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