Scheffler demolishes field at Bay Hill
ORLANDO, FLA. >> Scottie Scheffler became the No. 1 player in golf with his sublime tee-to-green game. He got hot with the putter Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was simply unstoppable.
Scheffler made every important putt to build a three-shot lead at the turn and then poured it on with a game so complete he closed with a bogey-free, 6-under 66 — the lowest score by two shots at Bay Hill in the final round — while playing in the last group.
He wound up winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots, the largest margin at Bay Hill since Tiger Woods in 2012.
And it came a week before Scheffler defends his title at The Players Championship, which had been his last official PGA Tour win.
All that held him back over the last year was the putter. Scheffler switched to a mallet model this week, but far more important was keeping quiet between the ears, thinking more about the stroke than the outcome.
Both were superb. He made every putt inside 15 feet on the weekend to win at Bay Hill for the second time in three years.
U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark did the best at trying to stay close, and he was two shots behind through eight holes. But it all turned so quickly. Clark drove into the rough and made bogey on the ninth hole and then didn’t make another birdie until the par-5 16th. He shot 70.
Scheffler made a pair of birdie putts in the 7-foot range to start the back nine, and then he showed more emotion than usual with a 35-foot birdie on the 15th that turned the final round into a runaway.
Scheffler now has seven PGA Tour titles, all against some of the strongest fields. He picked up $4 million for winning this signature event. Scheffler finished at 15-under 273.
Clark birdied the 18th for a reasonable consolation prize. He earned $2.2 million as the runner-up.
Shane Lowry played the final 10 holes without a bogey for a 72 to finish third.