DeChambeau wins by 1 shot at blustery Bay Hill

Leave it to Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Bryson DeChambeau to stand up to brawny Bay Hill and push back.

Arnold Palmer’s firm, fast, 7,466-yard layout bullied many of the world’s best players, earning an assist from Mother Nature on Sunday when breezy, blustery conditions turned the API into a U.S. Open.

Having won America’s championship last year at Winged Foot, DeChambeau found his comfort zone during the final round en route to a 1-under par 71 to earn a one-shot victory over Lee Westwood, finishing 11-under par 277 total.

“I took a lot of pride in knowing the fact that in these difficult conditions I can persevere and win a golf tournament, like I did at the U.S. Open,” DeChambeau said.

DeChambeau did not bash brutish Bay Hill into submission Sunday like he had mighty Winged Foot. But while the API finalround scoring average ballooned to 75.5 on the par-72 course, he did not back down to capture a tournament dear to the winner’s heart.

“I don’t even know what to say. To win at Mr. Palmer’s event ... it’s going to make me cry,” DeChambeau said. “It means the world to me.”

The hulking, ultra-aggressive DeChambeau — one of just three players to break par, each with 71s — kept things interesting to the end. He left himself with a putt outside five feet on the 72nd hold after a bold birdie attempt, despite simply needing two putts for the win after Westwood’s tying birdie try drifted well left of the hole.

When Westwood sank his 7-footer for par, the pressure was on DeChambeau, who even backed off the putt and re-marked it before he drilled it into the back of the cup, threw up his fists and punched the air. Exiting the green, DeChambeau received a hug from Sam Saunders, Palmer’s grandson.

DeChambeau’s eighth PGA Tour win carried extra meaning for the 27-year-old. DeChambeau met Palmer during his final years and played his first API in 2016, a little more than six months before the golfing legend’s death shook the sport.

On Sunday, DeChambeau recalled Palmer offered life lessons until the end.

“I was certainly excited to meet him for the first time, not knowing he would leave a lasting impression on me that would last the rest of my life,” DeChambeau said. “When [I] signed the book, he said, ‘Make it legible,’ and when he said that, that stuck to me and I’ve done it ever since.”

DeChambeau mimics Palmer out on the course, too.

The fearless, flamboyant playing style of Sunday’s winner is remi

niscent of Palmer, even if DeChambeau’s scientific approach to the game is dissimilar to the feel for the game Palmer relied on during his legendary career.

Each man’s go-for-broke style is similarly popular with galleries.

Nowhere was this more evident the past four days than on the par-5 6th hole, a sweeping dogleg left over a large lake known for derailing rounds and generating folklore, none more than John Daly’s 18 during the 1998 API.

The long-hitting Daly brazenly went for the green, a carry of at least 350 yards — or well within the range of muscle-bound 6-foot1, 245-pound DeChambeau, who considered the choice with the wind at his back during the weekend rounds.

With fans Sunday begging him to go for the green — one screaming, “You have the launch codes, baby!” DeChambeau played it somewhat safely and settled for a 379-yard blast into a fairway bunker to leave him 88 yards on the 565-yard hole.

DeChambeau made birdie and left the green tied with Westwood at 11-under par.

But DeChambeau, who raised his hands in celebration as the ball cleared one of the more daunting water hazards on the PGA Tour, had won the adoration of a COVID-restricted crowd of 5,000, most of them five deep around the tee box and lining the ropes alongside No. 6.

“It wasn’t anything preplanned. It was a pure reaction out of trying to hit it as far as I possibly can,” DeChambeau said. “I feel like when I hit that one really hard that was just my raw emotion saying, ‘Go, come on, clear the water.’ So that was definitely fun.”

The rest of the day was a grind for the two leaders.

DeChambeau would scratch out a dozen pars the rest of the way, yet the stretch of golf was anything but predictable or routine.

A putt just inside 50 feet on the par-4 11th hole was the most unexpected, if not unbelievable, moment of DeChambeau’s round.

“It was massive,” he said. “I mean, knowing what I know now, it’s obviously the shot of the day for me.”

DeChambeau’s final three swings produced his most defining shots of the day.

He striped an iron safely on the green to set up a par on the perilous 219-yard, par-3 17th, a hole that ended 54-hole leader Corey Conners’ bid for the win when the 29-year-old Canadian made bogey after missing a 6-foot putt.

Having hit just five of 13 fairways on the day, DeChambeau then drilled a 303-yard drive down the pipe on the par-4 18th hole, followed by a 160-yard shot to the middle of the green — his 14th reached in regulation on the day.

“It had to be done,” DeChambeau said. “I knew I had to stand up and execute three great golf shots.”

DeChambeau’s final-hole fortitude forced Westwood to do something special to have a chance to win. But the 47-year-old with 44 worldwide victories was betrayed by his putter, long the bugaboo of one of the game’s premier ballstrikers.

A day after Westwood sank 129 feet of putts to shoot 65, he missed endless opportunities inside 20 feet and several inside 10, other than a 37-foot birdie on the par-5 12th hole to once again tie DeChambeau. Westwood’s miss just outside five feet for birdie on the par-5 16th hole was the killer.

In the end, Westwood was pleased he went toe-to-toe with a talent 20 years his junior and playing a game unlike any player on Tour.

“I thought we had a really good battle,” Westwood said. “He can overpower a golf course. It’s fun to watch.”

DeChambeau’s novel approach and winning formula have earned the respect of his peers, including arguably the game’s greatest player.

On Sunday morning, DeChambeau said he received an encouraging text message from Tiger Woods, who is recovering from injuries suffered in a death-defying car accident in California.

Donning the API champion’s red cardigan — extra large, of course — DeChambeau knew what it meant to win Sunday but also was thinking about more than himself.

“When I got that text, I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty amazing that he is thinking of me when he’s in his tough times that he’s going through right now,’ ” DeChambeau said. “So I just texted him, I said, ‘Keep moving forward, keep going forward. You’re going to get through it.’

“I think this red cardigan is not only for Mr. Palmer, but I would say it’s a little bit for Tiger as well, knowing what place he’s in right now.”