Scheffler dominates at Bay Hill
Scottie Scheffler got hot with the putter Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla., 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-par 66 — the lowest score by two shots in the final round — while playing in the last group.
He wound up winning 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. US 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, who now has seven PGA Tour titles, picked up $4 million for winning this signature event. He finished at 15-under 273.
PGA — Brice Garnett holed a 15foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole to win the Puerto Rico Open in his first tournament of the year, sending him to The Players Championship next week and giving him PGA Tour status for the next three years.
Garnett closed with a 3-under 69 at Grand Reserve Golf Club, and Erik Barnes closed with a 68 as they finished at 19-under 269. LPGA —Bailey Tardy picked up her first victory on the LPGA Tour, shooting 7-under 65 in the final round of the Blue Bay tournament on China’s southern island of Hainan for the victory by four strokes ahead of Sarah Schmelzel.
Tardy had a 19-under 269 total for the 72-hole event.
Schmelzel closed with a 69. Ayaka Furue finished in third place, five strokes back after a 65.
Lydia Ko, who held the lead in China with Tardy and Schmelzel after three rounds, finished with a 71, six strokes behind the winner.
European — Matteo Manassero broke through with his first European tour win in nearly 11 years, shooting 6-under 66 after a storm delay for a three-stroke victory at the Jonsson Workwear Open in Edenvale, South Africa.
Once a prodigy in European golf, the now 30-year-old Italian picked up the win by making four birdies in his last four holes to finish at 26 under.
LIV — Abraham Ancer regained just enough of the composure that helped him pull out to a five-stroke lead after two rounds to beat Cameron Smith and Paul Casey in a playoff and win the inaugural tourney in Hong Kong.