Scheffler, with hot putter, demolishes the field at Bay Hill

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 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, the former British Open champion who started the final round tied with Scheffler, had three bogeys in seven holes and played the final 10 holes without a bogey for a 72 to finish alone in third.

Ancer wins three-way LIV Hong Kong playoff

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 LIV Golf tournament in Hong Kong on Sunday.

Ancer’s comfortable lead at the start of the final round gradually disappeared with the Mexican struggling to keep pace with the chasing pack after a 2-over round of 72 at the Hong Kong Golf Club course.

Casey’s 6-under 64 final round, which led his Crushers GC to the team title, pulled him even with Ancer while Smith shot 4 under to secure a place in the playoff with the trio finishing at 13 under for the tournament.

With heavy rain falling, Ancer rediscovered his touch to find the fairway with his opening drive of the first playoff hole on the 18th while Casey and Smith pushed theirs right and left, respectively. His spectacular approach shot set up a short birdie putt that he converted while Casey and Smith both finished with bogeys.

Tardy earns first LPGA victory at Bay Blue

Bailey Tardy picked up her first victory on the LPGA Tour, shooting 7-under 65 in Sunday’s final round of the Blue Bay tournament on China’s southern island of Hainan to win 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.

Tardy had the halfway lead at the U.S. Women’s Open last year but saw victory slip away.

Lydia Ko, who held the lead in China with Tardy and Schmelzel after three rounds, finished with a 71, six strokes behind the winner.

A victory by Ko on Sunday would have earned her enough points for entry into the LPGA’S Hall of Fame. It also would have been her 21st win on the LPGA Tour and her second this season.