Scottie Scheffler survives the grind to win Arnie’s tournament
With the winds howling and greens rock hard, Scottie Scheffler prevailed on a day at the Arnold Palmer Invitational that tested the PGA’s best
How do you stop PGA Tour pros, stronger and better than ever, from obliterating a golf course with sheer power alone? Grow out the rough, make the greens like concrete, tuck the pins in corners that only the boldest would take on, and hope they face howling winds.
It’s a recipe for leaving the best golfers in the world down on their knees, their nerves fried and their confidence shattered. It’s what they faced this week at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and it left Scottie Scheffler not so much the champion but as the last man standing.
Scheffler, the 25-year-old burgeoning superstar, won his second PGA Tour title in his last three starts with a gutsy display that would’ve made the tournament’s namesake proud. On the most difficult Sunday at Bay Hill in more than 40 years, Scheffler played himself out of jams so often that, when he walked off the 18th green following a two-putt par from 70 feet, he found himself at five-under, a shot ahead of a threesome including playing partner Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, and Billy Horschel.
Scheffler’s even-par 72 in the final round was as solid as it gets as the game’s best were constantly left flailing against Bay Hill’s tough setup. He didn’t make a bogey on the back-nine, the other player who finished in the top-six to avoid dropping a shot down the stretch. Not that the course didn’t put him to the test.
Scottie Scheffler’s steely nerves survive the pressure at Arnold Palmer Invitational
At the 15th hole, his drive went well left into the magnolia trees. He could only advance his second shot 25 yards, still in the left rough. Bogey suddenly seemed like a good score. But his third shot managed to bound in the greenside rough, narrowly missing a bunker, and settled on the green 22 feet away. He made the putt to save par.
On the next hole, a reachable par-five, Scheffler had much bigger concerns than deciding whether to go for the green in two. He had to lay up after his tee shot went well right. With the green surrounded by water, he had to play his third shot from the rough short. Scheffler, now playing his fourth shot and still not on the green, chipped to six feet and again made the putt.
All around him, his challengers crumbled away. Gary Woodland took the lead with an eagle at the 16th, only to give it all back with a double-bogey at the par-three 17th. Hovland made three bogeys over his last six holes. Horschel, tied for the overnight lead at the start of the round, quickly saw it slip away with a front-nine 40 and had his gallant effort to crawl back come up one shot short when he missed a birdie putt on the 18th green.
The tall, gangly Texan was the one donning Arnold Palmer’s iconic red cardigan as the champion. Adding this title to the Waste Management Phoenix Open he won three weeks ago, Scheffler will rise to No. 5 on the World Golf Rankings. Just two years after he won the Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour’s top rookie, he’s now ranked above Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, and Dustin Johnson.
He’s also now linked permanently with Palmer and Palmer’s course. Scheffler first played Bay Hill a decade ago, when he was a junior golfer at the Wyndham Cup. Palmer wasn’t there that day, but Scheffler did manage to meet him once, at a Champions Tour event he attended with his dad. Scheffler was still in college at Texas when Palmer passed away in 2016, but the iconic image of Palmer swinging a golf club has always had an effect on him.
“For me, the first thing when I think of Arnie, I think of his golf swing,” Scheffler said this week. “As someone who doesn’t have a perfect golf swing life myself, it’s kind of fun seeing his follow through and seeing the way he played golf, playing so aggressively and kind of with a quirky swing. I look up to him a lot.”
Palmer is no longer there, standing by the 18th green to shake the hand of the champion. But his presence at this tournament is still felt. With what Scheffler pulled off on Sunday, he would like what he saw.
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