Before all these Las Vegas odds-makers start anointing Tiger Woods as the favorite to win The Masters, maybe they should consider what transpired Sunday afternoon at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Maybe they should go back and take a look at how Rory McIlroy came back to life, looking the way he used to look when he was the world’s No. 1 player.
McIlroy didn’t just go out and win Arnie’s event, he won in dominating fashion.
McIlroy’s final round 64 was a pure work of art on a golf course that does not easily yield masterpieces like the one McIlroy put together over the final six holes at Bay Hill.
In the process, he buried major champions Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and yes, Tiger Woods, the player everyone who works for the Golf Channel picked to win.
There was a last gasp by the mad scientist, Bryson DeChambeau, the tour’s new Sultan Of Slow Play. McIlroy had to wait what seemed like an eternity while DeChambeau figured out the various algorithms involved with his approach into the 18th. He needed to hole it to tie McIlroy but in the end, made bogey and finished three behind but in solo possession of second.
McIlroy quietly went about his business on the front nine. He made the turn three-under but no one noticed because Tiger Woods was mounting a charge of sorts that brought him within a shot of the leaders when he reached the 16th tee. But Woods showed that he’s no where near ready for a scoring tussle like the one that took place down the stretch. He promptly launched his tee shot way out-of-bounds left and ended up with bogey on the easiest hole on the golf course. Visibly shaken, Woods then bogeyed the 17th and officially bowed out of the race.
While all that was going on, McIlroy was on a pure birdie run. Things looked a little dim for Rory when he failed to birdie the par five 12th. It was then that the kid who couldn’t putt a lick last week at Innisbrook, began to make everything.
Rory poured in a birdie from just inside 17 feet at 13 then holed one from 21-feet at 14. At 15 he went wild and chipped in for a third straight birdie. The 16th was no challenge at all after he launched a 372-yard drive that left him a flip wedge into the par five. After a par at 17, he finished off a perfect performance with a 25-footer at the 72nd hole and fired off a fist-pump that brought back memories of a guy who wears red and black on Sundays. “I thought about throwing my cap down,” McIlroy said with a big grin.
Eighteen-under was super-human on a course that proved too tough for overnight leader Henrik Stenson to handle. After a super start, all he could manage were a couple of 71s on the weekend.
Even more impressive is that McIlroy’s romp came on greens that were lightning fast, the fastest this season, which bodes well for Rory’s chances on the pool-table surfaces at Augusta National.
“I kept saying I was close,” McIlroy reiterated after ending a PGA Tour drought that lasted 539 days. “Something clicked into place in my long game, something clicked into place in my putting.”
McIlroy didn’t know how long it had been since he last won. But he did remember what happened the same day as that last win. “It was the day he passed away,” McIlroy said, recalling that Arnold Palmer died on September 25 two years ago when he won the Tour Championship.
“He was a fine man,” McIlroy said of Palmer.
“I wish that when I walked up that hill, I would have got a handshake from him.”
