In the final round of the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, Rory McIlroy caught fire and scorched the back-9 of Bay Hill to win his first PGA TOUR event since the TOUR Championship in 2016. He shot a final round 64 to win his 14th PGA TOUR victory, including five birdies in his last six holes, to finish the tournament at Eighteen Under Par and three shots ahead of second place. See highlights from the final round above and a detailed look at Rory’s final round below!
On Sunday, Rory’s proximity to the hole on his approach shots was 24 feet, which was number 1 in the field for Round 1. He also finished number 1 in the field for this category for the tournament. He seemed to have fixed his putting, gaining 2.5 strokes against the field per round with his putter – he putted extremely well this week. And finally, he had an average driving distance of 317 yards at Bay Hill, including a bomb that went 373 yards on the 16th on Sunday. He actually averaged 336 yards off the tee in Round 4. When a player leads in these specific statistical categories, you can bet that they’ll be contending in a tournament! What a week by Rors!
The story for most of the day was definitely Tiger Woods, who put together a spirited run on Sunday. He was one-back of the lead through 15 holes, but untimely bogeys on 16 and 17 ultimately ended his chances. Although it would have added some drama to the tournament, a late charge wouldn’t have mattered too much to Tiger anyways as Rory’s strong play over his last few holes shut the door for anybody else to win. Tiger has now had three top-15 finishes in a row and is now the favourite to win The Masters in a few weeks with 8/1 odds in Vegas. With Tiger coming back to form and Rory playing out of his mind this week, there are bound to be plenty of story lines heading into that first weekend of April!
Source: PGA Tour
