British Open champion Francesco Molinari rolled in a 45-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Bay Hill that capped off an 8-under 64, taking him from five shots behind to a two-shot victory Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Tiger Woods appears ready to return to action at the Players Championship after missing the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a neck strain.
Phil Mickelson’s 78 Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational has given him pause about playing in next week’s Players Championship.
2 Related
“Tough day, tough to get it close to the hole,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I really didn’t play that badly. I missed a couple of shots but I felt like I was hitting good shots to 30 feet all day.”
McIlroy came into the week having finished among the top 5 in all of his 2019 starts. His tie for sixth broke that streak, but still gives him an impressive run of tournaments, albeit without a victory. It’s certainly better than the plight of, say, Jordan Spieth, who has not been better than 35th in his past eight worldwide starts.
So it’s all relative. Is it better to contend and fail than to never contend at all?
McIlroy, ranked sixth in the world, wasn’t showing any signs of annoyance coming into the tournament, seemingly taking his close calls in stride and recognizing that the bigger picture suggests that good golf at some point will be rewarded.
“You’re not going to get frustrated playing good golf,” he said. “At the end of the day all you’re trying to do is get that ball in the hole. I you feel like you’re doing that pretty well, then what’s there to be frustrated about?”
There were understandably some signs of it Sunday. His birdie at the 16th was the only one on a par-5 in the final round, and it was disappointing given he had a makeable eagle putt. He missed a 5-footer for birdie at the fourth, but there were not enough realistic chances. He also ranked just 39th in the field in strokes gained putting.
McIlroy came into the tournament ranked first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained overall, making up more than 2.5 strokes per round on the field, an impressive display that has yet to be rewarded.
“I’m playing well, I’m getting myself into contention every week, continue to do that, going into next week (at the Players Championship),” McIlroy said. “That’s the great thing about golf, you don’t have to wait too long to get back on the course.
“So I’m happy with everything, I just think today I could have played the par-5s better. But it was really an unbelievable round by Francesco to shoot what he did. I would have needed to go out there to better him, which would have been one of the best scores of the day.”
Interestingly, Molinari cited a final-round pairing with McIlroy last year at the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship as a reason for a run of success. The two were tied at Wentworth heading into the final round, with Molinari prevailing.
Since then he has won the Quicken Loans National, The Open, went 5-0 at the Ryder Cup and has now added a fourth victory in less than a year.
“When I won with Rory playing in the last few groups, it wasn’t easy at all,” he said. “So from there I just started building my confidence and just saying I could get it done.”
For whatever reason, McIlroy is not getting it done in final rounds, Sunday the most glaring example. Certainly you can’t expect him to rally to victory every time he is in the final group, but this was the fourth time in those nine events he’s been within one of the lead and failed to win.
“I’ve had to tell myself (to have) patience at times,” McIlroy said. “It’s just letting that golf come out when it matters most. And that’s when you need to almost take your foot off the gas and just let it happen. And that’s obviously easier said than done.”
If anything, McIlroy is slowing down rather than barging through, a plight that is more pronounced when you are an acclaimed four-time major champion with but a single victory over the last 30 months.
Powered by WPeMatico
