ORLANDO, Fla. — Russell Henley confronted one shot he rarely practices. On one other shot, he figured he had little likelihood for the ball to remain on the inexperienced.
Each turned out near completely Sunday within the Arnold Palmer Invitational — one for birdie, the opposite for eagle — that have been key moments in a cost that may have made Arnie proud. He shot 33 on the again 9 – one of the best of anybody in competition for a 2-under 70 that gave him a one-shot win over Collin Morikawa.
“It is nonetheless surreal carrying this factor up right here,” Henley stated of the pink cardigan that goes to the winner at Bay Hill. “Simply loopy that it occurred like that.”
All of it occurred so immediately.
Morikawa by no means trailed within the last spherical and stretched his result in three pictures with 5 holes to play, a tricky deficit on a brittle course with thick tough and greens that appeared yellow.
Henley hit a 5-iron to 10 toes on the par-3 14th gap for certainly one of solely two birdies within the last spherical, and Morikawa missed the inexperienced and make bogey.
“That was a lower 5-iron. I do not bear in mind the final time … I do not observe that shot rather a lot,” Henley stated. “I am not making an attempt to hit a excessive and tender lower 5-iron fairly often. I am simply making an attempt to hit it straight to somewhat draw. So when that one got here off and hit the inexperienced, I simply thought, “Man, that was a very nice feeling.'”
The deficit was down to at least one.
After which got here the pivotal par-5 sixteenth, the place Morikawa laid up from a bunker and hit wedge to 18 toes. Henley was in juicy tough behind the inexperienced and needed to chip from greater than 50 toes away, down the slope to a entrance pin on a inexperienced that was yellow, wanting as if it barely had any grass.
His caddie, Andy Sanders, figured the chip would have rolled 6 toes by. Henley noticed it in a different way.
“I do not know that you would be able to cease it,” he stated.
To not fear. It smacked into the pin and dropped for eagle, giving him the lead for the primary time all day when Morikawa didn’t convert his birdie putt.
Henley completed with two pars and Morikawa, who closed with a 72, could not catch him.
“I used to be simply so nervous. I can not breathe proper now,” Henley instructed NBC off the 18th inexperienced. “It is so laborious and troublesome round this place. I simply tried to remain actually robust this week.”
He made it robust on himself at instances, significantly when he made a large number of each par 5s on the entrance 9 to take bogey on every of them.
“I did not actually really feel like I had an important likelihood at that time, and Collin was simply taking part in so regular, like he at all times does,” Henley stated. “So simply to hold in there sufficient to present myself some seems is what I am going to take from today.”
He began the again 9 with a bogey from the golf green, falling three behind. However he made up for it in a giant method, significantly the chip-in for eagle that he referred to as break. Breaks like which are what wins tournaments.
“This sport is simply so laborious,” Henley stated.
It was one other shut name for Morikawa, the two-time main champion whose sport is again so as and now could be lacking solely a trophy that he hasn’t hoisted in 17 months.
He started by holing a bunker shot for birdie on the primary gap. He was within the lead all day, in management all day, in what had been a sleepy last spherical on a brutal take a look at of quick, agency circumstances.
After which immediately he wasn’t.
“Hats off to Collin. He performed tremendous regular,” Henley stated. “Typically golf is simply imply like that.”
Corey Conners opened with 15 straight pars, made one birdie in his spherical of 71, and completed two pictures behind. The comfort prize for the Canadian was incomes the one spot accessible this week within the British Open this summer season at Royal Portrush.
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley set a match report with a 29 on the entrance 9, solely to stall and match the tournament-low 64 to tie for fifth.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler did not make sufficient putts or sufficient birdies for the week. He closed with a 70 and tied for eleventh. Scheffler now heads two hours up the highway to the TPC Sawgrass because the two-time defending champion at The Gamers Championship.
Henley completed at 11-under 277 and earned $4 million from the $20 million purse. It was his fifth profession win on the PGA Tour, although by no means in opposition to a subject this robust. He was greater than as much as the duty as his sport has turn out to be persistently good during the last three years.
The victory strikes him to No. 7 on the planet, and the 35-year-old from Georgia seems the a part of a top-10 participant. He simply would not take a look at himself that method.
“I assume the rankings would inform you that,” Henley stated. “However I’ve a lot respect for thus many gamers out right here who’re all so proficient, and so it is laborious for me to sort of comprehend that.”
There was rather a lot for him to digest Sunday afternoon, beginning with the silver trophy at his facet and what it took for him to take possession of it.
