This year’s addition of The Arnold Palmer Invitational provided the most excitement of the PGA Tour season to date as a slew of thoroughbreds, some young, some youngish and some definitely long in the tooth, rampaged over the Bay Hill Golf Course to a fantastic finish.
Former #1 Rory McIlroy was the last man standing at Arnie’s Place but his win was not pre-ordained nor even probable in the early going as he missed three makable birdie putts in the early going while another former #1, Tiger Woods, was stirring up the record crowd with his early play.
Tiger birdied #4, #6 and #8 to get to 10 under and in the mix and into the heads of his fellow competitors.
This was the comeback golf was yearning for, the return to winning form of the most dominant and at the same time, most polarizing golfer of his generation and perhaps of all time.
And Tiger seemed intent on delivering to his adoring masses as he birdied three of his first four holes on the backside after posting a bogey five at #9. Only one back of the lead at 12 under! This was it – but it was not to be, at least not the win.
But Tiger is back, make no mistake. At least that’s my humble opinion, win or no win. Wins will come, maybe even majors. That’s my prediction and hope.
Folks might say Tiger’s wild tee ball over the OB fence on #16 tee was his undoing but, in reality, there was no way he could have won at that point since Rory was in the midst of putting a strangle hold on the AP Trophy. Three frontside birdies had him well positioned and then he ran the table with four consecutive birdies at #13 through #16. His 20 footer for bird at 18 wasn’t needed to preserve the winning margin but it put a cherry on top of a sumptuous 64.
Rory had been winless on the PGA Tour for 18 months, his last win coming at the 2016 Tour Championship concluded on the same day that this tournaments namesake, Arnold Palmer, died. Some strange kind of symmetry here, no doubt.
There’s another symmetry at work here, as well, as just a couple of weeks ago Phil Mickelson came out of his own personal wilderness to capture his first win in nearly five seasons with his victory at The WGC Mexico Championship in Mexico City.
Phil, Tiger and Rory are the three most electrifying golfer’s of the past thirty years.
Tiger is universally hailed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest golfer of all time.
Phil is certainly among the top 20 to ever play the game and he’s got a good chance of cracking the top 10 with another major in tow.
Rory was the wunderkind, the heir apparent, the next Tiger when he roared out of Northern Ireland eleven years ago as a 17 year old prodigy.
With a long game that induced gasps and awe coupled with a killer instinct concealed by his mop of hair, he garnered four majors by the time he was 25. Comparisons to Tiger and Jack were the norm.
But there ‘s been a drought of majors since and a fall from the #1 ranking down to #13. But things have changed now. For Rory, for Tiger, for Phil.
What a season we’ve had so far and we haven’t even entered the major’s run yet!
Who will win at Augusta? I don’t know. But it is now a question with many more possible answers than we had just three weeks ago.
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