ORLANDO – It was battle on a tough course this weekend, and it’s just the way Arnold Palmer would have liked it: tougher conditions and good competition.
England’s Tyrell Hatton held on to win the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational. This is Hatton’s first win on the PGA Tour.
Hatton not only dealt with the Florida cold spell which made conditions tougher, but also stiff competition on the final Round.
Hatton lead for most of the tournament, but he double bogeyed on the 11, allowing Sungjae Im to slide into the lead for a few holes. Last week’s Honda Classic winner inished in third place at 2-under par after going 2-over on his final nine at Bay Hill, fining his shot at a back-to-back Florida swing.
Hatton’s bogeys early in his day on 1 and 5 left the door open for Im who’s solid play helped him creep up the leaderboard to tie with Rory McIlroy at 2nd.
“Obviously I was getting frustrated at times,” Hatton said, “but nowhere near the blow-ups that I am capable of. It’s just one of those days where you just got to stick in there, and patience is one of the hardest things with me.”
Once Im had the lead with a birdie on 3, he managed to hold on until a bogey on 11, followed by a birdie on 12. But a double bogey on 13 and another bogey on 15 allowed Hatton to pull ahead and also Marc Leishman to slide ahead into contention.
Hatton birdied 7 and 8 to slide back into the lead and didn’t let go for the rest of play.
McIlroy, the number one player in the world, started even and birdied 4, but then fell apart. Rory bogeyed 5, double bogeyed 6 and 9 to set up a final score at 76 and a tie at 5th.
Brooks Keopka had a rough tournament, but raised his overall score by 10 strokes to finish with an 71, hot best round of the Tournament.
Risky Fowler had ended the 4th round having delivered 4 bogeys and one double bogey for a 74.
