The real winner Sunday was Bay Hill

Most PGA golf tournaments are won, not lost. But that was decidedly not the case when Scottie Scheffler and the rest of the field came down the stretch Sunday at Bay Hill.

Billy Horschel, Viktor Hovland, Tyrell Hatton, Talor Gooch, Gary Woodland…one by one they fired and then fell back over the final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. That succession of stumbles left the trophy in the hands of Scheffler, who made nothing more spectacular than a trio of up-and-down pars over the final six holes.

Scheffler, who won one month ago was winless for his career until last month. He has now won in two of his three most recent starts and tied for seventh at the other, the Genesis.

On Sunday, though, it wasn’t so much what Scheffler did as what the others did poorly.

• Horschel, the overnight co-leader, played the front nine in four-over. Hovland had a clear path to the title until he bogeyed three of the final six holes.
• Gooch bogeyed his first two holes Sunday, turned in seven-over 43, and was never again a factor.
• Woodland eagled the par 5 16th to take the lead, only to double bogey the par 3 17th and fall right back into his final resting place, a tie for fifth.

There was nothing unusual about this late-tournament carnage. Bay Hill did the same thing to everybody Sunday.

The final round field average was 75.48, about three and one-half strokes over par. How high is that?

Over the past 12 months, the average final round field scoring average is 70.46, about five strokes lower. Aside from Bay Hill, the highest final-round scoring average since March of 2021 was 73.17 at the U.S. Open last June.

That’s right; the final round at Bay Hill Sunday played nearly 2.56 strokes tougher than the final round at Torrey Pines with the national championship on the line.

You could also see the difficulty in the progression, or lack of same, of par. Scheffler’s winning score of five-under was two strokes worse than the leading margin of seven-under posted by Horschel, just 24 hours earlier. It was only the seventh time since last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational that the field leader came back to par on Sunday.

Scheffler won with a closing score of 72. That’s the highest Sunday score by a tournament champion since last year’s PGA Championship when Phil Mickelson closed with a 73. For comparison, the average Sunday score by a winner over the past year is 67.05, nearly five full strokes better than Scheffler’s winning performance Sunday.