Source: all-breaking-news.com
With a hot, gusty wind twisting palm fronds on the trees and challengers off the leader board, it was Martin Laird of Glasgow who survived by shooting a three-over-par 75 the highest final round by a winner in 33 years of this tournament and the highest by a winner of a nonmajor on the PGA Tour since 2005.
That was a tough fight out there, said the 28-year-old Laird, whose eight-under 280 was a stroke better than Steve Marino (72) and two ahead of the Australian Mark Leishman (71).
The golf course was obviously playing very difficult, Laird said. I knew someone was going to play well and Steve Marino obviously played great today. Birdieing the last put the extra pressure on me coming up 18.
It was a battle out there but, you know, it makes it even sweeter at the end when I got this trophy.
And as sweet as it was for Laird to win his second PGA Tour event, it was a bitter loss for Marino, 31, who had another opportunity to win his first. He took the lead at nine under par with a birdie at the 10th hole, and after Laird bogeyed the eighth hole and double-bogeyed the 11th to fall to six under, Marinos lead was three strokes.
But a plugged lie in the bunker at the 15th hole led to a bogey for Marino, and another at the 17th hole led to a double bogey. As suddenly as he had taken the lead, Marino was trailing.
I thought I hit a really good shot in there, he said. We hit a 6-iron. I hit it perfect. I hit it just the way I wanted to off the tee. I thought it was going to be pretty good. I thought it was going to land close to pin high and maybe bounce to the back fringe.
Marino gouged his ball out of the fried-egg lie. It rolled through the green, leaving him a 30-footer for par. He stroked that one 5 feet past the hole, then made a double bogey by missing the comeback putt.
Just hit a terrible next putt, Marino said. I was able to come back and birdie 18 to give myself a chance, but I mean, thats pretty disappointing. I played so well all day, and just, you know, one hiccup on 17 cost me the tournament.
Laird, meanwhile, was back on his feet. He was two down when he went to the 15th tee and two up when he left the 16th green. His birdie putt at the par-5 16th hole was a downhill, curling left-to-righter from 18 feet. It went right in the middle.
All that was left for Laird was to par the final two holes, something no one in contention had been able to do.
The last four holes set up perfect for me, Laird said. They are all kind of left-to-right holes. You know, 15, 16, you have to cut it off the tee. Seventeen is the same. You want to start it left and work it towards the pin, and 18 is exactly the same.
Lairds tee shot at the 17th went through the green, 48 feet from the pin. But he pitched perfectly to within 5 feet and made the putt. His tee shot on the 18th rolled into the rough, but he hit a wedge from 120 yards safely onto the green, 87 feet from the hole.
Now all the practice with his instructor, Dave Stockton Jr., was about to pay off. Two putts for the win, on a fast, slippery green, with a left-to-right break.
My putting coach and I, we work on sometimes I get kind of stuck over the ball, Laird said. After my last look at the hole and I just thought to myself, dont get stuck looking at that golf ball. As soon as I come back, just let it go and feel it.
It rolled to within 3 feet of the hole, and Laird wasted no time thinking about it. He stepped up and banged the ball in the back of the hole to become the first European winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the second Scot to win on this Sunday Paul Lawrie won on the European Tour in Spain.
And Laird was the survivor of one of the most brutal battles Bay Hill had seen. Not since Mike Nicolette won with a closing 74 in 1983 had a winner come close to shooting as high. But when Lairds putt went in, the number did not matter.
It was a great, great feeling, he said. I couldnt be any happier.
NOTES
Tiger Woods shot a par 72 to finish tied for 24th, but he said he was happy with the way he played, both on Sunday and the entire week. It was a very good week and a week I needed to see, Woods said. It was nice. I hit especially today, I really hit the ball well and the things that we were working on the last, you know, couple weeks, really, really felt comfortable today. I felt I was able to control just about every shot today.
On his four-tournament preparation for the Masters this year versus last year, when he opened his season with the Masters, Woods was emphatic. I felt like Ive played my way into shape, he said. Ive played, Ive kept progressing Now, its feeling very, very good.
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