Henrik Stenson was upset with tournament officials after two late mistakes cost him victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Sunday.
The hot-headed Swede had seen his two-shot overnight lead turned into a two-shot deficit in the space of eight holes, but fought back to reclaim the outright lead with six holes of the final round to play. However, the Ryder Cup star and his playing partner Morgan Hoffman were put on the clock for slow play over the closing stretch, after which he three-putted the 15th for a bogey, and did the same for par on the 16th after finding the green in two.
Stenson was unhappy with the decision to put them on the clock, which he said caused him to hurry his putts. “I’m obviously a little disappointed with the outcome. I’m as much disappointed with the Tour officials for putting us on the clock on 15. It’s hard enough trying to close out a tournament without being on the clock. You are not playing the quickest when you are in the last couple of groups. You have to back off every now and then for mobile phones and stuff like that. I didn’t see the point of the officials influencing, potentially, the outcome of this tournament. It got to me and obviously I was rushing.”
American Matt Every took full advantage of Stenson’s late lapses with a birdie from 15 feet on the 18th to complete a closing 66, which made him the third player in the tournament’s history to successfully defend the title.
Rory McIlroy finished eight shots behind Every after a closing 70, but expressed his satisfaction with his form ahead of his bid to win a third major title in succession and complete the career grand slam at next month’s Masters. “I feel like I got what I wanted out of the week, four good competitive rounds,” he said. “I saw some progress on some of the things I was working on last week. I still need to work on some things ahead of Augusta, but I am excited going there with the opportunity to achieve three in a row, the career grand slam. It’s a nice position to be in. I’m going to embrace it, try not to build it up too much.”