Win at Arnie’s Place extra special for Bryson DeChambeau

ORLANDO, Fla. - Bay Hill Club and Lodge, relatively docile and friendly for three days, showed its ornery side on Sunday in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Why, some players even said it resembled the difficult setup - high winds, thick rough, rock-hard greens - that a golfer might encounter at a U.S. Open.

Which, lo and behold, played right into the hands of the reigning U.S. Open champion.

Bryson DeChambeau will tell you he did not have his best swing on Sunday, but he had enough of the good stuff and showed ample grit to hold off Englishmen Lee Westwood, 20 years his elder, by a shot. '

DeChambeau, 27, finished at 11 under on the week and moved to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. He bogeyed his opening hole but never made another. He struck the timely shots when he was asked to, such as splitting the fairway at the par-4 18th with a 303-yard missile while clinging to that slim lead, and converting one last tricky par putt to win.

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With darkness settling fast after DeChambeau had run a curling birdie putt almost 6 feet past the hole, he stepped up and won the tournament. He celebrated as if he was a man who'd grabbed onto an electric fence. None of it was easy.

'Even when I don't have all the things I need to feel comfortable with my golf swing and with equipment, all the time, I was still able to perform and execute when the time came,' DeChambeau said. 'And that was pretty exciting.'

His 12th consecutive par to close and final-round 71 delivered DeChambeau's eighth PGA TOUR victory. He was one of only three players (Andrew Putnam and Matt Wallace the others) to shoot 71 on a day when the average score was 75.486. He became the first American to win the API since Matt Every (2014-15) and moved to No. 6 in the World Ranking.

Corey Conners, who was steady all week, finished alone in third after a final-round 74. Tying for fourth place were Putnam, Richy Werenski (73) and Jordan Spieth (75). The finish was Spieth's third top-5 in his last four starts.

For DeChambeau, winning was great, but winning at Arnold Palmer's beloved Bay Hill only made things sweeter. On the 18th green for the traditional champion's ceremony, DeChambeau got emotional talking about Palmer and all he meant to him, and to the game.

'It's beyond my wildest dreams to win Mr. Palmer 's event,' said DeChambeau, who departed for THE PLAYERS Championship sporting both the champion's red alpaca cardigan sweater (size XL) and the FedExCup points lead. DeChambeau became the TOUR's first multiple winner of 2021; not since 1994 had the TOUR gone so long (21 weeks) without a player collecting multiple titles.

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