Arnold Palmer Invitational Recap: Hatton Wins in Brutal Conditions

One week ago, we were all talking about whether a European golfer needed to win on the PGA Tour to validate his career. Well, Tyrrell Hatton is not as accomplished as Tommy Fleetwood, but here we go again.

No matter where you stand on the issue, Hatton validated himself and a whole lot more by surviving brutal conditions all weekend long to become the fifth straight international winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Sunday afternoon. The 28-year-old Englishman has won four times on the European Tour but, yes, this was the biggest win of his burgeoning career – by far.

The API boasted a strength-of-field rating of 556, per the OWGR website, while Hatton's previous wins, including the Turkish Open in November, were all under 250. That's a cavernous disparity. Nine of the top-15 in the world were in Orlando, including Fleetwood. Hatton's countryman found himself in the center of controversy last week after failing to close out the Honda Classic, leaving him a top-10 golfer but one without a PGA Tour win. Fleetwood missed the cut at Bay Hill – and that was before the difficult conditions truly stiffened on the weekend.

Hatton naturally was asked about Fleetwood, and he negotiated the issue as well as he negotiated the difficult golf course, saying simply that it's tough to win on any tour. Nicely done, Tyrrell.

It certainly was tough at Bay Hill.

Hatton won with a score of only 4-under, one better than 2017 API winner and this year's tournament host, Marc Leishman. He moved to career-best 22nd OWGR. The course was playing difficult with thick rough to begin with, and then the weather chilled and the wind started whipping. Hatton hung on to the lead all weekend long despite shooting over par both days. But he was only a collective 3-over (73-74), while some players blew up into the 80s. Talk about major-like conditions. In fact, Hatton became the first player to shoot over par twice on the weekend and win since Geoff Ogilvy at the 2006 U.S. Open.

Hatton has had some success in majors, with five top-10s dating to 2016. He tied for sixth at the Open Championship last year and at the U.S. Open in 2018. He's made all eight cuts over the past two years – how may golfers have done that? -- albeit without a great finish at the Masters.

On top of everything else, this was only Hatton's second tournament since missing two and a half months following wrist surgery. (He said the recovery was longer than expected, but we'll say the operation was still a success.) Hatton returned just two weeks ago with a tie for sixth at the WGC-Mexico. That added to a pretty good resume on the PGA Tour even before Bay Hill. He now has 15 top-10s in 60 starts, which include a tie for fourth at the 2017 API. He had never held a 54-hole lead before, but it didn't show on Sunday.

That doesn't mean Hatton didn't look anguished. He always does, making faces all round long, seemingly blaming everyone and everything but himself. As he said of his one big trouble spot on Sunday, a double bogey on No. 11, "I was just having a little moment. 'It was the grass' fault, the wind's fault.' Never my fault."

Hatton's face was no more animated than it was after he sank a final 3-foot putt for victory, smiling from ear to ear. He had done something he had never done before.

As Golf Channel noted when it came on the air early on Sunday, it was the first time Hatton had ever held a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour.

When Dan Hicks signed off on NBC, his very final words were: "Tyrrell Hatton is a winner on the PGA Tour!"

And as Hatton himself said afterward, "It's an incredible feeling to win on the PGA Tour."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy didn't finish second, but we'll start with him. Again within range of victory while playing in the penultimate pairing, he closed with a 4-over 76 to wind up tied for fifth. It was another top-5, but there were some rumblings on Twitter that McIlroy once more failed to get the job done on Sunday. We're not ready to condemn McIlroy for finishing top-5 every week. Get this: He joined Tiger Woods as the only players with seven or more consecutive top-5s on the PGA Tour since 2000. That's pretty good company and a pretty good streak.

Marc Leishman
Six weeks after winning at Torrey Pines, Leishman turned in another great performance. Playing with Hatton in the final group, they dueled till the 72nd hole. As tournament host, Leishman had responsibilities beyond golf, so it was especially impressive to finish second. He is now up to 15th in the world, close to his personal best of 12th.

Keith Mitchell
Another tough track, another great showing by Mitchell. He missed the cut at the Honda, but we'll give him a pass, being a young golfer who was the defending champion. He tied for fifth at Bay Hill, and for the second straight year he earned a trip to the Open Championship there. The API is part of the Open Qualifying Series, along with the Canadian Open, the Travelers and the John Deere. Joining Mitchell were Joel Dahmen and Danny Lee.

Joel Dahmen
Dahmen's tie for fifth not only got him into Royal St. George's, it lifted him to best career ranking, 69th. His previous start at Riviera was also a T5, and they were two of his top-3 finishes ever on tour. Before that there was a T14 at Pebble.

Harris English
It was another great week in this renaissance season for English, though he probably has mixed feelings. Beginning the final day tied for fourth, English had a real shot, but he tumbled to a 4-over 76 to tie for ninth. Still, it was his fifth top-10 and seventh top-25 in 11 starts this season, and it got him into THE PLAYERS Championship. Tom Hoge and Mark Hubbard also qualified to complete the 144-man field.

Collin Morikawa
Another week, another made cut, now 21 in a row. Morikawa led the field in strokes gained: approach, gaining a whopping 10 1/2 strokes on the field. He's ranked fourth on Tour for the season. Remember, that will be a critical stat this week at TPC Sawgrass. Morikawa is also up to No. 44 in the OWGR, getting close to a berth in the Masters in five weeks.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout
It was not a good Sunday for the 25-year-old South African, who began the day in the second-to-last pairing with Rory McIlroy. Bezuidenhout tumbled down the leaderboard with a 7-over 79 to tie for 18th. A tie for 18th in your first PGA Tour event is pretty dang good no matter. His second comes this week at TPC Sawgrass. He's also up to No. 48 in the world, and needs to hang on a bit longer to qualify for Augusta.

Ryan Moore
Moore tied for 52nd, after a Saturday 82 did him in. But we're writing about Moore because he turned in a 2-under 70 on Sunday. It was notable because it was the only bogey-free round all weekend in the entire tournament.

Jason Day
Day withdrew from the API for the second straight year citing a back ailment. This was particularly poor timing because Bay Hill has been one of Day's go-to tracks, like Pebble, which is the only place he's scored a top-10 in nine months. Day, now down to 50th OWGR, in the field for THE PLAYERS, but who knows?

Bubba Watson
Watson was my (foolish?) one-and-done pick at Bay Hill. He missed the cut by a lot. The thing is, he continued to putt better than he has in maybe his whole career. It was his iron play that was awful. If Watson can continue to putt the same way, he'll have more top-10s and top-20s as he did leading up to the API.

Phil Mickelson
Mickelson missed two cuts in January, then finished third in consecutive tournaments, eliciting hope that somehow, months from turning 50, that he had rediscovered his game. But he missed the cut at Riviera and now Bay Hill, and it wasn't close, and you have to figure this is more the norm for Mickelson.

Kevin Kisner
Kisner has played a decent amount in 2020 – this was his sixth start – yet he's been relatively quiet. He's had one top-10 and two other top-20s. This is the time of year where he's traditionally played very well. He has a previous runner-up at Bay Hill, a runner-up at THE PLAYERS, a win and a runner-up at the Match Play. The next few weeks could define his season, but it started with a missed cut at Bay Hill.

Lucas Glover
The season has gone very poorly for Glover, who turned 40 in November. He's made 12 starts, with only one top-25 – that was a T9 at the Shriners back in October. He's missed 3-of-6 cuts in 2020, including Bay Hill, his second straight.

Tommy Fleetwood
We'll never know whether Fleetwood carried the damage of that water ball on the 72nd hole of the Honda cross-state to Bay Hill. He was way off his game at the API and his worldwide-best cut streak of 33 ended there. He now heads to Sawgrass, where he's finished fifth and seventh the past two years.

Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler
Spieth wasn't at Bay Hill. Fowler tied for 18th. But we want to note that despite being ranked 54th and 27th in the world, respectively, they were named to one of the featured groups for THE PLAYERS. They will be grouped with good friend Justin Thomas. It just goes to show that no matter their rankings (within reason), Spieth and Fowler are still two of the biggest draws on Tour, behind only Tiger Woods and maybe Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson.