Arnold Palmer Recap: Day Shows Why He's a Champ

At the very end of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, three golfers had a chance to win: leader Kevin Chappell and, one stroke back, Jason Day and Troy Merritt.

Not surprising, the best guy won. And that best guy, Day, showed what makes the best guys the best. Two golfers ranked outside the top 100 can play virtually even with the world's No. 3 for almost four full days. But at the time when the three of them absolutely had to hit great shots, only one of them was able to do it.

The first great shot Day hit was a 12-foot birdie on No. 17 to tie for the lead. Then Chappell hit an errant drive on 18, had to lay up and couldn't convert. Bogey. Merritt, needing a birdie on 18 to tie, hit a perfect drive, only to rinse his approach. Double bogey. Day, despite hitting a poor drive on the final hole and leaving his approach in a bunker, was able to hit a 100-foot sand shot to four feet. He made the putt. Par. Victory.

"It's ... why he's been the No. 1 player in the world, and why I'm the 150th player in the world," the 129th-ranked Chappell, selling himself short, told reporters at Bay Hill. "You just can't bogey the last when you're in contention."

That's why Day now has eight PGA Tour wins, and Chappell has none in 150 starts, though four career runners-up, including two this season. Merritt has one career win, last year's Quicken Loans National.

Day will move back to No. 2 in the world, usurping Rory McIlroy, and he has a chance to overtake top-ranked Jordan Spieth at this week's WGC-Match Play Championship. Merritt came in No. 120.

Not only was Day able to hit the best shots at the most important times, he was able to do that on a day he wasn't playing his best -- another sign of a champion. Day had been seeking a wire-to-wire win, but opened with three bogeys (and two birdies) in the first six holes, including a water ball on his approach to the par-5 6th.

And Day had not really played well all season -- that is, when he was playing. He took much of the winter off for the birth of his second child, and this was only his fifth event. But for the best golfers, it's all about planning their schedule for the majors, and Day suddenly is among the favorites with the Masters less than three weeks away.

Meanwhile, Spieth has largely struggled after a very busy "offseason" wore him out; he skipped the API. McIlroy, while closing with a 7-under 65 at Bay Hill, shot 75 twice, with a career-high six double-bogeys on the week. Day's fellow Australian, Adam Scott, cooled off a bit after consecutive wins, tying for 12th. You can't win every week, and he did little to dampen his status as one of the top Augusta choices.

All the top golfers will gather this week for the Match Play in Austin, Texas, where Day, Spieth or maybe someone else will show what makes the best golfers the best.

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Kevin Chappell

The Fresno, Calif., native also was runner-up to Kevin Kisner at the RSM Classic in November. Having turned pro out of UCLA in 2008, Chappell was expected by many to have won by now, perhaps multiple times. But he seems a bit like Dustin Johnson -- no real fire, not really upset when not getting it done -- and that is the opposite of what the best golfers all have. Still, Chappell's now 16th in the point standings, well on his way to his best season on tour. Albeit a winless one so far.

Henrik Stenson

Far more accomplished than Chappell, Stenson also has had trouble winning the past few years. Only for the No. 7-ranked golfer in the world, putting has been the issue. He actually putted better than usual this week, at plus-.696 strokes gained. Stenson missed a 13-footer to bogey No. 14, then found the water on No. 16, and that was that. Stenson has finished in the top 10 at Bay Hill four years running, and is one of the surest things on tour -- sure for a high finish, just not the highest finish.

Zach Johnson

Johnson is in the top 20 in the world, a two-time major winner. But he's prone to some clunkers, such as shooting 80 in the final round of the WGC-Cadillac last week, after missing the Honda cut. Therefore, he's also prone to sneaking up on us, as he did at Bay Hill, turning his best showing of the season, solo fifth. But don't expect anything this coming week -- Johnson has lost in the first round of the Match Play four of the last five years.

Chris Kirk

Kirk has been trending steadily downward since winning at Colonial last year to climb into the top 20 in the world, with no top-10s since. And his DraftKings values have reflected that slide -- often in the $6,000s. That is incredibly low for a not-too-long-ago pretty decent golfer. And yet, he hadn't been paying off. But at Bay Hill, at $6,500, he finally did, turning in four solid rounds to tie for 12th. Kirk's not in the Match Play, but DraftKings has already set his Masters number way down the list at $6,700 -- and that sounds like a good value pick.

Smylie Kaufman

Speaking of value ... While other fall-season surprise winners (Emiliano Grillo and Peter Malnati, to name two) have drifted back from whence they came, Kaufman keeps on coming. The rookie winner of the Shriners in October tied for 12th at Bay Hill, a week after a T8 at the Cadillac. Very impressive stuff. Who knows how he'll do in the Match Play, which is a different animal. Kaufman is also in the Masters field and, at $6,000, is much lower than Kirk. But Augusta also is a different animal, and Kaufman has yet to play there as a pro.

Patrick Rodgers

Rodgers was certainly forecast to have a better season than Kaufman, but he's been far worse. The Stanford product has been leaking so far in the New Year, missing four of his previous five cuts entering Bay Hill. Rodgers stopped the bleeding, putting together four under-par rounds to tie for 20th. He's in the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open this week, with a chance to gain further confidence, albeit against a subpar field.

Bryson DeChambeau

DeChambeau is so fresh he's still an amateur, a highly acclaimed one who will be in the Masters as the U.S. Amateur champion. He received an invite to the API, and put on a final-round show while paired with McIlroy. DeChambeau fired a 6-under 66 (to McIlroy's 65) to zoom 30 spots up the leaderboard and tie for 27th (same as McIlroy). He's expected to turn pro right after the Masters, and, thus, he was scooped up as a free agent in the RotoWire League last week, perhaps the first amateur ever taken in our league. You could do worse. Much worse.

Matt Every

When asked last week why I wasn't picking Matt Every in my lineup, I replied, "Because he's Matt Every." One of the great wonders of the golf universe was Every winning the two previous years at Bay Hill, without which he very well could've lost his card. But Jupiter has once again aligned with Mars and all is again right in the golf universe, as Every missed the cut at Bay Hill. He has one top-25 in 10 starts and is struggling with some health issues. We kid about Every, but we wish him a speedy recovery.

Matt Kuchar

Since 2010, Kuchar has been among the best and most consistent golfers on tour. And he has been a cut machine, never missing more than two in any season. Even though he missed only one last season, his numbers began to slip -- quite a lot, in fact. At Bay Hill, Kuchar missed his first cut of the year. Nothing wrong with that. But he has only one top-10 in eight starts, and is close to falling out of the top 30 in the world. We may have seen Kuchar's best days.

Kevin Kisner

"The role of Kevin Kisner 2016 is now being played by Kevin Kisner 2014." And for Kisner owners (hmm, I may be one of them), that's not pretty. In 2015, Kisner finished second four times and then won the RSM Classic in October to rocket up the world rankings. But in the last two months, Kisner has played only four times, making only two cuts, one of them a T70. He trunk-slammed at Bay Hill. Kisner has offered no evidence to suspect good showings at his first Match Play and first Masters.

Danny Lee

Lee withdrew from the final round of the Cadillac with a wrist injury, yet teed it up at Bay Hill. He missed the cut by three strokes, and it's impossible to know how much the injury impacted him. Lee is in the Match Play this week, but proceed with caution.

Tim Hart

Tim Hart is a little-known Australian golfer -- at least he was little known two days ago. Playing in the Queensland PGA Championship on the Australasian Tour, Hart went to the 18th hole on Sunday needing a par to shoot 58 -- fifty-eight!. He needed "only" bogey to tie the magical all-time record of 59, which would've given him a two-stroke win. But -- and you knew a but was coming -- Hart triple-bogeyed to settle for a 61 and fall into a playoff, which he lost. Word is, there's a movie of Hart's heartbreak already in the works. They're going to call it "Tim Cup."