One word — Wow. I was not expecting this tournament to end the way it did. Bay Hill played very tough this week. The winds were different every day, temperatures fluctuated, and the greens were extremely quick and firm by the end of the week. The tough conditions of the already-difficult course really exposed who the elite ball strikers were and capitalized on any imperfections in your golf game.
Russel Henley Steals The Win
Russel Henley kept himself in the mix pretty much all week, with rounds of even-par, four-under, five-under, and closing it out with a two-under round for Sunday. It really felt like Morikawa was in the driver’s seat here, and for the most part he was. Morikawa played a good Sunday, with a mix of bogeys and birdies, he ended up playing even par for his last round, and was hanging on to his 2-stroke lead. It all changed on the 16th hole though when henley, who was one stroke back, chipped in for eagle, and put himself in the lead.
RUSSELL HENLEY CHIPS IN FOR EAGLE AND THE LEAD! 🔥🤯
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) March 9, 2025
📺 NBC & Peacock | @APInv pic.twitter.com/L9Les2YJSY
I was freaking out when this happened! I mean, I really thought that Morikawa was going to break his dry spell (his last win was in 2023 at the ZOZO Championship), but Henley absolutely stole this win from him. You gotta give both of the golfers credit. Morikawa played well and answered his bogeys with birdies, but Henley stepped up at the right time and got the job done.
Jason Day’s Roller Coaster
Jason Day experienced his fair share of highs and lows this week. After an opening round of +4 on a day where most golfers struggled, he bounced back with an -8 round of 64 on day two. He kept himself in the mix during the weekend, and ended his day with three birdies in a row on day three. I was so confident I even threw a couple bucks down that night on him to win. He was still very much in range of reaching Morikawa and Henley after shooting even on the front, but he faced a mud ball on the 16th fairway. As soon as he hit it, though, he had this weird one-handed finish. I had hoped that he had hooked it a bit and can blame it on the mud, but he only made it like halfway over the pond protecting the green!
This ultimately put him out of contention for the win and killed his momentum. Still a very solid week, and he finished T8, which is still impressive!
Keegan Bradley’s Late Charge
The Team USA Ryder cup captain showed everyone what he’s about on Sunday morning! He posted the first ever 29 on the front nine at Bay Hill. Never been done before on either side! This shot him up the leader board and he ended up finishing T5 at -7! After his locker room chatter about the European Ryder Cup team was recently exposed by Netflix, folks were certainly looking to see how he’d perform this week and see if karma would act against him.
Luckily for him, it seemed like it was quite the opposite, and it makes me even more excited for this year’s Ryder Cup!
Overall, this presentation of the Arnold Palmer Invitational was great. The broadcast made an effort to focus some more on player-caddie conversations and cut back on the ads a bit, and I honestly thought it made it a great experience as a viewer. So kudos to NBC.
Stay tuned folks, The Players takes place this week, and my predictions will be out this Wednesday. Also, I’m working through Full Swing Season 3, so a review of that will be out soon as well.
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