Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry did not have their greatest stuff, however they will head for The Gamers and the countdown to the Masters with excessive hopes after the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
Lowry was removed from his greatest from the tee as he searches for a brand new driver however whereas he couldn’t covert the 36-hole lead into victory for the second 12 months working, he nonetheless shot 70 to complete solo seventh, 5 pictures behind winner Russell Henley, to climb three spots to a career-high of 14th on the planet.
Georgia native Henley produced a exceptional again 9 cost and adopted birdies on the twelfth and 14th with a pitch-in eagle from deep tough on the sixteenth to shoot a two-under 70 to pip in a single day chief Collin Morikawa, who shot 72, by a shot on 11-under-par to leap to seventh on the planet.
Lowry was a lowly forty first for strokes gained from the tee however he ranked within the prime 20 for his iron play and chipping and an encouraging ninth for placing.
McIlroy additionally had his struggles from the tee at Bay Hill, the place he put a brand new driver and fairway woods within the bag and struggled to search out fairways.
However he returned to his outdated gear for the ultimate spherical and shot 72 to complete tied for fifteenth on three-under.
“I attempted new woods for the primary three days, did not fairly work out the best way I needed it to, so I went again to my outdated stuff right this moment,” mentioned McIlroy, who misplaced 5.5 strokes with the motive force to top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who tied for eleventh after a 70 regardless of having a nightmare week on the greens.
“I led strokes gained off the tee in each Pebble and Torrey, so it was a extremely good concept to alter,” McIlroy chuckled.
“After which yesterday, I misplaced strokes off the tee, which is the primary time I’ve accomplished that in a very long time. So I simply went again to what was acquainted and what’s comfy.
“I felt like I used to be simply scrambling all weekend, simply attempting to avoid wasting par and decide up the odd birdie right here and there.”
McIlroy is just not studying an excessive amount of into his efficiency heading to Sawgrass, which guarantees to be a far completely different check.However whereas he plans to go to Augusta Nationwide forward of the Masters, he has but to determine which Texas occasion he’ll add to his schedule as his remaining warm-up occasion.
“I will see how subsequent week goes after which see what I really feel like and what I believe I would like,” he mentioned of the selection between Houston and San Antonio.
“However the good factor is I haven’t got to enter till the Friday earlier than.”As for Augusta, he is eager to see how the course has modified because it suffered tree harm final October
“I believe it is simply going to be slightly bit completely different this 12 months, simply with there’s some areas of the course which can be perhaps slightly thinner tree-wise, simply with the hurricane that rolled by,” he mentioned. “16’s a brand new inexperienced. So, yeah, I will most likely go up there a few times beforehand.”
As for his membership modifications, he added it was an occupational hazard in relation to placing the most recent know-how in his bag and wasn’t totally ready to make use of the brand new weapons in match play.
“There’s professionals and cons to it, and it is a blessing and a curse on the identical time that we form of should undergo these 12-month membership cycles,” McIlroy mentioned.
In the meantime, Australia’s Karl Vilips (23) closed with an eight-under 64 to win the Puerto Rico Open by three pictures from Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (63) on 26-under.
Max Kennedy tied for seventieth on six-under after a 74, whereas Pádraig Harrington’s one-under 70 left him joint sixth within the Cologuard Traditional at La Paloma Nation Membership in Tucson.
He completed three pictures outdoors a playoff that noticed New Zealander Steven Alker beat American Jason Caron with a birdie on the first additional gap after they shot 66s to tie on 12-under.
