When the final group was turned to back nine, Morakawa retained a three-shot advantage and looked destined to win the PGA Tour for the first time since October 2023.
Up until that point he was playing Flores golf and reliant heavily on iron play to sprint through Bay Hill. It is probably the most challenging course that PGA Tour professionals play all year round. Morikawa sat at 11 under par on the 10th tee, but then in the first hole in the back nine he missed the fairway a few feet. His ball settled into a brutal lie. He then hacked his second shot into the front greenside bunker and played bogeys. After that, Morikawa was unable to save pars up and down, and returned to 10 under, where he began the day.
The former California Golden Bear picked up a shot that was dropped on the par 5 on the 12th. Morikawa still had a three-shot lead at that point, but he began to lose momentum on the par-3 14th hole.
Morikawa missed the green shorts and faced a delicate chip shot from the unfavourable lie on the fairway. Like the 10th, he couldn't save Pa.
Meanwhile, his playing partner Russell Henry fired a dart into the 14th green, draining 10 footers for birdies to fall into the deficit. It was a two-shot swing, and suddenly, Morikawa felt all the pressure for the first time all day.
After both players make a par on the challenging 15th hole, the tournament is completely flipped over on the 16th hole in Pearl 5, the easiest hole on the course. Morikawa missed the fairway and found a bunker on the tee. He was able to collect pars. It had a disappointing score considering that this hole produced 26 birdies and six eagles on Sunday.
And one of those eagles came from Henry Three chip-in Grab the lead from the green from the outside. As such, Morikawa's three-shot lead evaporated, and Henry ultimately won the Arnold Palmer Invitational with two major winner strokes.
Morikawa has played great golf for the past year since finishing in the top three at Augusta National in April last year. But even so, Morikawa admitted that “Greedy” took the shot to win the green jacket as Scotty Schaeffler won. Other notable results since April 2024 include runner-up to Schaeffler at the Memorial and Tour Championships. He also tied up to fourth place at the Genesis Scotland Open and finished in fourth solo at the Colonial.
Fast forward to this year, Morikawa was knocking on the door again, unable to break that barrier. He finished the sentry with a 32 under par, but lost three times to Matsuyama Hideki. This marked the lowest score of runner-up in PGA Tour history.
His next two starts came at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational. There he posted a pair of T-17s. A solid start, no doubt, but he played much better at Bay Hill this week. Still, he doesn't have a trophy to show it.
Morikawa didn't necessarily suffocate the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, but he did nothing to win it. Instead, he saw Henry passing by him and was shocked to him and asked, “Did this really happen again?”
Certainly, Morikawa's unwinning drought follows next week's athletes championship, and he has yet to score a top-10 finish. His best results at TPC Sawgrass came two years ago when he came in 13th place. Perhaps he's hitting the ball in 2020 and 2021, so this week will change.
Again, Morikawa seems to have a mental barrier to getting him to finish work right away. Winning the PGA Tour is tough and you can do more on courses like Bay Hill. However, he missed the great opportunity to win as this loss is likely to stick with him for a while.
Jack Mirco is a golf staff writer who plays SB Nation. Follow him with x @jack_milko.
