Henrik Stenson blames pace-of-play warning for Bay Hill meltdown

Henrik Stenson blamed his one-shot loss to defending Arnold Palmer Invitational champion Matt Every on PGA Tour officials who hurried him and Morgan Hoffmann along toward the end of their final round on Sunday at Bay Hill.

Officials put the playing competitors on the clock on the front nine but it was Hoffmann receiving a pace-of-play warning in the middle of the stretch drive that rattled Stenson.

“Really problems kind of started on 15. We got on the clock again, which when you’re coming down the stretch you want to be able to have five extra seconds not to try and rush your routines,” Stenson said after carding a final-round 2-under 70 and becoming the ninth straight 54-hole tour leader unable to nail down the victory. “So, on the green I didn’t really have much time to look at my putt and rushed that one a little bit, the first one, and three-putted.”

Struggles with the flat stick doomed Stenson, who lost the two-stroke advantage he held heading into the final round by coming up short several times on the putting surfaces. Three-putts on both the 15th and 16th were the game-changers, and Stenson was not happy about how they happened.

“Morgan got a bad time on his second shot on 16 and again I kind of rushed my putting on 16 and three-putted that one. That’s really what cost me the tournament -- those two 3-putts on 15 and 16,” he said. “Bit disappointed with the rules official pushed up that late in the round for no obvious reason.”

The last group of a tour event was “normally not the quickest ... More people, more movement,” Stenson continued. “I didn’t see the point of the officials influencing potentially the outcome of this tournament towards the end there ... I thought we were here to play golf and not to finish at six [p.m.].

“I know we have times to take into consideration,” he added. “If one, two minutes on the broadcast is going to make or break it then I think we need to have some more leeway with it.”

The lead bounced around for much of the afternoon but Stenson owned a one-shot edge with four holes left. And then came the par-4 15th, where he blew a 45-foot birdie attempt past the hole by some five feet.

Putting through his own shadow, he skirted the lip of the hole with his second effort and dropped back into a tie with Every at 18-under. Stenson needed three more attempts with the flatstick on the par-5 16th, though it will go in the books as an official two-putt since his first whack from 40 feet was from the fringe at the back of the green.

“That was a bad putt,” NBC lead analyst Johnny Miller opined as the ball zipped by the hole.

Stenson missed the second putt again and tapped in for his fourth three-putt of the week and third of the day.

“On the way to the 17th [tee], I can’t tell you what he said,” Roger Maltbie observed on NBC, “but he is none too pleased with the three-putt at the last.”

Hearing the roar from the 18th green, where Every drained an 18-foot birdie putt for what would turn out to be the winning shot, no doubt did nothing to lighten Stenson’s mood.

A few minutes later, after his own 20-footer for birdie on 18 was left of the mark, Stenson’s collapse was complete.