Arnold Palmer Invitational 2017 results: Marc Leishman holds off Rory McIlroy at Bay Hill

The Arnold Palmer Invitational put on a Sunday finish befitting the style and flare of its namesake. It was Aussie Marc Leishman who walked away with his second PGA Tour title, but it came after a couple hours of leaderboard moves and pedal-down play from the contenders.

Leishman may not be the sexiest name in the winner’s circle in this first edition since Mr. Palmer’s passing, but he’s done work in this game over the last decade and is not some also-ran. The action, which featured a hard charge from the bombs-away style of Rory McIlroy, also made it a fantastic finish worthy of one of the PGA Tour’s premier pre-Masters events.

The big Aussie started the day three shots off the 54-hole pace set by Charley Hoffman and Kevin Kisner. Those two have won on the PGA Tour before and aren’t some untested hacks, so it was likely that Leishman and McIlroy, who was five shots back, needed to go super low to pull off the chasedown. But that final pairing did not have it, coming back to the pack and opening it up to the field late on Sunday. Hoffman made four bogeys in five holes on the front side and Kisner threw away his birdie chances on the back side, posting an inward 2-over 38.

Leishman took the lead for good on the 16th green, a must-make birdie on a shorter par-5. After putting his ball on the back of the green, he bombed in a 51-foot eagle putt that rocketed him past McIlroy, Hoffman, and Kisner with two holes to play.

He flew the green on the difficult par-3 17th, but got up-and-down for par and held steady with another at the 18th to win by a shot.

The victory gives Leishman a three-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a $1,566,000 winner’s check, a trophy, and this dope vintage Arnold Palmer Alpaca cardigan.

Until Leishman’s eagle putt, most of the excitement at Bay Hill came from the game’s most exhilarating player, McIlroy. The Ulsterman put on a show as he desperately tried to close that five-shot deficit at the start of the day. We got the full Rory experience in the final round: intoxicating drives, some stuffed approach shots, some missed chances, and a chase that finally put him in a share of the lead on the 17th tee.

There’s nothing like watching Rory trying to make a move in a round that has his attention. It was all there from the start on Sunday, which opened with a statement birdie at the first.

He’d inexplicably hit one in the water two holes later but the bogey did not eject him from the round and his interest in the charge remained. He posted seven birdies on the day but it could have been so much more. Intermingled were four bogeys, including a three-putt at the 18th after he got too aggressive trying to make birdie on his first putt and blasted it by the hole. That wiped out any hope.

Even his pars were thrilling to watch, like at the 15th, where he ripped a drive 371 yards and completely took the corner off a hole that had bothered him earlier in the week. I watched him hit it in the rough near a grove of trees down the right side at 15, trying to figure out how to cut the corner off the hole early in the event. On Sunday, with temperatures warmer and the ball flying, he hammered it a stupid 371 yards straight over everything. That junk down the right side did not matter.

But with just 82 yards to the hole, he couldn’t take advantage, lipping out a birdie putt that could have put him in command with a par-5 coming up next.

At that next par-5, the 16th, McIlroy hit it 363 yards down the hill. This is a par-5 — you should not have 142 yards to the hole — but that’s where he stood. Unfortunately for Rory, the ball landed behind a tree, leaving him with no easy options for getting home in two. Then he pulled as fine an Arnie tribute as any of the saccharine monologues, going for a wild banana curve through the trees and over the crowd and water, hopefully back onto or near the 16th green.

At the time, he was down two strokes and had less than three holes to play. He didn’t come to punch out of the trees. He came to win and did what Arnie would do, going for it. The ball landed on the back of the green and while he didn’t get the eagle (which almost came on a near hole-out chip), he did walk off with a birdie that was good enough to tie the lead at the time.

It was a vintage Rory show and a reminder of why we love him in the hunt more than anyone else in the game.

In the end, it was moot, thanks to Leishman’s work coming in over the final three holes.

Here are your final results from Bay Hill: