Monday Scramble: Major intrigue as we reach Players week

Francesco Molinari storms to victory, Rory McIlroy’s final-group futility continues, Tiger Watch commences, Alexa Pano stars and more in this week’s edition of Monday Scramble:

How would Francesco Molinari begin to back up his career year?

With another big moment in another big event.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational was just Molinari’s third start of the new year, taking a respite after his breakout campaign in 2018, when he won three times, including his first major at The Open, and posted a 5-0 mark at the Ryder Cup. And despite some shaky ball-striking over the first three rounds at Bay Hill, the Italian stallion was brilliant on Sunday, firing a bogey-free 64 on a fiery, firm course to come from five shots behind and win by two.

Late last year Molinari expressed some apprehension about how he’d follow up a year in which he transformed himself into a global force, at age 35. Of the top 10 players in the world, he’s by far the shortest off the tee and historically the worst putter. But over time he’s proven to be a world-class iron player (he’s breaking in new Callaway clubs) that keeps him competitive anywhere, and he now has the self-belief after rising to the occasion at Carnoustie and Le Golf National.

As we approach major season, it’s clear: The tougher the challenge, the tougher Molinari is to beat.

1. Boy, if Francesco Molinari starts holing putts ...

Molinari has always been fueled by his strong ball-striking, but at the Arnold Palmer Invitational he was downright sublime on the greens. Sunday in particular: 25 putts, 146 feet worth of putts holed and he gained more than four strokes on the field.

“I think it’s been the best putting round ever in my career,” he said.

Indeed, it was.

Molinari made a strong case for global player of the year honors last season despite being a below-average putter (182^nd) on Tour. This season, with a small sample size, he’s 19^th and credited his ongoing work with coach Phil Kenyon, who has made Molinari’s stroke more repetitive and helped him start more putts on-line.

2. Molinari’s big day on the greens included his 45-foot bomb on the last to seal the victory.

More interesting than the length was the fact that he’s the first on Tour to hole a winning putt on 18 with the flagstick in. Funny, because his brother, Edoardo, is one of the most outspoken about the new rule, believing that it’s actually disadvantageous to leave in the stick.

“He’s probably going to tell me off when I speak to him later,” Molinari said. “I thought for a second to take it out, but then I thought maybe it was going to help me judge the lagging better, so it worked out all right.”

3. Wrote more about it in this live column from Bay Hill on Sunday night, but Rory McIlroy is now 0 for his last 9 when playing in the final group. He’s lost his Sunday mojo.

And yet he’s still this scribe’s favorite for the Masters ...

4. The Arnold Palmer Invitational was one of the qualifying events for The Open.

Honda winner Keith Mitchell kept it rolling, finishing in a tie for sixth, while Sungjae Im and Sung Kang also punched their ticket into the year’s final major.

“Crunchy Pete” at Royal Portrush? Sign. Us. Up.

5. After a year-long hiatus, Tiger Watch is back!

That’s right, we’re left wondering whether an injured Tiger Woods will play a golf tournament, after he was a late withdrawal from the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods said that he hoped to be ready for The Players, but as of this writing, it’s unclear whether he’s fit enough to give it a go. Right now, he’s planning on a 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday presser at TPC Sawgrass and is one of the early-round featured groups, alongside Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson.

NBC Sports analyst Paul Azinger expressed concern that Woods’ neck issue is “serious,” but it appears as though Woods is trending toward teeing it up. Reserving a spot in the interview room and a tee time alongside the defending champ? He’s had to have given the Tour some direction.

Speaking of injury concerns ...

6. Jason Day’s status for The Players is uncertain, as well, after he withdrew during the opening round at Bay Hill. In the locker room, he told GolfChannel.com colleague Will Gray that an MRI earlier in the week showed a tear in one of his discs, but he hoped that it’d loosen up and he’d be able to play. Apparently not.

A day later, he was still in Orlando – standing in line for a ride at Disney World, with his family.

He was hammered on social media for the bad optics, but what was he supposed to do, receive treatment 24/7 and remain bedridden?

7. Phil is getting even harder to predict.

After his resounding win at Pebble Beach, Mickelson turned in his third straight listless performance. His play at Bay Hill was even harder to fathom. He opened with 68 despite taking a double bogey after this head-scratching play near an out-of-bounds fence:

The next day, he plummeted to a 78 to miss the cut, and afterward sounded so frustrated that his appearance at this week’s Players Championship can’t be taken for granted. “If I hit it like this, it’s pointless,” he said.

He was decidedly more optimistic on Sunday, tweeting from TPC Sawgrass that the course was Augusta-like with its minimal rough.

That’s good news for Mickelson, whose lone win at TPC came in 2007, the first year that the event was held in May. He has only three top-10s in 25 career starts there, and Mickelson has said that he no longer wants to play where he can’t win.

Tyrrell Hatton is a delightfully unstable presence in tournaments, but this was pure gold.

In the second round, Hatton flared his approach short and right of the green. He turned to his caddie and muttered, “Have you seen a worse golf shot?”

The caddie fell silent, thinking the question was rhetorical.

“No, answer the question,” Hatton pressed.

The caddie offered a quiet “No,” and on they went.

Over the years we’ve seen pros hit all sorts of bad shots – chunk-skied drives, topped long irons, shanked bunker shots, whiffed 1-footers – but never did they handle the rare misfire with the humor of Hatton (and his caddie).

This week’s award winners ...

Remember the Name: Alexa Pano. The 14-year-old shared the 54-hole lead on the LPGA’s developmental circuit over the weekend before ultimately finishing in a tie for eighth. Golf has a history of producing phenomenal, single-minded teenage talents, only for them to get worn down and burnt out. Here’s hoping Pano can continue her upward trajectory.

Four-Horse Race: World No. 1. Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas all will battle for the top-ranked position in the world rankings this week at The Players, adding even more intrigue to the best non-major of the season.

Bunched Board: Qatar Masters. A record 11 players tied for second behind Justin Harding at last week’s European Tour stop, a new record. So the winner received € 259,669 while the runners-up got ... € 68,988. Don’t see that everyday.

Warning! Don’t Watch If Squeamish: Jeff Maggert. You might say that his speed was a little off here ... though, to give him credit, he bounced back the following day with a 63.

Coming to a Pro Tournament Near You ...: Viktor Hovland. The Oklahoma State junior and reigning U.S. Amateur champion tied for 40^th at Bay Hill. Exempt into the first two majors of the year, he’s likely to turn pro after the U.S. Open in June since he can attempt to qualify on his own for Portrush. He projects as a Paul Casey-type.

RIP: Dan Jenkins. His Ownself was the gold standard for golf writers everywhere, and his witty prose spawned a generation of copycats who never could master his inimitable style. He’ll be missed in major press tents.

Blown Fantasy Pick of the Week: Jason Day. A winner at Bay Hill in 2016, he’d finished in the top 15 in all five made cuts this season, but his early exit (and potentially serious back issue) was a tough pill to swallow on Day 1. Sigh.