ORLANDO, Fla. — Arnold Palmer was famous for saying, “You must play boldly to win,” and Akshay Bhatia followed that script Sunday to a stunning comeback and playoff victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Bhatia started his back-nine charge with four straight birdies. He nearly holed his 6-iron that went right at the flag on the par-5 16th to set up eagle. And he outlasted Daniel Berger with a par on the first extra hole to win at Bay Hill.
“You just never know what can happen in this game,” Bhatia said after he closed with a 3-under 69 and won his third PGA Tour title, all of them in playoffs.
This was the biggest, a $20 million signature event that moves the 24-year-old into the top 20 in the world at the start of a big stretch in golf that concludes with the Masters next month.
Berger looked like he had this won, walking confidently after shots in building a four-shot lead at the turn. He lost the lead by missing a 7-foot par putt on the 17th hole and showed plenty of moxie just to get into the playoff with an up-and-down from 70 yards for par on the final hole for a 70.
They finished at 15-under 273, the first playoff at Bay Hill since 1999.
Berger, who hit his tee shot into the right rough on the 18th in regulation, pulled his drive in the playoff and did well to hammer a 6-iron to the front edge of the green, 106 feet away. He rolled that to 7 feet below the hole, and his par putt to extend the playoff was weak and missed below the cup.
Bhatia, who took on the traditional Sunday flag on the 18th over the rock-framed water in regulation and nearly pulled it off, played to the center of the green. He took two putts from just inside 30 feet for the win and the $4 million prize.
“Everyone knows when you show up to Bay Hill it’s going to be a test,” Bhatia said.
It was every bit of that. He was five shots behind at the turn when he ran off four straight birdies, one of them from just inside 60 feet on the 11th hole.
There was a two-shot swing at the 13th when Bhatia holed a 10-foot birdie putt and Berger had a plugged lie in a bunker, facing a shot to the crispy green with water on the other side. He smartly played back toward the fairway and salvaged a bogey, his lead down to one shot.
The final hour turned electric on the par-5 16th, with a pin tucked to the left near the water. Bhatia hit 6-iron high and true, and it nearly went into the cup on the second bounce to set up a 3-foot eagle. Berger made birdie to stay one ahead.
Bhatia said caddie Joe Greiner told him, “Just try to hit the best 6-iron of your life.”
“It was one of those professional pushes,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to aim at the flag.”
Berger, who has lost big chunks of time in recent years with a back injury and then a broken finger suffered last August, was trying to become the first wire-to-wire winner at Bay Hill in 10 years.
“It’s tough to win. It’s tough to battle,” he said. “A shot here or there was the difference.”
That goes for Bhatia, too. He and Berger returned Sunday morning to finish the third round. Berger had a three-shot lead until the 18th hole, when he made bogey from the right rough and Bhatia made birdie when his 10-foot putt hung on the lip for just under 10 seconds and then dropped.
Berger’s consolation prize, aside from the $2.2 million for finishing second, was earning a spot in The Open Championship and moving well into the top 40 in the world, which should make him safe to return to the Masters next month.
Cameron Young, who used to spend his winters in Orlando as a kid, played bogey-free for a 69 and tied for third with Ludvig Aberg (67).
Scottie Scheffler took another double bogey on the 18th hole — his second in as many rounds and his third double bogey in his last 19 holes at Bay Hill — for a 73. He tied for 24th. It was the first time since the U.S. Open last year that he failed to break 70 at a tournament.