The four-time major winner led the field in four key statistics on his way to victory at Bay Hill. By Lewis Blain
Rory McIlroy's Incredible Arnold Palmer Invitational Stats
Rory McIlroy led the field in four key statistics on his way to an impressive victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The former world number one soared up the leaderboard with an 8-under 64 on Sunday to see off his nearest challenger Bryson DeChambeau.
His 18-under-par was enough to edge his way back into the top 10 in the world.
He becomes the only player to have won a tournament while leading the field in strokes gained putting, driving distance, proximity to the hole and scrambling (since the PGA Tour introduced the strokes gained putting stat in 2004.)
Related: What's in Rory McIlroy's bag?
Following his missed cut at the Valspar Championship last week, McIlroy ranked 124th on Tour for putting.
The Northern-Irishman rose 101 spots to 23rd for the season after spectacularly gaining ten strokes on the putting green – his best ever on the PGA Tour.
It was also 9 strokes better than anyone else in the field this week.
A meeting with former PGA Tour player and putting guru Brad Faxon has seemed to help the change in fortune.
EXCLUSIVE: See the new putter Rory McIlroy used to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational
“I didn’t really hit many putts, it was more of a psychology lesson than anything else,” said the four-time major winner.
(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Though it was his precise approach game that would have left him with much shorter putts to hole out over the course of the week.
Almost every approach was hit to hole-high with his proximity to the hole averaging just 24ft.
On Sunday alone McIlroy gave himself 10 looks of 20ft or better on his approach shots.
Related: Who is Rory McIlroy's caddie Harry Diamond?
The 2016 FedEx Cup champion is widely known for being powerful from the tee.
He ranks the longest off the tee on the PGA Tour with an average driving distance of 317.2 yards, while only Ryan Fox on the European Tour stops him from winning this accolade across the pond.
(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
The highlight of the week came on the 16th when his tee shot reached 375-yards to leave him just a sand wedge into the par-5 green.
To cap off the complete performance, the 28-year-old scrambled well to lead the field.
McIlroy rose from 82nd to 21st for the PGA Tour season.
This chip-in on 15 made it a third birdie in as many holes for the eventual winner.
The win ends a run of nearly 15 months without victory for McIlroy with the last on Tour coming back in September 2016 at the Tour Championship.
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