ORLANDO, Fla. — Throughout the final round Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, it was as if someone was playing a prank on the world’s best golfers.
Simple tasks were suddenly impossible, like needing fewer than three attempts to sink a putt from one yard away. Greenside chips were no less wayward, usually long or short but rarely in between. The players, one after another, were left scratching their heads, stomping their feet in anger or smiling sardonically.
One tour veteran, Matt Jones, simply flung his putter into a pond after one such vexing experience. That was on Saturday, but it set the stage.