"It just missed on the low side" - Rory McIlroy on his untidy finish at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational 

Rory McIlroy was left with just one shot behind the lead on the final day of the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational. The former world No.1 finished at 70 to wrap up under 8, settling for the second position, which was pretty impressive. However, he was looking for a second victory of the new year.

The Northern Irish golfer won the 2023 Dubai Dessert Classic earlier in January before competing at the Arnold Invitational. His performance was undoubtedly very impressive in the first three rounds. The golfer started by finishing 66th in the opening round, which increased to second on the final day.

Mcllroy started the Sunday round with a bogey on the first two holes. However, he compensated for that with birdies on the fourth and fifth holes. He made five bogeys and six birdies in the last round, only to end the day at a scoring deficit of two, making it a total of eight.

The last five holes were jam-packed with Rory McIlroy, Kurt Kitayama, and Harris English trying to dethrone one another in a neck-to-neck competition, with Kitayama ultimately winning the PGA Tour event.

McIlroy admitted that his performances over the last few holes resulted in him missing the title. He made two consecutive bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes. In a press conference, he said:

"I hit a good putt. It just missed on the low side. If I look back on today the one thing I'll rue is the tee shot on 14. I birdied 13 and got on to 14 tee and I honestly thought I was still like one or two behind the lead. As I was walking to the 14th green, I looked behind me at the scoreboard, and I was leading by one."

He added:

"And if I had of known that, I wouldn't have tried to play the shot that I played on 14, which was unfortunate, but I ended up making bogey there and then a bad swing off the tee on 15 and a bogey. But it was a good week. I saw some positive signs. Game's rounding into form for the bulk of the season. So I'm, even though I didn't get the win, I'm still pretty happy with how everything went this week."

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"It's pretty unbelievable" - Kurt Kitayama after winning the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Kurt Kitayama won the first PGA Tour event of his career at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational. He registered his lead after the second round on Friday and extended it until Sunday to win $3.6 million in prize money from the purse of $20 million.

Having started with a birdie on the third hole, he made one bogey, four birdies, and one double bogey to end the round at 72.

Kurt Kitayama was happy with his performance and said:

"It was really hard. I'm going to sleep really well tonight.”

He went on to say:

"I've always dreamed of winning on the Tour and to finally do it, yeah, it's pretty amazing. It's pretty unbelievable, really."

The golfers are all set to compete at the Players Championship scheduled to take place this week.