ORLANDO, Fla. – It was eerily quiet on the 17th tee late Sunday at Bay Hill, the tournament all but over. Francesco Molinari had signed for a sterling 64 nearly an hour and a half earlier, leaving the next 10 pairings to finish up their week’s work with virtually no chance of victory. Among that group, again, was Rory McIlroy, and the frustration began to show as he slogged toward the clubhouse.

“Slow today?” Matt Fitzpatrick asked, breaking the silence as they waited on 17 tee.

“Slow every day,” McIlroy said, flicking his club at the turf. “Just horrendous. Absolute disgrace.”

McIlroy had every reason to be annoyed, of course, and not just because of the brutal pace of play. He’s played in the final group nine times over the past 15 months, and each time he’s watched someone else hoist the trophy. It was his fifth consecutive start with a chance to win, and each time he’s come up empty. He’s playing the most consistently excellent golf of his career, and he has just one title in the past 30 months.

It doesn’t compute.

This final-round performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was particularly uninspiring – his even-par 72 was the highest score of any player inside the top 15 – and so for those waiting for McIlroy to reassert himself as the game’s alpha male, well, you’ll have to wait another Sunday.

“Tough day,” he said afterward, and then he tried to spin his tie for sixth as positively as he could. That he needed to shoot 67 on a firm course to overtake Molinari. That he played better Sunday than he did Thursday and carded the same score. That at least he again put himself in position to win.

McIlroy’s optimism echoed what he’d said earlier in the week, that he was trying to “get away from being results-oriented and be more focused on the process and on the present and just trying to be better.”

But as well-rounded as McIlroy’s game has become – he’s been top 8 in strokes gained: tee to green each of the past three seasons and is on pace for the best putting season of his career – he’s gone Charmin-soft when it matters most. His Sunday scoring average over his past seven final-group appearances is 72. That alone would be one of the worst on Tour.

It’s the biggest reason why he’s been unable to replicate the multiple-win seasons of his glory years. Sure, he isn’t as volatile as he was earlier in his career, when he’d win and miss the cut in equal measure, but he doesn’t experience the soaring highs, either.

“I’m more comfortable playing the sort of golf I’m playing right now where I’m consistent and just waiting for any given week where it’s my turn to win,” he said.

Full-field scores from the Arnold Palmer Inviational

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