Will Zalatoris ‘plugs’ Arnold Palmer Invitational chances with late sandy blunders

Midway through the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Will Zalatoris held a five-shot lead.

He was in cruise control, playing mistake-free golf and rolling in putts from everywhere.

Then, Zalatoris hit his tee shot into the greenside bunker at the par-3 14th, and his round began to unravel.

He could not get up and down to save par, thus making his first bogey of the day.

That bogey dropped him back to 10-under for the championship, as he still maintained the lead.

“I played really well,” Zalatoris said. “You play 42 holes of bogey-free golf, and you take it. Obviously, the finish wasn’t what I wanted. That’s just Bay Hill.”

Photo by Brennan Asplen/Getty Images

But things got worse at the par-4 15th, one of the most challenging holes at Bay Hill.

“I hit one bad tee shot on 15, and I’m basically half plugged, hitting a burning tee shot in there,” Zalatoris said.

He found the trap on the corner of the dogleg right, and when he tried to take his medicine, his second shot caught the lip of the trap. Consequently, his ball scuttled 47 yards ahead, settling in the deep rough.

“You hit some mediocre golf shots, you’re going to get penalized real quick,” Zalatoris added.

“Like the shot I had on 15, I pushed it six yards right of where I was looking, and I’ve got a pseudo-plugged lie for a second shot hitting an 8-iron. That’s just Bay Hill. You kind of take what it gives you.”

Zalatoris then found the heart of the 15th green with his third, settling 36 feet away. But he three-putted, thus making a double bogey.

That dropped him back to 8-under, while also giving Wyndham Clark sole possession of the lead for the time being.

Zalatoris bounced back with a birdie on the easy par-5 16th but then suffered the same fate at the par-4 18th as he did on the 15th.

“I hit a pretty low drive in there onto 18 and same thing, it plugs again,” Zalatoris said.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

“I think I counted; it’s my fourth year here, and I’ve had 19 plugged balls here, so, needless to say, the bunkers aren’t really my favorite here. I putted great. I drove it pretty well for the most part. Yeah, I’m still in the ballgame, as frustrating as it is to finish up that way.”

Zalatoris’ ball plugged into the greenside bunker at the last, thus creating a nerve-wracking situation. With water looming on the other side of the green, Zalatoris needed to be careful about where to play his third shot.

He smartly hit it to a safe spot onto the apron short of the green, but he could not get it up and down.

Alas, he made another double bogey, dropping back to 7-under for the championship and settling for a 1-under 71.

“I think I was 5-under through 11 or 12 or whatever it was,” Zalatoris said.

“If you took that stretch and spread it out over the last 36 holes, I probably wouldn’t be as disappointed. I’m playing great golf. I really hit three bad shots that cost me five shots.”

Despite these mishaps, Zalatoris still has a chance. He will play alongside Clark in the penultimate pairing on Sunday.

He trails by two shots, as Scottie Scheffler and Shane Lowry share the 54-hole lead at 9-under.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.