PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — So this is what happened in the world of golf Sunday: All hell broke loose.
Tiger Woods withdrew. Rory McIlroy choked. Phil Mickelson (missed cut) wasn’t even there. And Russell Henley emerged from a four-man playoff to win the Honda Classic with a birdie on the 18th, the first extra hole, in dwindling daylight.
The last two hours of the tournament were like a turbulent amusement park ride. When it was over, Woods had lower back spasms forcing him to withdraw after playing 13 holes, McIlroy was sick to his stomach after blowing a two-shot final-round lead, Ryan Palmer and Russell Knox were left wondering what might have been.
Like the child oblivious to the turbulence of the ride and the potential consequences of danger, Henley was the only one to walk away exhilarated.
The Honda Classic began last week with one of the strongest fields on the PGA Tour, but since when did it become a major championship with some of the world’s best players succumbing to pressure like amateurs trying to win their $10 weekend Nassau?
Apparently, since Sunday. Because McIlroy, the 2012 Honda winner and the leader after each of the first three rounds, looked almost as rattled in the waning moments of the final round as he did when he famously imploded at the 2011 Masters, blowing a four-shot final-round lead and losing by 10 shots.
McIlroy, who shot 74 Sunday, built his lead to three shots after a birdie on the fifth hole. From there, though, he would leak away six shots in the next 11 holes.
His worst moment came on No. 16, where he left his drive in a fairway bunker left and sent a 197-yard 6-iron approach attempt into the lake, leaving him with double bogey and causing him to lose the lead for the first time.
“The second shot on 16 was what sort of killed me,’’ McIlroy said. “I was trying to hit 6-iron and started it right of the target and I got underneath on it and hit it heavy.’’
McIlroy’s troubles allowed the challengers — Henley, Knox and Palmer — to join the party. None of those three had qualified for the Masters or even next week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral at that moment.
Henley is now in both.
“I don’t know what’s going on right now,’’ Henley, still shaking from the adrenaline rush of the previous hour, said greenside moments after the win. “I’m just kind of in shock. This isn’t going to sink in for a while.’’
McIlroy, always gracious in defeat, said he would not have deserved to win even had he come out on top in the playoff.
“I was fortunate to get into the playoff,’’ he said. “Even if I had of won, it would have felt a little bit undeserved in a way. When you go out with a two -shot lead, you have to play well and you have to go out and win the thing. I didn’t play well enough at all to deserve to win this tournament.’’
Despite his free fall from the lead, McIlroy hit what looked like the shot of the tournament in regulation on the par-5 18th hole, where he needed birdie to get into the playoff, flushing a 245-yard approach to within 12 feet of the flag and had that for eagle to win. It all seemed to be set up for triumphant McIlroy drama — particularly since he had played 377 competitive holes at PGA National without making an eagle.
But he slid the eagle putt inches past the hole to the right, sending the four men back to the 18th tee for the playoff.
Henley was the only one of the group to play the playoff hole perfectly, hitting driver to the fairway and his approach shot onto the green, where a two-putt birdie was enough to win with McIlroy, Palmer ad Knox able to card only pars.
The bonfire that broke out on PGA National was all caused by McIlroy. It was his tournament to win, one that would have been his first PGA Tour triumph since 2012 and validated all the progress he’d made since unceremoniously quitting out of immature frustration in the middle of his second round here at year ago.
“I felt like I was sort of in control,’’ McIlroy said. “It’s very disappointing. Look, it was a perfect opportunity to win. No one was really coming at me.’’