Given the tournament’s elevated status on the PGA TOUR and the quality of the field assembled at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Day’s closing round of two-under is likely to result in a further boost to his world ranking of No.43.

Already exempt into this week’s THE PLAYERS Championship, Day needs simply to maintain his spot inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings to ensure he doesn’t miss out on an invitation to Augusta National for the second straight year.

As American Kurt Kitayama clinched his maiden PGA TOUR title, Day did his scoring on the par 5s at Bay Hill.

He birdied both on the front nine with putts from three and eight feet respectively at four and six but three-putted the par-5 12th to make bogey.

A two-putt from 60 feet from the fringe at the par-5 16th got Day back to two-under his round and a five-under tournament total, four shots back of the winner.

Playing in the event for the first time, Kiwi Ryan Fox delivered one of the best rounds on Sunday, his five-under 67 bettered only by Webb Simpson as he climbed 30 spots into a share of 14th.

Fox was one of only seven players to make birdie on Bay Hill’s iconic 18th hole, converting a wonderful approach from just inside 10 feet to finish in fine fashion.

Geoff Ogilvy recorded his best finish on the PGA TOUR in more than six years with a tie for 11th at the Puerto Rico Open as Mark Hensby logged his second top-five finish of the PGA TOUR Champions season at the Cologuard Classic.

Tied for 10th at the start of the third and final round, Hensby went out in five-under in a bogey-free seven-under 65 to finish tied for third, just three back of champion David Toms.

West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley notched a top-10 finish in her debut start on the Ladies European Tour in South Africa as Hannah Green finished tied for 20th at the LPGA Tour’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.

Results

PGA TOUR
Arnold Palmer Invitational
Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando, Florida
1             Kurt Kitayama    67-68-72-72—279            $US3.6m
T10        Jason Day            71-73-69-70—283            $485,000
T14        Ryan Fox (NZ)     73-73-71-67—284            $325,000
T31        Adam Scott         69-71-75-72—287            $125,000
T34        Aaron Baddeley 72-72-73-71—288            $104,200
MC         Cam Davis           71-76—147
MC         Lucas Herbert     74-73—147
MC         Min Woo Lee     75-79—154

Puerto Rico Open
Grand Reserve Golf Club, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
1             Nico Echavarria  67-67-65-68—267            $US684,000
T11        Geoff Ogilvy        69-68-70-69—276            $84,550
T33        Greg Chalmers   69-74-71-67—281            $19,841
MC         Cameron Percy  77-73—150

LPGA Tour
HSBC Women’s World Championship
Sentosa Golf Club (Tanjong Cse), Singapore
1             Jin Young Ko       72-65-65-69—271            $US270,000
T20        Hannah Green    70-69-71-71—281            $20,207
T31        Lydia Ko (NZ)      70-69-70-74—283            $13,718
T52        Minjee Lee          72-74-71-74—291            $5,839

Ladies European Tour
Joburg Ladies Open
Modderfontein Golf Club, Lethabong, South Africa
1             Lily May Humphreys        70-70-73-67—280            €45,000
T8           Kirsten Rudgeley               75-67-72-71—285            €7,200
T32        Momoka Kobori (NZ)       73-72-76-72—293            €2,464.29
T56        Wenyung Keh (NZ)           72-76-79-73—300            €990

PGA TOUR Champions
Cologuard Classic
Omni Tucson National, Tucson, Arizona
1             David Toms         68-65-68—201   $US330,000
T3           Mark Hensby      69-70-65—204
T19        Stuart Appleby   72-67-71—210  
T26        David McKenzie 73-71-67—211  
T30        Rod Pampling     74-71-67—212 
T30        Richard Green    69-71-72—212  
T49        John Senden       74-70-72—216  

Epson Tour
Florida’s Natural Charity Classic
Country Club of Winter Haven, Winter Haven, Florida
1             Agathe Laisne    73-68-66—207  
T30        Gabriela Ruffels 73-73-70—216  
T46        Hira Naveed        75-72-72—219  
T46        Robyn Choi         70-74-75—219  
MC         Sarah Jane Smith              79-75—154
MC         Amelia Garvey (NZ)          82-75—157