Next stop the Masters for Rory McIlroy and let 's hope his final competitive hole before the season 's first major in just over a fortnight 's time proves a portent of things to come . Taking dead aim with his second shot on the dangerous 18th hole at Bay Hill on Sunday , the world No 1 judged it beautifully . The eight iron approach finished just 6ft from the hole and he rapped home the birdie putt for a 70 for a tied 11th finish in his first appearance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational , where American Matt Every completed a successful title defence . Given McIlroy climbed to within a stroke of the lead on Friday with a run of five birdies in a row during his second round 66 , it hardly represented the summit of his ambitions for the weekend . Rory McIlroy finished strongly but had to settle for 11th place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational . Matt Every ( left ) celebrates winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational and is given the trophy by the man himself . American champion Every made a successful defence of the trophy at Bay Hill on Sunday . But the tournament was really all about prep work ahead of his attempt to become the first European to complete the career Grand Slam and in those terms , he pronounced himself content . ' I feel like I got what I wanted out of the week and saw some progress on the things I am working on between now and Augusta , ' he said . 'Now I 'll go away and work on them some more and hopefully be ready for the Masters . ' That work will be completed at the Bear 's Club near his home in South Florida , where the greens will be a lot closer to Augusta speed than those at Bay Hill last week , where he never really looked comfortable . As for the Masters , McIlroy said : ' I 'm excited with it now so close , and the chance to win a third major in a row and become just the sixth player to complete the career grand slam . It is a nice position to be in and I am going to embrace it . ' McIlroy began seven shots off the lead and threatened briefly to assemble the sort of final round charge that saw him make up just such a deficit to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last year . Stenson threw away a golden opportunity to win Palmer 's tournament . Ian Poulter also had a disappointing weekend as he finished outside the top 20 . He birdied the two par fives , the fourth and sixth , and looked certain to birdie the 8th but the putt somehow failed to drop . McIlroy bent over in exasperation and at the next his race was run in terms of winning when he ran up an untidy bogey . It looked as if the round would fizzle out but he assembled something of a grandstand finish with two birdies in his last three holes . Alongside McIlroy , Europe 's other leading hope for a first Masters triumph in 16 years must be the Swede Henrik Stenson but he will be smarting right now after throwing away a golden opportunity to win Palmer 's tournament . After two fourth place finishes in a row in Florida , he began the final round with a two stroke lead . After losing it on the front nine owing largely to some forceful attacking play from Americans Morgan Hoffmann and Every , he had regained it with four holes to play . The only thing that has ever held him back , however , has been his putting and his weakness showed up again with successive three putts at the 15th and 16th holes . How costly that proved as Every played a marvellous iron shot to the 18th to set up what proved the clinching birdie . Stenson could not match it to give the unsung Floridian a one shot win . As for Ian Poulter , the UK 's other player in contention at halfway , he will be disappointed with his weekend 's work after a final round 72 left him outside the top 20 .
Rory McIlroy finished strongly but had to settle for 11th place . Matt Every defended his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational . McIlroy will now turn his attentions to the Masters at Augusta . TL;DR Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson both