Jason Day gets a pre-Masters boost and wins Arnold Palmer Invitational

The dominant narrative coming into this PGA Tour season was the hyped-up rivalry between Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth that was sure to take off in 2016. Spieth had just completed a legendary two-major, Player of the Year campaign and Rory was going to return with a vengeance from what he termed a "lost" 2015 season. The player overlooked in that scenario was Jason Day, who admitted this week he's the least cool member of this new "Big Three."

But with just two weeks to go until the season's first and most important major, it's Day who may be in the best shape to take the Masters and leave that Rory-Jordan narrative behind. Day's form at this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational was far from the outrageous game at the end of last year, when no one in the world could touch him and he won three times in four starts, including that first career major. But he still went wire-to-wire at Bay Hill to pick up his first win of the year and nice little boost in this final pre-Masters stretch.

Day started the week 66-65 to open up a five-shot lead at the midpoint in Orlando and it looked like it would be a runaway. The weekend rounds were much more of a grind, something he cited right after walking off the 18th on Sunday. Figuring out how to win when he's "not on," as he put it, is the next step in Day becoming one of the greats. When he's got it all working, tee-to-green, he's playing a different game. That showed on Tuesday when he torched Bay Hill, bombing it with his driver and then stuffing it close with his irons. There are only a couple players -- Rory, maybe Dustin and Bubba -- who can hang with Day when he's going like that and even then, those other stars need their absolute best too.

The last two rounds, however, he needed to slug it out just to escape with the title on the 18th hole. He'd sputter and come back to the pack, then use that awesome talent to put a couple birdies back up on the board and get back in the lead. He started Sunday with a two-shot lead but made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the front nine to bring all the chasers back into it early. The primary challengers at the end were Kevin Chappell and Troy Merritt. Chappell held a one-shot lead on the 18th tee, but a drive into the right rough led to a closing bogey. Day pounced, making birdie at the 17th to get ahead by a shot ...

Big moment. Big putt. Never a doubt.#QuickHits https://t.co/y4o6stw0re

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 20, 2016

... and then making an absurd sand shot at the finishing hole for an up-and-down save.

Jason Day will have this for the win ... #QuickHits https://t.co/T8Wbn1iTHF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 20, 2016

The win is Day's eighth PGA Tour victory and his sixth in a little more than a year. They're coming at the marquee events and venues too -- Torrey Pines, the PGA Championship, two Playoffs tourneys, and now Bay Hill.

Day spent the first quarter of the year playing and traveling far less than his other colleagues of the "Big Three." It was a quiet start to the year after that rampaging end to 2015. But he may have played his scheduling just right and could now be in better form than either Spieth or McIlroy with the Masters bearing down. He's got a second and third-place finish in a young five-year career at Augusta, and his talent and high-ball bombing ways were going to make him a natural favorite again there this year. The "quiet" start to the year is long gone and this week's win at Bay Hill, with Arnie watching over that 18th green, reminded us why he'll be so tough to beat.

What everyone wants at the beginning of the week - a congratulatory handshake from the King. @JDayGolf gets it. pic.twitter.com/eok5OQOFGW

— Jay Coffin (@JayCoffinGC) March 20, 2016

The Tour now swings out to Texas for the WGC Match Play event and the Shell Houston Open. Here are your final results from the fourth and final leg of the Florida swing: