Rory McIlroy again came up short-changed after Open champ, Francesco Molinari stormed to victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Molinari, 36 muscled his way from five shots back in posting a sizzling bogey-free eight-under par 64 for a ?? shot success at 12-under par and a third PGA Tour victory.

McIlroy finished an after-thought managing just two birdies in a level par 72 and finish in a distant share of sixth place at eight-under par.

McIlroy had burst into a hopeful first career defence of a Tour title thanks to a Friday visit to the Magic Kingdom at nearby Disney World and then coming out to shoot a day three 66.

But McIlroy’s final round was more akin to a Chamber of Horrors.

He headed into the final round trailing a shot behind Fitzpatrick and while he scrambled well to save par at the second, he drew level at nine-under with his 2016 Ryder Cup team-mate in holing a 27-foot birdied gem at the third.

Perfect putt from @McIlroyRory.

The defending @APInv champion is tied for the lead.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/SRxJfX07Yy

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) 10 March 2019

If you needed any signs that it might not be McIlroy’s day then we saw that at the par-5 fourth hole when his birdie putt from six-foot lipped-out.

Then to add insult to growing injury, McIlroy’s 18-foot birdie at the next performed a ‘360’ in also lipping out.

There was an incident on the sixth fairway with McIlroy singled out for an unsavoury comment by a clearly beer-fuelled spectator before putting his second in a greenside bunker and walking off with a two-putt bogey.

McIlroy had eagled the par-5 sixth on day two and grabbed a birdie on day three.

Up front, there was now five players at nine-under including Molinari who would then birdie his next hole, the 12^th and move to join Matthew Fitzpatrick on 10-under par.

The ‘McIlroy Is Not Going To Win’ writing was starting to appear boldly on the Bay Hill wall. There was there further confirmation the victory carpet was being slowly being pulled out from under McIlroy’s feet when he paid the price for missing a second par-3 green-in-regulation and posting a bogey, and first dropped shot, at the eighth.

McIlroy dropped to be sharing fifth and beginning to play another supporting role.

Fitzpatrick made the turn, and in his 46^th PGA Tour event, now two shots clear of McIlroy who was back to sharing third but with seven others at eight-under.

Both McIlroy and Fitzpatrick were on the 12^th tee where there was the ‘Roar of the Week’ from the 18^th when Molinari drained a monster 43-footer for birdie to forge then two shots clear of Fitzpatrick.

While Molinari was fist-pumping McIlroy’s mood continued to be downbeat in sending his chip shot from the right side of the 12^th green some 13-feet past for a two-putt par.

McIlroy had pared holes 10 through to 14 but after missing the 15th fairway way right he put his second shot into a greenside bunker on route to a second bogey.

He then holed a 10-footer for birdie on 16 before a pair of closing pars.

“It was a tough day, tough to get it close to the hole. I feel like I really didn’t play that badly. I missed a couple of shots but I felt like I was hitting good shots to 30 feet all day and it’s hard to sort of shoot a score. My mindset going out was play that way, take care of the par-5s, I thought go out there, do that, shoot 68.

“So, if I had played the par-5s a little better it would have been a different story.

“I’m playing well, I would much rather be putting myself in position to have a chance to win. I’m playing good golf, it doesn’t matter if I’m playing that golf on Thursday, Friday, Saturday — yeah, my Sundays haven’t been what I would have liked, but I’m putting myself in that position, so good golf is good golf, I keep saying that, at the end of the day

“I shot 72 on Thursday here, felt like I didn’t play that good but then I felt like I played much better today shooting the same score than the 72 I shot on Thursday.

“So, it doesn’t matter what day it is and it doesn’t matter if you’re final group, fifth group, it’s golf at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter.”

Fellow Ulsterman Graeme McDowell got his last round off to a horror start dropping six shots in his five holes in doubling the second, making a total mess of the par-5 fourth hole in taking a triple-bogey ‘8’.

G Mac then bogeyed the next before birdieing three of his next six holes but only to bogey 13 and then send a ball into the drink at 16 on route to a horror of horrors 78 for a two-over tally.

McDowell had been three shots off the lead on day one and boosting hopes of securing one of three tee-times into July’s Open Championship.