More to the Bay Hill than Tiger's record attempt
IN: News | US PGA | Bay Hill Invitational (2004) | Preview | by Bruce Young | 17 Mar 2004
The Bay Hill Invitational Presented by MasterCard begins a run of three tournaments leading into the US Masters with form over the next few weeks a key factor in assessing chances in the first major of the year.
While many eyes will be on Tiger Woods and his attempt to create history by becoming the first golfer to win any tour event in five consecutive years, there are many sub plots to this story that will help determine just where the main players are at, in their preparation for Augusta.
Woods has dominated this event since his first win here in 2000, in fact his collective winning margin in those four years has been a massive twenty shots although eleven of those would be in 2003 when he beat Stewart Cink, Brad Faxon, Kenny Perry and Kirk Triplett by that margin.
The attempt by Woods to achieve the feat of five consecutive wins will of course be a source of extreme interest. In professional golf over the years there have been several players to have won four in a row including Woods, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Laura Davies, Karrie Webb and New Zealander John Lister.
Hagen won the then PGA Championship between the years 1924 and 1927, Sarazen the Miami Open between 1926 and 1930 (the event was not held in 1927), Davies won the event that is scheduled for this week on the USLPGA Tour, the Standard Register Ping Phoenix Open between 1994 and 1997, Webb won the Australian Ladies Masters between 1998 and 2001 and Lister won the Garden City Classic in his homeland and an event on the Australasian Tour, on four occasions between 1972 and 1975.
It is worth noting that Webb had finished second in her particular event in 1997 and again in 2002 therefore recording a run of four wins and two seconds over six consecutive years in the Gold Coast event. Lister also would finish second when trying to win his event for the fifth time, being beaten into second place by Australian Bob Shearer in 1976.
It is also true that Tom Morris Jr. won the British Open in four consecutive stagings of the event from 1868 to 1872 (it was not held in 1871) but with the greatest respect to the trailblazers of the game, the event was then played over 36 holes and attracted a very limited field.
Another Woods win would create a record that would seem almost impossible to replicate given the competitive nature of the modern era, but his task this week is by no means a walk up start.
He faces a field that will include a previous two-time runner up in Vijay Singh, 1998 champion Ernie Els and three-time runner up, Davis Love III, in addition to many others capable of beating the world number one on any given week. Coming off his win at the Accenture three weeks ago however and a reasonable week in Dubai, there is every reason to believe that he will extend his amazing run at the Bay Hill layout.
The event has been part of the PGA Tour calendar since 1966 when Lionel Herbert won the Florida Citrus Open, as it was known at that time. It became the Bay Hill Citrus Classic when the tournament moved to the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in 1979 and has undergone several name changes in the interim, but has remained at the Bay Hill venue since.
The course was originally designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee in 1961 but was purchased by Arnold Palmer and a business group in 1970 and changes were made. Palmer is still the primary owner of the Club and Lodge at Bay Hill and this tournament and its success is largely a result of the involvement of the great man.
The field, apart from the leading chances, mentioned above also includes many of Europe's leading players namely Paul Casey, Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer amongst others. Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini will join their fellow country man Els in a strong South African contingent.
Australasian hopes are strengthened by the appearance of Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Nick Flanagan, Mark Hensby, Stephen Leaney, Peter Lonard, Geoff Ogilvy, Rod Pampling, Craig Parry and Craig Perks. John Senden waits on the 'reserve bench' for his chance at a start.
For US Amateur Champion, Flanagan, this will be his first USPGA Tour event following just a few weeks after his fine third placing at the European / Australasian Tour's ANZ Championship. Much interest will be centred on him as he prepares for a place in the US Masters field in three weeks time.
An event full of interest for more reasons than just the obvious.
