In-form veterans steer Bay Hill outcome
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational | Preview | 23 Mar 2010
The PGA Tour this week heads back across the Florida Peninsula to the Bay Hill Club and Lodge Golf and Country Club in Orlando for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
The tournament is missing its six time winner, Tiger Woods, but two in form previous winners, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, are in the field and will be considered as leading contenders for the title.
Singh has done enough in recent starts to suggest he is approaching his best once again. Not only did he win here in 2007 but he has been three times runner up and it might be that he too is about to return to the PGA Tour winner’s list for the first time in eighteen months.
Els has won once at Bay Hill in sixteen starts and surprisingly has only two other top ten finishes but he has enjoyed a good run of form of late including his win last week at Doral.
Phil Mickelson has played this event sparingly in recent years but he did win in 1997 and although he is not at his best to date in 2010, he has not been too far from it. It would be no surprise if he steps up to the plate this week.
Steve Stricker should be considered a chance if only for his world ranking of number two but he has not played this venue well and will need a big improvement in that regard if he is to do well.
Nick Watney has been on the verge of winning in recent weeks and played very well last year in this event when 4th. His 4th place finish last week at the transitions served notice that he is close to winning his first event since Torrey Pines last year.
This is not a golf course that has been good to Jim Furyk, recording only one top ten in nine starts in this event. He was impressive last week in Tampa and will be buoyed by that win but needs to play this course much better than he has if he is to successfully back up.
K.J. Choi has not played here in the last two years and withdrew in 2007. He did however play well in the event in 2005 before a final round of 75. K.J. Choi has found his game in recent weeks finishing runner up last week at the Transitions Championship and runner up in Malaysia at his previous start.
I believe Retief Goosen is a great chance to win the Masters in 2010 and if that is to be the case then a continuation of his good recent form this week will be no surprise. He has finished well enough in this event in the past and his amazingly consistent recent form suggests that he will play well. In his last 14 events worldwide Goosen has been inside the top ten on ten occasions, proof enough that he is close to the peak of his game.
The Australasians in the field are Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Nathan Green, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, John Senden, Rod Pampling and New Zealanders Danny Lee and Michael Campbell.
