Close contest expected at Bay Hill
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational | Preview | 14 Mar 2007
The re-named Arnold Palmer Invitational gets underway on Thursday at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge near Orlando in Florida with a field befitting the reverence in which the great Arnold Palmer is held, in attendance.
While not actually known by this name previously, the event has more often than not been referred to as Arnie’s event and so the decision to formalise the change from its previous, Bay Hill Invitationa, is a welcome one. It also further reflects the role Palmer has made in the establishment and promotion of the event, not to mention the game in general.
The tournament first moved to Bay Hill Club and Lodge in 1979 after originally being held at the Rio Pinar Country Club in Orlando since 1966. The course was originally designed in 1961 by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee but following the purchase of the course in 1970 by Palmer and several of his friends and business acquaintances, changes were made.
The field arrive at Bay Hill to be welcomed by the unusual aspect of a golf course that is actually shorter in length than the previous year. That never happens in the modern day as golf courses look to combat the invasion of modern technology on their creditability so that is the good news. The bad news is that the golf course has been reduced to a par 70 from its par 72 in 2006 and the rough is longer.
The defending champion is Australian Rod Pampling, who took full advantage of a blunder by the leader Greg Owen late in the tournament in 2006 to win his second and most significant PGA Tour event.
Four time winner, Tiger Woods, could manage only 20th last year and returns to competitive golf after a third round defeat by Nick O’Hern at the Accenture. He has played only two PGA Tour events this season and three in total but does boast an enviable record in this event with consecutive victories between 2000 and 2003. His best finish in his last three visits to Bay Hill was last year so while he will be the warm favourite to make it five wins, he is certainly not a walk up start.
Phil Mickelson has not played this event since finishing 3rd in 2002 but he has often performed well. He won in 1997 at a time when there were question marks about his capacity to win Florida in fact it is still his only win in the State. He did finish second and third in two other starts at the event. Mickelson was out early at the Accenture but prior to that won at Pebble Beach and finished runner up at the Nissan
Henrik Stenson has become one of the game’s hottest players in the last twelve months and is now number five in the world. He has not previously played in this event but has played well in Florida previously when third at the Players Championship and his consistently good form in the Middle East and the Accenture Bermuda greens indicates he is ready for this task.
Robert Allenby finished fourth in this event in 2006 and given his current form he must be a chance to improve on that. He has had five consecutive strokeplay top tens on the USPGA Tour this season.
Charles Howell has played well at this event on occasions and at times when he was not in the scintillating form he is in at present. He has been a winner and twice runner up this season and last week stormed home with a final round of 65 to finish 6th last week in Tampa.
Players with chances at longer odds include Davis Love, Pat Perez, Bart Bryant and Camilo Villegas.
Aside from Allenby mentioned above there are several Australians with chances to do well. Geoff Ogilvy returns to golf following his near miss at the Accenture. This event has not been great to Ogilvy although he did play well for three rounds in 2006.
Aaron Baddeley has a chance to continue what has been a fine start to the season. He was 5th here two years ago at a time when his game was nowhere near the shape it is in now.
John Senden needs a big week to get a start at next week’s World Golf Championship event at Doral and to press his claims for a debut at Augusta. His runner up finish in Tampa suggests it is not a forlorn hope.
Rod Pampling is in similar form to when he competed, and won, the event last year. Nick O’Hern has his win over Tiger Woods at the Accenture to bolster his claims. Peter Lonard and Nathan Green are improving, Stuart Appleby finished runner up in 2004 while Andrew Buckle and Mark Hensby will need improvement on recent outings to have a chance.
The tournament has prizemoney of US$5.5 million.
