Tournament: Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard. March 7-10, 2024
Course: Bay Hill Club & Lodge, par 72, 7,466 yards. On the western edge of Orlando, FL, and a scant few miles from Orange Blossom Trail (IYKYK).
Purse: $20 million, with $4 million to the winner. This is the 4th Signature Event (of 8 this season). Thus elevated fields and elevated purses.
Defending Champ: Kurt Kitayama. The Runnin’ Reb from UNLV got out to a fast start, and held serve over the weekend as the rest of the pack came charging back at him.
Fun Fact: This is a Signature Event with only 70 odd players in the field. It is made up of the top 50 players from the previous season’s FedEx Cup, the current FedEx cup players from this season (not already qualified), the top 5 players between the Signature events (most recent, not already qualified), current season winners not already qualified, and world ranking top 30 not already qualified. The aim is to get the players who are hot, and have been playing the best golf over the last year or so. But somehow they get some sponsor’s exemptions. One of those this week is Webb Simpson. The Mary Broughton High School product (and seriously a Country Club kid of the highest degree) received an exemption. While Simpson had a good Tour career, and did capture the US Open a dozen years ago, he is the antithesis of “playing good golf right now”. But he’s also on the Players Advisory Council, a genuinely good guy, and now will get a guaranteed check. Draw your own conclusions.
TV Times: Thursday-Friday: 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel), Saturday-Sunday: 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30-6 p.m. (NBC). The golf coverage will stay with NBC for the next month until CBS returns from March Madness.
‘Dawgs in the Field: 6. Sepp Straka, Russell Henley, Chris Kirk, Brendon Todd, Harris English, and Brian Harman.
Former Bulldog golfers have had a modicum of success on Arnie’s track, though no one has reached the winner’s circle. Harris English finished 2nd here last season, and 6 others made the cut. The year before, Kirk got a top 5 with another 6 playing the weekend. Kirk also had a top 10 in 2021, while Mitchell and Harris both got into the top 10 in 2020. The only other finish of note recently was Kevin Kisner’s 2nd place finish in 2017.
The course is always set up tough, the late winter winds always seem to blow, and there’s always enough water around to rinse some golf balls. It’s “similar” to PGA National (last week) in those regards, and the winning score will be somewhere around 10 under par in total. So not a birdie-fest, and players will test their shot-making: taking the wind into account for both shaping and distance. Those who can hit their approach shots on command usually come out on top. As proof of this concept, Tiger Woods won this tournament a record 8 times. He was the best iron player; exempli grati Tiger beat the field. A lot.
There’s a lot of things to draw one’s eyeballs these days, but if you want to see ‘Dawgs chasing little white balls in Central Florida, check out the API and root on our boys. And as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!