TOUR Insider: Another tough layout  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent ORLANDO -- The warm Florida air hanging over the grounds of Bay Hill Club suggests a hint of June and not just because of temperatures that are expected to hover around 80 most of the week. Nope. We are catching more than a subtle whiff of U.S. Open.  Can Tiger get back to his winning ways at Bay Hill? (Reuters/WireImage)
Sure, the schedule says it's time for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, but trust the TOUR Insider on this one. This week, players with the best ball-striking abilities and short games are going to rule. The Champion Course at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge looks stunningly green and capable of washing out red -- as in numbers on a scoreboard. Enhanced by a ryegrass overseed, the rough stands 4 inches and it might be even a shade deeper around the large, firm putting surfaces. It looks like a U.S. Open layout. What's more, par has been knocked down to 70 after the par-5 fourth and 16th holes were converted to par 4s. The advertised length of the reconfigured layout is 7,137 yards, which is 130 yards fewer than the usual par-72 track. The course is firm, so it could play even shorter -- for players who keep it in the fairways. Only rain showers, which are in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, could take some of the fire out of the test by keeping the greens receptive. But that rough isn't going to get any shorter, just wetter and heavier. Troy Matteson said the rough is the thickest he has seen on the PGA TOUR this year. Paul Goydos, the 1996 champion, took one look around and suggested that 280 would be a pretty good target score by the end of the week. "I think if you look back at the history of this tournament, I bet 280 isn't outside the top 10 very often," said Goydos, who won his second PGA TOUR title earlier this year at the Sony Open in Hawaii. "I don't know if that will win, but I think you wouldn't be unhappy shooting even par." Last year, when the course played to par-72, Justin Rose and Tom Pernice tied for eighth at 280 while Rod Pampling won it at 274. Only one time since Goydos won the title has 280 fallen outside the top 10. That was in 1997, good for a tie for 14th. Only once has 280 won the event, when Ben Crenshaw posted that figure in 1993. Bomb and gouge might work this week. Chances are, however, short, straight and simple will work better. Worth knowing: World No. 2 Jim Furyk, whose best finish at Bay Hill is a tie for eighth in 1998, withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Friday because of a sore left wrist, the same wrist that required surgery in 2003. Furyk isn't taking the pain lightly; he intended to visit his doctor in New York this week with the intention of getting ready for next week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral Resort & Spa in Miami. Reigning PLAYERS champion Stephen Ames checked in Sunday at Bay Hill Club and reported feeling much better after withdrawing from the PODS Championship because of the flu. "I was a mess for about two days," said Ames, who has two top-10s and hasn't missed the cut in seven Bay Hill appearances. Speaking of illness, Thomas Bjorn withdrew from Bay Hill Monday after being sick over the weekend. He had received a spot via the Commissioner's Exemption. That leaves the field at 126 players. The Arnold Palmer Invitational will have an impact on next week's World Golf Championships-CA Championship; the top 10 in the FedExCup standings after the last putt drops Sunday night who are not otherwise eligible get a date with the Blue Monster. Heath Slocum and Jeff Quinney are in hot pursuit at 12th and 13th, respectively. Slocum needs to finish 17th or better this week, Quinney 14th or better. John Senden is 22nd in points and needs his second straight runner-up finish to move into the top 10, but a good finish could also lift him into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. The top 50 after Bay Hill also qualify, as do the top 10 from the European Tour Order of Merit. In preparation for the Masters, Scotland's Richie Ramsay, the U.S. Amateur champion, is teeing it up Bay Hill. Ramsay and British Amateur champ Julien Guerrier are playing in the Masters as well as the Verizon Heritage the following week. Guerrier will likely compete as a professional at Hilton Head. Vijay Singh, who has finished second three times at Bay Hill, played in the PODS Championship despite a twisted right ankle that made it difficult to get off his right side on the downswing. He also had been having driver issues, but seemed to get them solved over the weekend. He closed with a 69 to tie for 19th. Boo Weekley made a shaft adjustment to his Cleveland Hi-Bore XL driver prior to the FBR Open and has two top-10 finishes in his last three starts. He'll be making his debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. There have been 714 players who have played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational through 2006. Of them, only two with 10 or more starts have never missed the cut: Singh and Ray Floyd. Four-time champion Tiger Woods is a perfect 10-for-10 as a professional, but missed the cut in 1994 as an amateur. Troy Matteson, who is making his first start at Bay Hill, has been battling tendonitis in his right elbow and the results show what it has done to his game: after finishing 28th or better in his first four starts, Matteson has suffered two missed cuts followed by a tie for 68th last week at the PODS Championship. Mike Hulbert, who in 1986 finished second in his debut at Bay Hill, is back for his 22nd start in Arnold Palmer's tournament. Hulbert is making just his second start of 2007, but is appearing in his third tournament. Earlier this year at the FBR Open, he caddied for good friend Davis Love III (who tied for 44th). |
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