The TOUR Insider: Arnold Palmer Invitational
By Dave Shedlosk, PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Vijay Singh seeks to extend his record of wins after age 40 this week at a tournament that used to be unkind to him -- but where he is coming in as the defending champion.
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Singh, winner of 31 PGA TOUR titles, including 19 since his 40th birthday, had been thwarted in several bids to win an event he'd attended every year since 1993, but a pair of 67s on the weekend last year gave him an 8-under-par 272 aggregate and a two-stroke victory over Rocco Mediate in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
A former No. 1 player in the world, Singh, 45, avenged a heartbreaking defeat from two years earlier when he dunked his approach into the water at the 18th hole and registered his third runner-up finish at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Singh also bogeyed the last two holes in 1994 to pave the way for Loren Roberts to edge him by a shot.
"I just think it's playing the right golf at the right time," said Singh, who won the second of his two TOUR titles in 2007 despite nursing a sore ankle. "You can be playing well and not win. Some good breaks, good shots at the right time, making the right putt at the right time makes all the difference."
Since his victory, Singh, one of the most dedicated workers on the practice range, has been working on changing his swing, and even though the results have been uneven during the process, Singh feels it will work out for him in the long run. He admits it's the biggest alteration he has ever undertaken, and evidence that it has not quite taken hold surfaced at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he let a three-stroke lead slip away and then lost in a playoff to Steve Lowery.
"I just thought I needed it," Singh said of the changes. "I mean, I almost fell over the other day when I saw a shot of my backswing at the U.S. Open, and I said, 'Wow, I didn't know I was swinging that bad.' It showed that if you get too complacent about your golf swing, it can get from bad to worse.
"I think it's there, but my mind is still not believing it because it's quite a big change from what I used to have," he said. "My caddie says it's good. Everybody says it's good, but I think my mind is still not comfortable with it. Once I get going, I'll pretty much forget about thinking about it as much."
This week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, which is celebrating its 30th year, might be the perfect place for Singh to get on the scoreboard with a victory. In his 15 starts he has never missed a cut while producing 6 top-10-finishes, highest in the field. He's shot under par in all 15 appearances.
His win at Bay Hill last year was his 23rd different title.
"I play a lot and I enjoy going to different tournaments and testing myself whether it's on the PGA TOUR or on other tours and courses around the world," said Singh, who owns 22 international wins. "I think it's nice to win different tournaments. A lot of it depends on your form at the time, but you also have to adjust and play in different conditions, and that makes you a better player. I've learned a lot over the years."
Including not giving up.
FEDEXCUP POINTERS:
• An advertised showdown among the top three players in the world (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els) will have to wait another week. Els, No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Monday, citing fatigue. Els won Tthe Honda Classic, but was off form last week in missing the cut at the PODS Championship, only the second time in his career he had failed to cash the week following a victory.
• No. 1 Tiger Woods, the only four-time winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, passed the King last month with his third World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship win and his fourth straight triumph on the PGA TOUR for the 63rd title of his career. He now is fourth all-time, just one behind Ben Hogan. Woods has won seven of his last eight TOUR events, dating back to the 2007 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.
• Woods won four in a row at Bay Hill starting in 2000, and his scoring average in that span was 67.93. Since then, he has only two sub-70 scores at Bay Hill Club, including an opening 64 last year. Still, in the four years since he last won Palmer's event, Woods is averaging 71.375 strokes.
• Proximity to the hole is always important for approaches, but it could take on greater significance this week. The greens at Bay Hill Club were recently struck by nematodes (tiny worms that eat turf) and are in recovery mode. A few brown patches are still apparent on some of the greens, but the edges look decent -- and that's where most hole locations are set up on the TOUR.
• Luke Donald, with two top-three finishes, has been using a new driver this year, one in which he was involved in the development, the Mizuno MP-600. Always an accurate ballstriker, Donald ranks second in scoring average and 22nd in the all-around category.
• Sean O'Hair's standing of 21st place after the first round of the PODS Championship gave him the biggest come-from behind win after 18 holes on the TOUR this year. He was 10th after two rounds, leaving Steve Lowery as the only winner (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) to come from outside the top 10 after two rounds this year. Incidentally, Vijay Singh was 46th after the first round last year in winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of 13 players outside the top 20 after the first round who went on to victory.
• O'Hair, who grew up in the Orlando area, is going to be a tired golfer this week. Just a little more than 12 hours after his win in Tampa, he was on the practice range at Bay Hill Club getting ready for a 9 a.m. shotgun start to Monday's pro-am.
• Stewart Cink may have given up the lead at the PODS Championship (running his record as 54-hole leader to 1-9), but there's no doubt he's playing some solid golf early in the year after his third top-3 finish. He credits both a stepped-up fitness regimen and using the improved Nike One Black ball. The biggest difference is his hitting more greens in regulation (he ranks fifth compared to 48th a year ago). He's also third in eagles, compared to 85th last year.
• In the history of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only five players have won the event over the age of 40, including the 2007 winner Vijay Singh (44). They include Ben Crenshaw (41), Arnold Palmer in 1971 (41), Julius Boros in 1967 (47) and Kenny Perry in 2005 (44).
• Only 11 players finished under par in the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational; that's the fewest number in 20 years, which might coincide with the fact that Bay Hill was converted to a par-70 last year. The previous low as 12 in 1989.
• Don't expect a playoff this week, given that there have only been two at Bay Hill since 1989 and seven overall. The last playoff occurred in 1999 when Tim Herron beat fellow Minnesota native Tom Lehman.
• In 29 years at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, only four players have strung together four rounds in the 60s. Andy Bean was the first to accomplish the feat when he won the 1981 tournament. The others are George Burns, Payne Stewart and David Frost.
• Stuart Appleby's tie for 10th at the PODS Championship was his fifth in as many events this year. He credits an extended break in Australia and a return to basics with his putting after experimenting with his setup during a winless 2007. Now he gets a crack at Bay Hill, where he twice has finished second.
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