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Tiger Woods (shown here Wednesday) has six career wins at Bay Hill.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Arnold Palmer never underwent a swing change in his career.

“I started with a pattern when I started playing the TOUR, and I stuck with it until today, and I will go with it today in the pro‑am and hope to hell I can hit it in the fairway and hope I can hit it longer than what I've been hitting it,” Palmer said. “I hit it so far these days that I hear it land.”

He also never had a swing coach, save for his father, Deacon.

“I saw him at least once a year for about 70 years, and he never changed anything” Palmer said. “He watched me for five minutes and went home. He put my grip on the club and my hands on the golf club when I was six years old and he said, ‘Boy, don’t you ever change it.’ Well, I haven’t changed it.”

Tiger Woods, who has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard six times, obviously has. The latest of those changes has not only drawn criticism from various circles, it’s surprised some, too -- including Palmer.

“I thought that the first few times that I played with him on the TOUR, way back when he first came out, and I thought he had a great swing and I thought he had a great posture in hitting the golf ball,” Palmer said. “And obviously it was, because he didn't win all of those tournaments without having those things.

“I'm a little surprised that he's changing his game or doing what he's doing to his game, which I'm really not sure what it is.”

One of the things Palmer did notice, however, is that Woods, who missed last year’s event while on hiatus, appears to be laying the club off a little more in his swing than in the past -- not that Palmer was being overly critical; it was just an observation he had.

That said, Palmer added that he feels like Woods is still capable of winning at any time, despite Woods having endured his worst season on TOUR in 2010 and with just one top-10 this year after a final-round 66 two weeks ago at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship.

“I feel like Tiger has a golf game that he can come to the surface any time,” Palmer said. “I think that's certainly a possibility here. He likes the golf course. He likes what we've done. So I would just not count him out at all.”

The last time Woods did win here was in 2009 when he sank a 12-foot putt on the final hole to beat Sean O’Hair by a stroke.

And another victory at Bay Hill could give Woods the confidence he needs heading into the year’s first major at Augusta National.

“If I was playing good and winning tournaments, I always felt pretty good going to Augusta,” Palmer said. “I think that's just a confidence builder to win a golf tournament, and I think that would apply to any player in the field. For a lot of years, I had won tournaments prior to Augusta. So that wasn't something that I worried about.”

The same could be said about Woods. -- Brian Wacker

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Don’t look now but Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, is climbing the leaderboard.

Saunders, who played at Clemson, started on the front nine and has played his first seven holes in 5 under. ( Click here to follow the rest of his round on Shot Tracker.)

Saunders is currently tied for second at 7 under with Padraig Harrington, Aaron Baddeley and Alex Cejka. Steve Marino leads at 10 under after making the turn at Pebble Beach in 3 under.

A local radio station was just doing a leaderboard update in the media center. The announcer, talking about the logjam at second, said, “and Sam Saunders, don’t know very much about that name.” Other reporters quickly explained  the relationship to him, and the recording began anew.

Interestingly, Palmer never won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He finished second in 1966 and 1971, and had a total of four top-10s.

Saunders is competing in his ninth PGA TOUR event since turning pro. His best finish is a tie for 17th at last year’s Honda Classic. He missed the cut at the Bob Hope Classic is his only other start of 2011.

Scott Ostler, the columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, did a nice piece on Saunders earlier in the week. My favorite revelation was in the story was that while we call Palmer the “King” the family calls him “Dumpy.” That’s because when Saunders’ mother Amy was a little girl and her dad had had a bad day she’d try to call him “grumpy” but the word didn’t come out quite right.

Click here to read the whole article. – Helen Ross

The crowds at The Greenbrier have been good all week, and Thursday is no exception. Among the fans watching are the legendary Arnold Palmer and former NBA guard Bimbo Coles.

Palmer is in the gallery of his grandson, Sam Saunders, who is 3 over and playing the 18th hole.

Coles grew up in nearby Covington, Va., and played his high school ball at Greenbrier East in Lewisburg, W. Va. -- where Jim Justice, who owns the Greenbrier, coaches the girls team. He went on to play for Virginia Tech and was a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.

Coles played for the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. – Helen Ross

In case you were wondering, the largest come-from-behind victory at the U.S. Open came in 1960 when Arnold Palmer made up seven strokes to win at Cherry Hills.

Johnny Miller, who is doing commentary for NBC this week, trailed by six strokes when he won at Oakmont in 1973.

Obviously, it's early yet. But Edoardo Molinari is bidding to  become the 12th man to win the U.S. Amateur and go on to capture the U.S. Open later in his career.

The 29-year-old Italian won the U.S. Am at Merion in 2005. He just made a double bogey at the difficult par-5 14th but he's still just two strokes off the lead at even par.

The last player to complete the U.S. Am-U.S. Open double was Tiger Woods. He won the 1994, '95 and '96 U.S. Ams and the 2000, '02 and '08 U.S. Opens. That 2000 victory also came at Pebble Beach.

The other players who have won both are Francis Ouimet, Jermone D. Travers, Charles Evans Jr., Bobby Jones, John Goodman, Lawson Little, Arnold Palmer, Gene Littler, Jack Nicklaus and Jerry Pate. -- Helen Ross