The 2017 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill will be the first without Arnold Palmer as Rory McIlroy leads the pack chasing the title.
The course
Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando measures 7 419 yards and plays as a par 72. The course, Palmer’s own, stretches 270 acres along the shores of the Butler Chain of Lakes. The championship course features a dramatic trio of closing holes which sets up a thrilling finish as was the case with Robert Gamez back in 1990.
“To have won (Arnold Palmer’s) tournament is a great thrill.”
Robert Gamez’ shot to win was pretty thrilling as well…#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/CxYZ2cyXnx
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 15, 2017
The field
The field, led by Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, includes 29 of the top 50 golfers in the world, but most of the pre-tournament talk has surrounded those stars not attending. For scheduling reasons or otherwise, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Justin Thomas will not be teeing it up at Bay Hill.
South Africans in the field
Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman and Retief Goosen are all in the field this week.
Defending champ
Jason Day edged American Kevin Chappell by one last year after getting up and down from a greenside bunker. Day lost his lead after nine holes, but made birdie at the par-3 17th before Chappell made bogey on 18 to hand the Australian the win, which moved him back to number two in the world.
Past winners
Day went wire-to-wire last season to break the dominance of Matt Every, who won consecutively following the trend set by the currently injured former world number one, Tiger Woods.
Three to watch
Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose. All three have a good record at the event and with the history pointing towards a highly ranked golfer taking the the title, the trend looks set to continue.
Local bookmakers, Bet.co.za, have McIlroy at 7.5-1, Stenson at 9.5-1 and 22-1.
Wildcard
England’s Tyrell Hatton (40-1). He will be making his Bay Hill debut, but has seven top 10s since October and finished 10th at the WGC-Mexico Championship. Hatton will be hoping to keep international players at the top of the leaderboard, with five of the past 11 years going to a non-American. (Ernie Els (1998, ‘10), Rod Pampling (2006), Vijay Singh (2007) and Martin Laird (2010) join last year’s winner Jason Day.)
