Tournament Stats:

List of Champions & Scores

Results & Scores 2009 Arnold Palmer

Box Score of 2009 Arnold Palmer

Tournament facts:

Tournament information:

Course information:

It's funny how Arnold Palmer got associated with it. In the early 1960s when Bay Hill was first opened, Palmer and Jack Nicklaus played an exhibition tournament at the course and the King was so attracted to Bay Hill that he got together a group of investors and leased the club with an option to buy it. In January of 1976, the group bought the course and ever since Palmer spends most of the winter in a condo behind the course. Palmer loves to tinker with the course. The last couple of years he has spent a lot of time making changes, probably the biggest coming in 2007 when he took the par 5, 4th and 16th holes and convert them into par 4s, thus reducing the par of the course to 70.

The average green size at Bay Hill is 6,500 square feet, which is a little over the average on the PGA Tour. The course has 103 bunkers and water comes into play on nine of the 18 holes. Bay Hill has been the host of the tournament since 1979.

For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.Com

The Buzz:

Unfortunately we will never know the truth other than he passed up this week saying he wasn't ready to play. Of course we know after what happened to Woods at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, when he admitted that he came back too soon after the death of his father, that he is serious about not coming back to soon. Many are weighing in, including John Cook who has seen Woods hit balls and feels that he can win the Masters in two weeks

One thing, a lot of people weighed in on my take on Tiger's five minutes with Tom and Kelly and how I felt that it was a waste of time. 50% of the people that wrote said they really don't care about what has happened to Woods and that all they care about is him playing again. They also expressed their concern that the media should just let this thing drop and let Woods play. It's funny it's like it use to be in Boston before they won their first World Series crown in 2004, people really have missed Tiger and just want him playing and playing soon.

Many are still looking over the ESPN and Golf Channel five minute Woods interview. One thing that is universal, 9 out of 10 feel that Kelly Tilghman did a much better job than Tom Rinaldi. In talking with a person that was involved with the interviews, I am struck with the fact that Rinaldi did his interview first and that Tilghman was allowed to watch. Geez I have to think that ESPN wasn't very smart in allowing this, yes Tilghman is very good but she had to get some pointers that helped her out in watching the ESPN interview. It's also interesting that both CBS and NBC passed on the interviews.

Over the last couple of years, Palmer has been tinkering a lot with the Bay Hill course. Palmer loves a man-size test and has done some small changes here and small changes there to make it tough. The biggest changes came a couple of years ago when he overseeded the rough and allowed it to get longer and narrowed down the fairways. He also changed the par to 70 and with all of these changes many felt that this was the reason that after winning four straight years, Tiger Woods was T-46th, T-23rd and T-20th before his win two years ago.

How Bay Hill has gotten tougher over the years:
Year	Scoring Average / Tour Rank	Winning score
1997	71.686 (-0.314) ranked 32nd	272
1998	72.693 (+0.693) ranked 16th)	274
1999	72.327 (+0.327) ranked 25th	274
2000	72.129 (+0.129) ranked 25th	270
2001	72.467 (+0.467) ranked 13th	273
2002	72.687 (+0.687) ranked 15th	275
2003	72.955 (+0.955) ranked 15th	269
2004	72.238 (+0.238) ranked 27th	270
2005	73.243 (+1.243) ranked 10th	276
2006	72.225 (+0.225) ranked 29th	274
2007	72.054 (+2.054) ranked 7th	272
2008	70.940 (+0.940) ranked 7th	270
2009	72.190 (+2.190) ranked 4th	275

Now Palmer has made a lot of changes in the last decade but this is the biggest facelift ever. Ever hole has been changed and the most noticeable change is the bunkers, many of them repositioned. Along with expanded greens that are close to bunkers, it will give tournament officials more chances to tuck pins close to bunkers. Also a big change after playing the course to a par 70 for the last three years, he reverted the course back to a par 72. It's like a yo-yo with par always changing as Palmer converted the fourth and sixteen holes back to par 5s.

Palmer said about the changes, “We’ve decided it’s more fun to see the guys go out and try to make birdies and eagles than to see them maybe settling for pars or putting up other scores.”

What is strange about this change is that over the years, Bay Hill has turned into one of the hardest courses on the PGA Tour. As you can see in the chart at the left, the course has been in the top-ten of hardest courses on the PGA Tour. With these changed, we may see the scoring go down a bit.

Still for the fourth week in row, a Florida Swing course will look a lot like a U.S. Open test. For many, this week and next at the Shell Houston Open will be a good way of prepping for the Masters.

One person that won't be prepping for the Masters is Vijay Singh who withdrew for the second straight week due to back problems. It was really weird, after a year of getting over injuries, his game seemed to be back and now he is sidetracked with this new problem. Singh hasn't released what is wrong with him, but rumors are saying that he won't be able to play in the Masters

This week is also the last week to qualify for the Masters based on being in the top-50 of the World Rankings. Now for K.J. Choi who is 47th he is playing at Bay Hill and it's probably a lock for him staying in the top-50. But for some of the others it's a different story. Here is a look:
45th - Thongchai Jaidee - not playing this week but still should be OK
46th - Francesco Molinari - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
47th - K.J. Choi - His 2nd place finish last week got him in top 50, needs a top-55 finish to secure spot
48th - Adam Scott - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
49th - Edoardo Molinari - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
50th - Anders Hansen - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
51st - Soren Kjeldsen - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
52nd - Brian Gay - In Masters when he won last year's Verizon Heritage
53rd - Brian Crane- In Masters when he won this year's Farmers Insurance
54th - Stephen Ames - Needs to finish in top-5 at Palmer
55th - David Toms- In Masters when he played in Tour Championship last year
56th - Ryan Moore - In Masters when he won the Wyndham Championship
57th - Simon Dyson - In Masters, was top-50 at the end of the year
58th - J.B. Holmes - Needs to finish in top-4 at Palmer
59th - Justin Rose - Needs to finish in top-4 at Palmer
60th - Louis Oosthuizen - Needs to win Andalucia Open in Spain
A couple of others playing this week, Alex Noren is ranked 66th and needs to win in Spain, Bubba Watson is ranked 68th and needs a runner-up finish at Palmer.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Michael Cohen/WireImage Scene at the 18 hole at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida.

The major season is about to heat up. We are two weeks away from the Masters and the interest level will increase as we get ready for the first major of the year. Already the Florida swing has produced a great selection of winners with Camilo Villegas at the Honda, Ernie Els at Doral and Jim Furyk at the Transitions.

In six of the last ten years Tiger Woods has been the winner, we won't have that happening this year. So what does that mean? In many tournaments, experience seems to be important, but not at Bay Hill. Since 1979, 10 of the winners either became first-time winners or had only won once before, just like with Rod Pampling in 2006 and Chad Campbell in 2004. But on the other side of the coin, the tournament has had some great players winning like Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Paul Azinger, Payne Stewart, Fuzzy Zoeller and Tiger Woods. In the past, players that drove it long never seemed to win, but that trend has changed. Just look at the last ten winners: Phil Mickelson in '97, Ernie Els in '98, Tim Herron in '99 and Tiger in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008 & 2009, Chad Campbell in 2004 and Vijay Singh in 2007. They all can hit the ball a long way. Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational:

• Key stat for the winner:
  There has been a bit of controversy that ball-striking is becoming a dinosaur on the PGA Tour, but that isn't the case this week. Bay Hill is a ball striking haven in which hitting lots of greens is important. Since 1997 there has been no winner that has been over 17th in greens hit for the week, until last year when Tiger Woods was T50th in greens hit. Before that three of the winners including 2005 champion Kenny Perry led the category. 2007 winner, Vijay Singh, was second.
• Unimportant stat: Birdies. Patience is important at Bay Hill. On most courses the norm is making lots of birdies to keep pace, but at Bay Hill pars are just as important.
• Kenny Perry had a perfect combination of being ranked fourth in both driving distance and accuracy in 2005. Look for accuracy to once again prevail and look for another player like Perry that combines straight driving with a bit of length. Even though Rod Pampling doesn't hit it far, he gets it in the fairway, which is important. Also, Charles Howell III hits it far and straight. Be sure to look at the leaders this year in Total Driving, guys like Mathew Goggin, and Lucas Glover could do well this week.
• Look for scores to be lower since there is now four par 5s on the course.
• One thing for certain is that the odds are quite good that the winner will be from either Florida and the Orlando area. Of the 120 in the field this week, 26 live in Florida with 15 having ties in the Orlando area.
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