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ORLANDO, FLORIDA | It’s a point that has been made before – there’s nothing about today’s free-swinging style of professional golf that firm greens, thick rough and a proper breeze can’t fix.
We give you Exhibit A: The Florida swing.
Two windblown weeks in, tough has the PGA Tour’s best players 2 down.
The Honda Classic is always a snake pit and didn’t disappoint those who love to see golf balls splash in lagoons and tour players biting the shafts of their 9-irons. It’s a place where 6-under par won and only 16 players broke par for the week, all while grinding their teeth to sawdust.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill doubled down on the demands – effectively telling the Honda Classic, “Hey, hold my beer” – offsetting the warm-hearted nostalgia for the tournament’s late namesake by presenting a course that had all the charm of a toothache.
That probably suited Mr. Palmer, who regularly pushed for tweaks that made Bay Hill more beast than beauty. It’s a true Florida layout, flat and built around water hazards (one of which featured an alligator the size of an SUV sunning itself near the third green Sunday).
With a rich thatch of rough, greens that went from firm to crusty every afternoon when the wind took over and a handful of pin positions that were harder to find than hand sanitizer these days and the API became a battle of attrition.
Rory McIlroy? Sorry about those two doubles on the front side Sunday but thanks for playing.
Sungjae Im? Nice try at the Florida double.
Rob Oppenheim? Proof that shooting 83-83 on the weekend can still get you a few FedEx Cup points.
What Arnie’s event lacked in roars, it made up for in groans. At one point Saturday, a longtime tour caddie said, “There are no birdie holes out here.” Apparently the tour left those in Mexico City two weeks ago.
It was somehow fitting that all of the hole flags at Bay Hill were white (admittedly with a sponsor logo in the middle).
It’s not so much that Tyrrell Hatton won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and kept his sometimes lava-hot head about him. It was more a case of it finally ending before any more double bogeys could be made.
If nothing else, the past two weeks demonstrated that distance and technology can’t conquer everything, though they certainly help. It was a mentally and physically exhausting reminder.
To be fair, the conditions at Bay Hill were the biggest culprit in what happened or, if you came looking for birdies and thrills, what didn’t happen. Nothing makes golf harder than gusting winds and the difficulty is exponentially increased when the greens are slick and the edges are shaved.
Tour players want nothing more – courtesy cars and no-cut tournaments included – than having control of their shots. At Bay Hill, where a winter chill lingered, they had no choice but to trade trust for hope more often than not. It felt like the weekend was played in reverse.
Was it fun to watch?
Not really. At times, it was like watching someone trying to rake leaves in the wind.
After no player broke 70 on Saturday when the scoring average was 75.913 and eight players shot 80 or higher (including Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Hideki Matsuyama) one prominent player privately asked, “Do they not want anyone to play here anymore?”
That question may have more meaning a year from now when the Arnold Palmer Invitational will follow – not precede – the Players Championship. Respect for Mr. Palmer and what he still means to the game is one thing but being fried at the end of the tournament bearing his name is another.
Some players love it this way. It’s fun to watch birdies made in bunches but that can get old, too, if it happens every week. Had the conditions been softer, the tournament would have looked and felt different.
Rickie Fowler said he wouldn’t wish what he faced during the weekend on any recreational golfer.
Joel Dahmen won himself an exemption into this summer’s Open Championship by virtue of his T5 finish but didn’t have the energy to toast himself.
“I don’t know if I’ve played a tougher four days,” Dahmen said. “Maybe I’m not going to celebrate, but I think I may just lay on the couch after this one.”
Hatton will probably get to the couch eventually. He has a taste for California cabernets and planned to properly celebrate his first PGA Tour victory here in Orlando, where he now has a second home. It might be Wednesday, Hatton said, before he emerges from his celebration.
It was well earned.
“It’s nice to play something different,” Hatton said. “Most weeks the scores are super low. This ended up feeling like a major with the setup and how firm the greens were.”
Along with the weariness on his face, Hatton was wearing the Palmer-inspired red cardigan that goes to the champion at Bay Hill. The sweater comes with a gold crest attached. It must have felt like a medal of valor Sunday evening.
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