PGA Tour 2024 - Arnold Palmer Invitational

[Splatt]

G'day golfers,

I currently write this to you poolside on holiday, but the PGA Tour threads stop for no-one.

The Florida swing continues as we head to a stunning venue for a tournament that pays homage to one of the most well known and beloved players of all time, Arnold Palmer.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is the 2nd of 3 player hosted tournaments along side Tiger Woods’ The Genesis and Jack Nicklaus' The Memorial. But, before we get too deep into things, a terrible golf joke.

Whats the difference between a whiff and a practice swing?

Nobody swears after a practice swing!!

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is held at Palmer’s own Bay Hill Club and Lodge. It’s a par 72, 7,466-yard course with a hell of a lot of water. The course itself is mostly flat with the water hazards supplying most of the nervy shots. Superior ball-striking is required if a player is serious about finishing near the top of the leaderboard. Bay Hill is the site of the infamous par 5 around the lake at the centre of the property. Most take a line to the right and find fairway, but not Bryson DeChambeau (shame he won’t be teeing it up)

 

 

Last year, Kurt Kitayama triumphed after a late scare at the par-4 9th hole where he made a triple bogey and gave everyone a chance for the steal. Luckily for Kitayama, he steadied the ship and finished strong with a birdie on the 2nd last hole. Kitayama put on a golf clinic here last year finishing number 1 in driving accuracy, number 1 in greens in regulation, and 3rd in stroked gained in putting. It was his first PGA Tour title.

Field highlights

·        Kurt Kitayama – the defending champ and current world number 47. Kitayama hasnt played since The Genesis back in mid-Feb where he finished T-39. The break should do him some good and he can continue his consistent start to the season. Kitayama hasn’t missed a cut yet this season and he’s had 1 top 10 finish in 5 starts. He currently still only has 1 win on his resume, defending his crown here would be a nice way to add another notch to the bedpost.

 

·        Patrick Cantlay – winless on the PGA Tour last year, Cantlay had his best chance at a win in a long time at last months The Genesis. He was the 54 hole leader by 2 shots, but a lackluster final round saw him not only let the win slip away but slide all the way to a T-4 finish. He’s had a pretty consistent 2024 so far with 5 events played and 5 cuts made.

 

·        Nick Dunlap – Nick became the first amateur in 33 years to win on the PGA Tour back at The American Express in January. He’s since turned pro and this event will mark his 4th start as a pro. Since turning pro he finished solo-80th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, missed the cut at The Genesis, and finished T-53 at last weeks Cognizant Classic. Some added pressure turning pro maybe? What do you guys think?

 

·        Max Homa – steady as she goes is an apt description of Homa’s 2024 season so far. He’s only missed 1 cut and he’s racked up an impressive collection of finishes with a T-14 at The Sentry, T-13 at The Farmers Insurance, and a T-16 at The Genesis. Homa won twice on the PGA Tour last season, so I’m sure if he continues his form he’ll add another win to the resume very soon.

 

·        Scottie Scheffler – Mr number 1 and Mr consistent. Again he leads the Tour in strokes gained Approach to Green, he leads the Tour Stroked Gained tee to green, and again he is close to last in putting. If he even figures the putter out everyone else can kiss winning goodbye and fight over 2nd place. So far this season hes played in 5 events, hasnt missed a cut, and he’s racked up a an impressive 3 top 10 finishes. His worst finish this year was T-17 at The American Express.

 

 

The Arnold Palmer (the tournament, not the drink ) always leads to some exciting action and a razor sharp leaderboard.

For those in the pick ‘em comp, remember to get your picks in.

 

SPLATT

[Splatt]

My money is on Min Woo Lee this week.

He finished T-2 last week to earn his invitation to this week.

 

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

I think I went with sleepers this week for the most part. Could be a fun event and should make for a good view!

Who else does everyone else have?

[Splatt]

I went with some big hitters this week

[Josh Parker]

I am just hoping my picks make the cut!  Ha  

 

[Phurst6]

I'll take Hovland as my guy this week

Edited March 7 by Phurst6

[BallsLeon]

I believe in Scottie and his new putter. Get ready cause the Spider X is about to sell like the jailbird.

[KingSlender]

19 minutes ago, BallsLeon said:

I believe in Scottie and his new putter. Get ready cause the Spider X is about to sell like the jailbird.

It's so obvious when PGA pros need to go to a face balanced putter.

DJ did the same thing earlier in his career, missing a LOT of putts inside 5 feet with his blade putter.  He was able to get the 2016 US Open with it, but since switching to the Spyder he's been a WAY more consistent putter.

Scheffler just needs to stick with it for more than 1 tournament.

[DiverDown]

I'm personally rooting for Rickie Fowler for this one but I doubt it.  Being Canadian myself Nick Taylor would be fun especially after his Waste Management win.

[PDIDDYMARSH]

5 hours ago, Splatt said:

G'day golfers,

I currently write this to you poolside on holiday, but the PGA Tour threads stop for no-one.

The Florida swing continues as we head to a stunning venue for a tournament that pays homage to one of the most well known and beloved players of all time, Arnold Palmer.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is the 2nd of 3 player hosted tournaments along side Tiger Woods’ The Genesis and Jack Nicklaus' The Memorial. But, before we get too deep into things, a terrible golf joke.

Whats the difference between a whiff and a practice swing?

Nobody swears after a practice swing!!

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is held at Palmer’s own Bay Hill Club and Lodge. It’s a par 72, 7,466-yard course with a hell of a lot of water. The course itself is mostly flat with the water hazards supplying most of the nervy shots. Superior ball-striking is required if a player is serious about finishing near the top of the leaderboard. Bay Hill is the site of the infamous par 5 around the lake at the centre of the property. Most take a line to the right and find fairway, but not Bryson DeChambeau (shame he won’t be teeing it up)

 

 

Last year, Kurt Kitayama triumphed after a late scare at the par-4 9th hole where he made a triple bogey and gave everyone a chance for the steal. Luckily for Kitayama, he steadied the ship and finished strong with a birdie on the 2nd last hole. Kitayama put on a golf clinic here last year finishing number 1 in driving accuracy, number 1 in greens in regulation, and 3rd in stroked gained in putting. It was his first PGA Tour title.

Field highlights

·        Kurt Kitayama – the defending champ and current world number 47. Kitayama hasnt played since The Genesis back in mid-Feb where he finished T-39. The break should do him some good and he can continue his consistent start to the season. Kitayama hasn’t missed a cut yet this season and he’s had 1 top 10 finish in 5 starts. He currently still only has 1 win on his resume, defending his crown here would be a nice way to add another notch to the bedpost.

 

·        Patrick Cantlay – winless on the PGA Tour last year, Cantlay had his best chance at a win in a long time at last months The Genesis. He was the 54 hole leader by 2 shots, but a lackluster final round saw him not only let the win slip away but slide all the way to a T-4 finish. He’s had a pretty consistent 2024 so far with 5 events played and 5 cuts made.

 

·        Nick Dunlap – Nick became the first amateur in 33 years to win on the PGA Tour back at The American Express in January. He’s since turned pro and this event will mark his 4th start as a pro. Since turning pro he finished solo-80th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, missed the cut at The Genesis, and finished T-53 at last weeks Cognizant Classic. Some added pressure turning pro maybe? What do you guys think?

 

·        Max Homa – steady as she goes is an apt description of Homa’s 2024 season so far. He’s only missed 1 cut and he’s racked up an impressive collection of finishes with a T-14 at The Sentry, T-13 at The Farmers Insurance, and a T-16 at The Genesis. Homa won twice on the PGA Tour last season, so I’m sure if he continues his form he’ll add another win to the resume very soon.

 

·        Scottie Scheffler – Mr number 1 and Mr consistent. Again he leads the Tour in strokes gained Approach to Green, he leads the Tour Stroked Gained tee to green, and again he is close to last in putting. If he even figures the putter out everyone else can kiss winning goodbye and fight over 2nd place. So far this season hes played in 5 events, hasnt missed a cut, and he’s racked up a an impressive 3 top 10 finishes. His worst finish this year was T-17 at The American Express.

 

 

The Arnold Palmer (the tournament, not the drink ) always leads to some exciting action and a razor sharp leaderboard.

For those in the pick ‘em comp, remember to get your picks in.

 

SPLATT

All each way for 8 places: 

Tommy Fleetwood

Min Woo Lee

Ludvig Aberg

and then as my personal picks: 

Hideki Matsuyama

Rory McIlroy

[cnosil]

33 minutes ago, KingSlender said:

It's so obvious when PGA pros need to go to a face balanced putter.

Another assessment n what is wrong with his putting. .  everyone seems to have a thought on what will “fix” his putting.  Haven’t heard any putting experts say the answer is a face balanced putter. 

What attributes do you see that indicates he needs a face balanced putter and what will the face balanced putter fix and what are the potential things it will break?

[KingSlender]

23 hours ago, cnosil said:

Another assessment n what is wrong with his putting. .  everyone seems to have a thought on what will “fix” his putting.  Haven’t heard any putting experts say the answer is a face balanced putter. 

What attributes do you see that indicates he needs a face balanced putter and what will the face balanced putter fix and what are the potential things it will break?

Like DJ had an issue with before he stuck with the Spyder, Scheffler "wipes" too many putts with his blade inside 6 feet.  This will keep him truer to his line. 

Scheffler's SG Putting were -1.57 in Round 1 - 54/69 - hey, at least he's not last!

[cnosil]

46 minutes ago, KingSlender said:

Like DJ had an issue with before he stuck with the Spyder, Scheffler "wipes" too many putts with his blade inside 6 feet.  This will keep him truer to his line. 

Scheffler's SG Putting were -1.57 in Round 1 - 54/69 - hey, at least he's not last!

I assume your wipes assessment is about path.   Path is not relevant to where the ball goes.   Most players have a left or right bias with their stroke and while Scheffler tends to loop out during transitions and hit the ball in the heel,  he doesn’t have a massive out to in path.   Your original comment was that he needed face balanced putter and the is no definitive evidence that face balanced it needed for a left biased stroke;  I have generally been fit for not face balanced putters for my left biased/wipe stroke.  
 

He’s not typically last when looking at strokes gains just near the middle to bottom third.  Maybe the mallet will help, but I personally don’t think it will unless the problem is aim and the longer alignment aid will provide benefit.  

[Splatt]

 

[Splatt]

Uh oh, Scheffler has a mallet in the bag and he's now leading.

Good luck everyone else

[cnosil]

16 minutes ago, Splatt said:

Uh oh, Scheffler has a mallet in the bag and he's now leading.

Good luck everyone else

Has played mallets before.   At the API he  is leading and is excelling in the other areas of the game like he normally does with mediocre putting.  

[Michael.Sandoval33]

On 3/8/2024 at 1:33 PM, Splatt said:

 

Knapp had a 12 today if I am not mistaken. A septuple? Man. 

[Splatt]

1 hour ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Knapp had a 12 today if I am not mistaken. A septuple? Man. 

He sure did. I love the chaos that hole 6 brings

[KingSlender]

Has anyone become less likable more quickly than Wyndham Clark has the last 24 hours?  

Dude CLEARLY cheated using the old wedge mash and his ball moved on 18, then pretended he had no idea and was saved by the rules official. 

Then says the Tour should only be 100 players (I'd actually be on board with that) when 2 years ago he was #118 and really benefitted from the weaker fields created by the LIV exodus.

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, KingSlender said:

Dude CLEARLY cheated using the old wedge mash and his ball moved on 18, then pretended he had no idea and was saved by the rules official. 

Did he really?  Do you have a video showing that he did something more than resting the club behind the ball?  Yes, he did that a few times, maybe you can find a rule that limits the number of times he can ground the club lightly behind the ball.  Now he may have caused the ball to move, I'm not certain that it returned to its original position, it might have settled more deeply into the grass, but experienced people reviewed the video to make that call.  Vertical movement is something he realistically might not have seen from above.

[BallsLeon]

On 3/7/2024 at 6:40 AM, BallsLeon said:

I believe in Scottie and his new putter. Get ready cause the Spider X is about to sell like the jailbird.

Start buying those Spider Xs now before the price goes up!

Edited March 10 by BallsLeon

[GolfSpy_APH]

52 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Did he really?  Do you have a video showing that he did something more than resting the club behind the ball?  Yes, he did that a few times, maybe you can find a rule that limits the number of times he can ground the club lightly behind the ball.  Now he may have caused the ball to move, I'm not certain that it returned to its original position, it might have settled more deeply into the grass, but experienced people reviewed the video to make that call.  Vertical movement is something he realistically might not have seen from above.

The video is on twitter and it looks pretty bad.

I guess they looked at it after and determined that the ball moved, but returned to the original spot so no penalty.

[TJ Hall]

3 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

The video is on twitter and it looks pretty bad.

I guess they looked at it after and determined that the ball moved, but returned to the original spot so no penalty.

I was watching at the time and noticed they quickly cut away from that particular camera angle.

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 minutes ago, TJ Hall said:

I was watching at the time and noticed they quickly cut away from that particular camera angle.

It certainly wasn't a good look (the ball moving and so on). That being said they did look at it so have to have a slight bit of trust in the ruling.

[DaveP043]

9 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

The video is on twitter and it looks pretty bad.

I guess they looked at it after and determined that the ball moved, but returned to the original spot so no penalty.

I agree that the ball moved, there's no question in my mind.  What I'm less certain about is whether the ball returned to its original location or not.  I do trust the experienced officials who review video for the tour to do their best.  If they're not certain the ball moved (per the definition in the rules), there shouldn't be a penalty.  I think a lot of "armchair officials" see any movement of the ball and think that's a breach, not understanding the actual rule.

[GolfSpy_APH]

Just now, DaveP043 said:

I agree that the ball moved, there's no question in my mind.  What I'm less certain about is whether the ball returned to its original location or not.  I do trust the experienced officials who review video for the tour to do their best.  If they're not certain the ball moved (per the definition in the rules), there shouldn't be a penalty.  I think a lot of "armchair officials" see any movement of the ball and think that's a breach, not understanding the actual rule.

For sure. At first look I thought the ball moved and then actually sat down more for a worse lie. But that's only one angle and who could say.

[DaveP043]

1 minute ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

For sure. At first look I thought the ball moved and then actually sat down more for a worse lie. But that's only one angle and who could say.

Yeah, it wouldn't have surprised me if he was penalized for a 9.4 breach, if the ball was determined to have moved.  I objected to the "clearly cheated" claim, because a small downward movement of the ball isn't necessarily visible to the player.  The only way to claim he was "cheating" would be to say he specifically pressed down when he grounded his club, and that simply isn't at all clear from the video.

[funkyjudge]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

Did he really?  Do you have a video showing that he did something more than resting the club behind the ball?  Yes, he did that a few times, maybe you can find a rule that limits the number of times he can ground the club lightly behind the ball.  Now he may have caused the ball to move, I'm not certain that it returned to its original position, it might have settled more deeply into the grass, but experienced people reviewed the video to make that call.  Vertical movement is something he realistically might not have seen from above.

Yes, he did REALLY!  No question whatsoever.  I am not generally a big fan of Brandel Chamblee, but he hit the nail on the head and in his video he also showed exactly how much the ball moved with the red circle that he drew around the ball in its original position.

In addition, Clark improved his lie and tamped down the line of this club path with his wedge machinations. Maybe he "had no idea" that he was doing this, but if so that is even more troubling because it means that this has become second nature to him and he no longer even realizes that he is cheating.

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, funkyjudge said:

Yes, he did REALLY!  No question whatsoever.  I am not generally a big fan of Brandel Chamblee, but he hit the nail on the head and in his video he also showed exactly how much the ball moved with the red circle that he drew around the ball in its original position.

In addition, Clark improved his lie and tamped down the line of this club path with his wedge machinations. Maybe he "had no idea" that he was doing this, but if so that is even more troubling because it means that this has become second nature to him and he no longer even realizes that he is cheating.

Again, seeing a ball move a small distance vertically isn't always possible, he may not have seen that.  And you're telling me that your judgement of that is better than an experienced official reviewing the same video, and possibly other video that we (including Brandel) don't have access to?  I don't agree.  I admit I'm not sure the ball returned to its original location, but but its not "clear cheating".  

As to his "wedge machinations", I saw the wedge being grounded several times behind the ball.  We didn't see his body or his hands, we have no idea whether he pressed down excessively.   And 8.1b(4) allows a player to ground his club lightly either right behind or in front of his ball, even if it improves the Conditions Affecting The Stroke.  Its possible he did improve the CATS, but that is specifically acceptable under the rules, as long as he didn't press the club into the ground.  

[Javs]

59 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

It certainly wasn't a good look (the ball moving and so on). That being said they did look at it so have to have a slight bit of trust in the ruling.

I agree with you, but I was really surprised that he even put himself in that position.