{"id":734,"date":"2021-03-03T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/?p=734"},"modified":"2022-03-30T13:20:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:20:41","slug":"2021-arnold-palmer-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/2021-arnold-palmer-invitational\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando FL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The WGC Workday Championship Wrap-Up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last week concluded the WGC Workday Championship<\/a>. The reigning PGA Champ, Collin Morikawa, took home the prize as he finished the tournament at -18, three shots clear of runners-up Brooks Koepka, Billy Horschel, and Viktor Hovland. This was the fourth tour victory for the 24 old Morikawa, and he won in dominating fashion. The Concession Golf Club<\/a>, a Nicklaus design<\/a> and venue for the Workday, played like a bear as expected. Unless you were hitting it long and extremely straight off the tee, you paid a heavy price with only 21 of the 50 top ranked players in the world managing to break par. Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, and Adam Scott, all major champions, each finished at +5. Jack doesn\u2019t want to see a putting contest, and when a championship is held on one of his courses, you can bet the winner will be at the top of the ball striking stats for the week\u2014particularly driving. Morikawa hit an incredible 84% of the Fairways at the Concession, while averaging 286 yards off the tee. Johnson, on the other hand, averaged 306 yards off the tee, but hit only 57% of the fairways. Rose and Scott each averaged just under 300 yards, but hit only 66% and 64% of the fairways, respectively. Horschel and Hovland, who tied for second, hit 82% and 77% of the fairways. The only player at the top of the leader board not among the leaders in driving accuracy was Brooks Koepka (64%), which is a testament to his determination and grit, particularly on display in high profile championships. The way Koepka is playing this year, it seems like a lock that he will lift another major championship trophy in 2021, although Collin Morikawa may well have something to say about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This week starts The Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>, a tournament bearing the name of one of the greatest and most loved players in the history of golf. The PGA Tour<\/a> has a long history of tournament play in Orlando, Florida, dating back to 1966 and the \u201cFlorida Citrus Invitational,\u201d played at Rio Pinar Country Club (which Palmer won in 1971). In 1970 Palmer leased the Bay Hill Club, purchased it outright in 1975, and in 1979 the PGA moved their Orlando event to Arnie\u2019s course as \u201cThe Bay Hill Classic\u201d and later the \u201cBay Hill Invitational.\u201d In 2007 the tournament became known as the \u201cArnold Palmer Invitational.\u201d Arnie\u2019s presence always made Bay Hill a popular event among the top tour players, and his legacy continues with Bay Hill as one of the crown jewels in the PGA Tour schedule. Notable winners include Tiger Woods (a record 8 wins), Lee Trevino, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Fred Couples, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, and the late Payne Stewart. As a premium tour event, The Arnold Palmer Invitational awards 50 additional FedEx points to the champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Field<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned earlier, the Arnold Palmer Invitational features an extremely strong field. A few of the notable players competing this week include Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy<\/a>, Patrick Reed, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, and Jason Day. Rory would appear to be the favorite, having won at Bay Hill in 2018 and a solid 2021 season thus far with 2 top-10\u2019s and an additional 4 top-25\u2019s. Jordan Spieth\u2019s recent surge makes him another player to keep an eye on, and he may be particularly motivated after failing to make the field for last week\u2019s WGC championship. It\u2019s also a pretty good bet that Bryson DeChambeau will be among the leaders on Sunday, with all that power and a strong performance following his slow start at The Concession last week (and he came close when Rory won in \u201918). Bryson has also made many references regarding his affection for Arnold Palmer and his strong desire to win at Bay Hill\u2014so there may be a little extra on those booming drives. As always, this will be one of the special weeks on PGA Tour schedule, so be sure to tune in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bay Hill Club and Lodge<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Bay Hill Club and Lodge<\/a> is located in Orlando Florida and the original eighteen holes were designed by famed architect Dick Wilson in 1961 (Champion and Challenger Nines). In 1969 Bob Simmons added an additional nine holes (Charger Nine). From the moment Arnie purchased Bay Hill in 1975 he made continual updates and improvements to the layout, and in 2009 the course underwent a major renovation under his direct supervision, making Bay Hill Club and Lodge one of the finest facilities in the country. The Arnold Palmer Invitational will be played on the Champion and Challenger Nines, boasting a 76.4 course rating and a slope of 138.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week starts The Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament bearing the name of one of the greatest and most loved players in the history of golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[207,205,206,80,208],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-arnold-palmer-invitational","tag-arnold-palmer","tag-arnold-palmer-invitational","tag-bay-hill-club-lodge","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}