ACCURACY off the tee at the Bay Hill Golf Club and Lodge isn’t necessarily going to be a prerequisite for the winner here this week.
More than five acres of fairway have been added and there have been a lot of trees trimmed and cut which had grown into the line of sight, resulting last year in scoring being a lot lower.
As the grass on the fairways, Celebration Bermuda, and greens, TifEagle Bermuda, are the same as at Copperhead last week it might be worth keeping an eye on the players who took part in the Valspar.
I’m going to give Henrik Stenson another chance. He played well last week although not hitting the highlights. He lives locally and in his last four appearances in the Arnold Palmer has finished T15-T8-T5-2. He finished 11th at Copperhead and ranked 4th in GIR and T1 in par fives. His putting still seems to be a weakness but it’ll come good, hopefully soon.
Justin Rose has only played four times on the PGA Tour this season and has two top-10s and two top-16s. He is 19th in GIR (71.60%), 10th in strokes gained:tee to green (1.363) and putts per round of 29.11. Justin is quietly going about his business just now as we get nearer to the first Major of the season and I like the look of him for this one.
With four top011 finishes out of his last five Ryan Moore is playing consistently well. His GIR stat sits at 68.52%, strokes gained:tee to green 1.076 (18th) and a putts per round of 28.44 which will all help at Bay Hill. In 2012 he finished here T4 so is quite comfortable round this course.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Tips
1.5pts ew Henrik Stenson (14-1, William Hill)
1.5pts ew Justin Rose (16-1, Bet365)
1.5pts ew Ryan Moore (33-1, Paddy Power)
Peter Uihlein gave me a place last week and I put some nice inplay winners including a 5-1 match bet double. Check out my tournament inplay tips on the members' forum.
I thought you luiten sneaked with with ulihlein last week Ace.
Going for 1 strong contender and 1 long shot this week as last weekend was a disaster for me.
R Moore 33/1 ew
S Kang 80/1 ew
nothing for me last week Patrick Reed was closest I got and even he faded in final round, onto this week 3 picks again
Adam Scott 8/1 – well am going for a hat trick of wins with Scotty this season won his last 2 events week off last week so hopefully he will be fresh, set course record here too a couple years ago
Henrik Stenson – 14/1 – Ace has done write up for Henrik and he loves this course if you look at his record here, in good form too this season
Outsider bet Zach Johnson 66/1 E/W – merely chosen due to his record here as has recorded 5 top 10 finishes so hopefully he will be in the mix come Sunday
Good Luck