Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
The stage couldn’t have been set any better. The packed grandstands. The fading Florida light. The stakes perfectly poised. And a feeling of electricity that, even through a television screen an ocean away, felt so palpable you’d have been forgiven for thinking you were right there on that 18th hole about to watch Tommy Fleetwood produce something memorable.
As we all know, however, from the moment the Englishman’s ball left the (slightly too open) face of his 5-wood and the flight tracer told us it was leaking right at an alarming rate, it quickly became apparent that it was destined for one place only and that, unfortunately, was the bottom of the water hazard – thus meaning the ending to the 2020 Honda Classic became “memorable” for all the wrong reasons.
Yet, despite the rather anticlimactic feeling to what was an attritional – though incredibly exciting – week, you have to give Sungjae Im the utmost of credit for picking up his very first PGA Tour win in the fashion that he did, because it was hard earned. The four birdies in his first five holes that got him in the mix; the fact he took ‘The Bear Trap’ head-on with three incredibly gutsy shots and came out of there with two birdies; the up & down for par out of the greenside bunker on 18 when his head could easily have gone after duffing his third – each one of these moments asked a different question of Sungjae and, ultimately, contributed to him getting his hands on the trophy.
Where I happen to think the 21 year old “won” the tournament, however, was how he handled the stretch of holes from 6 to 10. I mean, on the difficult 6th? Missed fairway-missed green-scramble-par. On the par 3 7th? Missed green-scramble-bogey. On the 8th? Fairway-missed green-scramble-par. On the 9th? Missed fairway-missed green-scramble-par. Then finally on the 10th? Missed fairway-missed green-scramble-par. Like, one look at that and you can see why I said during the broadcast that Sungjae was scrambling like a chef on the brunch shift.
But the fact he came out of those five holes with just the lone dropped shot on his card is, one, nothing short of astounding, but, two, it’s what set him up to post the clubhouse lead. Because if you think about it, Sungjae was -6 at the beginning of that stretch and only -5 coming out of it. Now, if he’d dropped two shots in that stretch and played the rest of the nine in the exact same way that he did? He’d have been in the lottery of a playoff with Mackenzie Hughes. And if he had dropped three shots? Well, he’d have been heading to Bay Hill this week still in search of his first win on tour.
So what’s the lesson to be gleaned from all this?
Practice your short game and you, too, could end up winning on the biggest, most prestigious and best golf tour in the world – nay, the ENTIRE UNIVER-… damn it, Paul, how many times do I have to tell you?! Stay away from my laptop!
Jesus, like.
Now, where was I?
Ah yes … TO BAY HILL!!!
Field Report
As I mentioned in a roundabout fashion in last week’s preview, when you have a WGC and the Players bookending a four-week block of tournaments, the two in the middle are always going to see fluctuations in the strength of their fields as players try to best manage their energy levels in order to the peak for the payday that is Sawgrass. Now, whilst the Honda Classic still saw a strong field turn up to PGA National, Brooks Koepka was the only player from the then Top 10 in the World Rankings to tee it up on the Champion Course (even if it was for just the two days), along with just seven from places 10 to 20. Did this impact negatively on the tournament? Not at all. But, as is the way, golf fans (and, in particular, ‘casual golf fans’) want to see the biggest stars in the game battling it out on the back 9 on a Sunday because it makes what you’re watching feel just that little bit more special.
Well, as expected, this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational definitely sees an increase in “star names” as Brooks is joined by fellow “top tenners” Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood; and that “magnificent seven” who turned up to the Honda suddenly doubles to fourteen as Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Hideki Matsuyama, Marc Leishman, Matt Fitzpatrick, Francesco Molinari, Abraham Ancer and Kevin Na bolster the ranks of Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Lee Westwood and Sungjae Im – who, along with Fleetwood, are the only holdovers from that original seven who played last week.
Beyond getting too caught up in rankings, however, Henrik Stenson makes his first appearance on a golf course since the Saudi International as he begins to get his season properly underway in the Sunshine State. Having finished in the top 10 of four of the five straight events he played before the WGC-Mexico Championship, Max Homa will be hoping to keep that run going in Orlando. Speaking of the year’s first WGC, after his impressive T-6 finish in his first competitive outing since undergoing wrist surgery, Tyrrell Hatton will be looking to repeat what he did in Mexico, if not better it, this week. Having suffered from the all-to-be-expected “hangover” following his first victory in Puerto Rico, Viktor Hovland will be hoping to get back to business and continue his push for the Ryder Cup team in his first outing at Bay Hill as a fully fledged professional. Then, finally, after a poor back nine halted his run at the leaders on Sunday at PGA National, Charl Schwartzel will use this week’s stop in Orlando as a means to continue the slow process of rebuilding his game following last year’s injury woes.
The Yardage Book
(i) Below you will find the scorecard for the Championship Course at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge. For each hole I’ve listed its par; what shape best suits it; and its scoring average from last year.
| Front 9 | Bay Hill Club & Lodge (Championship Course) | Back 9 |
| #1: Par 4 – Draw – 4.120 | Orlando, Florida | #10: Par 4 – Fade – 3.964 |
| #2: Par 3 – Either – 3.195 | 7,454 yards | #11: Par 4 – Draw – 4.201 |
| #3: Par 4 – Draw – 4.060 | #12: Par 5 – Either – 4.633 | |
| #4: Par 5 – Draw – 4.768 | #13: Par 4 – Either – 3.956 | |
| #5: Par 4 – Either – 3.990 | #14: Par 3 – Either – 3.117 | |
| #6: Par 5 – Draw – 4.854 | #15: Par 4 – Fade – 4.185 | |
| #7: Par 3 – Either – 3.008 | #16: Par 5 – Fade – 4.424 | |
| #8: Par 4 – Fade – 4.281 | #17: Par 3 – Either – 3.190 | |
| #9: Par 4 – Draw – 4.253 | #18: Par 4 – Fade – 4.180 | |
| Out: 36 | Par 72 | In: 36 |
(ii) Back in 2009, Arnold Palmer took the decision to renovate Bay Hill, a task which, according to ‘Orlando Golf’, involved redesigning all 18 greens; reworking all of the bunkering; and making major changes to four of the holes that altered the course’s par from that of 71 to 72. Speaking of the renovations at the time, Mr. Palmer said, “The opinion is that we make courses harder and harder. Our purpose has changed a little bit. We decided to rethink that.” What this in turn meant is that, though the course did increase in length to some degree (though not massively), a lot of the changes came down to pure visuals. So, bunkers were raised up to make them more visible on tee shots; approach shots and lines around water hazards were made more defined; and greens were made slightly flatter (they did, however, end up having to change the type of grass on the greens from Bermuda to TifEagle Bermuda in 2015).
Having looked at the course, however, you can also see that those renovations, in a lot of ways, “future-proofed” Bay Hill against the modern game of longer and longer hitters. For instance, take the par 5 4th. In 2009, according to the course run-through by the PGA Tour, without lengthening it, this hole was made a lot tougher by simply moving the fairway bunkering out to between 270-300 yards; adding a layup bunker about 100 yards out; and both raising the green and shrinking it – along with surrounding it with tightly cut grass and deep bunkers – to punish less than perfect approaches.
So, much like PGA National last week – a course where I said Jack Nicklaus’ redesign asks different questions of your game and forces you to hit certain kinds of shots – Arnold Palmer’s at Bay Hill does the exact same, yes, but there’s also a hint of that swashbuckling attitude of his where you get the impression he’s going, “You think you’re able to hit this shot? Alright, go on so, I dare ya.” What’s important, though, is that whilst the long ball will serve you well at Bay Hill (like it does everywhere, really) prudence off the tee and a focus on accuracy over raw power will see you every bit as likely to be in the mix coming down the stretch on Sunday as the bombers.
(iii) Though many of the fairways are quite generously sized at Bay Hill, the rough is always generally quite thick so as to penalise any wayward tee shots. What might be important, however, is that there was a video package shown during Sunday’s coverage of the Honda where Wayne Riley explained that the rough at PGA National (made up of Bermuda overseeded with Rye) wasn’t as thick as it usually is because the growing season hadn’t been all that great. Now, from what I can find, Bay Hill’s rough is made up of the same combination of grasses as PGA National, so it’ll be interesting to see if the weather has had the same impact on the thickness of the rough we see this week. And if it has? That could be good news for the longer hitters – how does that sound, Brooks?
(iv) As last week’s Honda Classic showed nicely, a tournament held in Florida at this time of the year will generally mean pleasant conditions and a bit of wind – which, when compared to the weekly storms we get over on this side of the Atlantic, sounds pretty bloody nice. Well, at this stage of the week, it looks as though whilst the field could be seeing really nice temperatures that will float between the high teens to mid twenties all week (with 31℃ possibly being seen on Thursday), it could be quite windy, with Thursday seeing the strongest of those winds (20km/h & gusts of 35km/h in the morning; 28km/h & gusts of 39km/h in the afternoon) as there’s a risk of a thunderstorm – so a morning tee time for the first day will be very much sought after.
(v) Below you will find the top 10 & ties for the last four years of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I chose to stop at 2016 given the changes they made in 2015 to the type of grass which makes up the greens and fairways.
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Francesco Molinari -12 | Rory McIlroy -18 | Marc Leishman -11 | Jason Day -17 |
| Matt Fitzpatrick -10 | Bryson DeChambeau -15 | Charley Hoffman -10 | Kevin Chappell -16 |
| Rafa Cabrera Bello -9 | Justin Rose -14 | Kevin Kisner -10 | Troy Merritt -14 |
| Tommy Fleetwood -9 | Henrik Stenson -13 | Tyrrell Hatton -9 | Henrik Stenson -14 |
| Sungjae Im -9 | Ryan Moore -10 | Rory McIlroy -9 | Zach Johnson -12 |
| Sung Kang -8 | Tiger Woods -10 | Adam Hadwin -8 | Kiradech Aphibarnrat -11 |
| Rory McIlroy -8 | Kevin Chappell -8 | Lucas Glover -7 | Jamie Lovemark -11 |
| Keith Mitchell -8 | Marc Leishman -8 | Emiliano Grillo -7 | Hideki Matsuyama -11 |
| Matt Wallace -8 | Luke List -8 | Francesco Molinari -7 | Paul Casey -10 |
| Byeong Hun An -7 | Sean O’Hair -8 | Tommy Fleetwood -6 | Francesco Molinari -10 |
| Lucas Glover -7 | Patrick Reed -8 | Hudson Swafford -6 | Justin Rose -10 |
| Jason Kokrak -7 | Patrick Rodgers -8 | ||
| Luke List -7 | |||
| Adam Long -7 |
The Oracles’ Fourball
Following Tommy Fleetwood finishing 3rd and Sungjae Im only bloody WINNING the Honda Classic on Sunday night, as you can imagine, I didn’t mind making the two-hour trek to the Oracles’ cave on Monday morning all that much.
And, credit to the Oracles, given they’d foreseen the results (like every result of every golf tournament that there will ever be), before we got down to putting me under for this week’s fourball, they actually laid on a little party for me to celebrate predicting my first win. Now, granted, an Oracle’s idea of a party primarily means laying on a platter of preserved crow’s feet on a bed of mushrooms and nettles, but, in fairness, they also had an original 80’s version of “Mouse Trap”, so, all in all, it was pretty good.
Maverick McNealy: A former Amateur World No.1; highly decorated collegiate golfer; two-time member of the victorious Arnold Palmer Cup teams in 2015 & 2017; member of the American team at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2016; two-time member of the Walker Cup team in 2015 & 2017, winning in the latter of those two editions; qualified for the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst at the age of 18; in short, Maverick McNealy is quite decent at golf. Now as you might rightly be thinking, however, lots of players have distinguished careers as amateurs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will translate over into the professional ranks – and that’s most certainly true.
Since getting his PGA Tour card for the 2019/20 season, though- thanks to his finish on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour – Maverick has made the cut in 11 of the 13 events that he’s played in, and in the last four of those events (the Farmers; the AT&T at Pebble; the Puerto Rico Open; & the Honda) he’s posted finishes of, in order, 15th, T-5, T-27 & T-11. I mean, for a “rookie” to turn up to the likes of Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach and PGA National, all what you could deem ‘legacy’ courses on the PGA Tour, and post such strong finishes is really quite impressive (his T-5 at Pebble was particularly noteworthy as it involved shooting 66-68 over the weekend in tough conditions).
So when I see how he’s progressing, the fact he’s shown a penchant for doing well on tough courses (like, he didn’t drop a single shot in ‘The Bear Trap’ at the Honda & actually played it in a total of -1 for the week) and that his scoring average is a healthy 70.387, I think if Maverick can keep his putter as warm as it has been lately (he’s 20th in ‘Strokes Gained: Putting’ & 10th in ‘One-Putt %’) then he could well better the T-46 he managed at Bay Hill when he played this event as an amateur back in 2016.
Byeong Hun An: As far as “rough starts” go, Byeong’s opening round 76 at last week’s Honda Classic was right up there. Yet, come Sunday evening, the 28 year old South Korean – thanks to two excellent rounds of 66 & 68 on Friday & Saturday respectively – was the one posting the clubhouse lead on -3 thanks to a final round 67. Now, at the time, I said that showed incredible grit from Byeong because, given how his first round went, it would have been so easy to just phone in that second round on Friday and be like, “You know what? We’ll just regroup and target Bay Hill next week”. But do that he didn’t.
Instead, he came out and, over the course of the next three days, showed why he’s a guy with seventeen Top 10 finishes on Tour; two 3rd place finishes; and three 2nd place finishes to his name. So with his length off the tee (311.4 yards), good ball striking, excellent short game (6th in ‘Strokes Gained: Around the Green’ & 11th in ‘Scrambling’) and solid putting, I think the Orlando resident, having seen what his fellow countryman did last week, could very well make Bay Hill (a place where, since 2016, he’s posted finishes of T-36, T-49, T-14 & T-10) the site where he finally adds a PGA Tour win to his already impressive résumé.
Bryson DeChambeau: After a second round 67 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic back in January, Bryson, in his post-round interview with Sky’s Tim Barter, said the following when asked about how his increased driving distance had increased his potential as a player: “It’s opened new boundaries that I’ve never thought were possible, to be upfront with you. I don’t know, necessarily, how to control all of it yet, but I’m getting to the place where I’m starting to learn what driver I need; under the gun, in certain conditions – the left to right wind, the right to left wind – what to do and how to apply that power in a way that’s going to keep me in the fairway and allow me to have more scoring opportunities; so it’s a gigantic leap for me.”
Now whilst the confidence he had in this interview and the forthright manner in which he spoke stuck in some people’s craw (me, most definitely, not being one of those people) what struck me most from that particular answer was his use of the word “yet” – he hadn’t learned how to control all of that increased distance and power yet. And the reason why I think that stuck with me is that, in my mind, it showed a guy who not only has a plan, but has utter confidence in that plan to deliver the goals which were the very reason for formulating it in the first place – it was like he was going, “I don’t know how to control all of it yet, but when I do? Watch out.”
And given his run of results since the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, you’ve got to think that Bryson’s getting pretty close to reaching that moment. I mean, after finishing T-8 in Dubai, he notched up a T-52 in Phoenix a week later (where I think fatigue played a factor); after taking a week off, he then went back-to-back at the Genesis and WGC-Mexico where, against two of the strongest fields seen so far this year, he finished T-5 & 2nd respectively. So having taken another week off since getting pipped to the post by Patrick Reed at the Club de Golf Chapultepec, I think, given the way he’s been playing (4th in ‘Strokes Gained: Off the Tee’; 8th in ‘Strokes Gained: Total’; 20th in ‘GIR %’), this week at Bay Hill might just be that moment when, like Thanos at the end of “Infinity War”, everything finally falls into place for Bryson DeChambeau and that “yet” he used in Dubai turns to ashes.
Rickie Fowler: Rickie is not just a clothes rack or charismatic, well-known face who stars in lot of commercials – he isn’t. Yet, in the same breath, given on the Wednesday before last week’s Honda Classic, Rickie himself revealed in a press conference (at least I’m assuming it was a press conference anyway) that he spends 25 to 30 days a year dealing with his sponsors, i.e. shooting commercials or doing run-of-the-mill photoshoots, that opening line, for some people, might ring a little hollow.
But don’t let the fact Rickie is smart enough to take the stacks of money sponsors are willing to give him distract you from recognising that he is still one of the top golfers in the world, even if his lack of Majors and current world ranking (27th) might suggest otherwise. Like, this is a guy with seventy-two Top 10 finishes, seven 3rd place finishes, fourteen 2nd places, three International wins (including the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in 2016) and five PGA Tour wins, including the Players (2015) &, most recently, the Waste Management in 2019. This is a guy who, back in 2014, joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as being the (then) only players to finish in the Top 5 of every Major in the same calendar year. And this is a guy who’s been on two victorious Walker Cup teams, four Ryder Cup teams, three Presidents Cup teams and represented the U.S. at the Olympics. I mean, Rickie Fowler knows how to play.
Now, quite rightly, you could argue that just because a player has played well in the past doesn’t mean that they will again – what with the whole ‘dining out on past achievements’ and what have you. But given he spent the tailend of 2019 recovering from a rather nasty bacterial infection picked up on his honeymoon, Rickie still managed to go undefeated at the Presidents Cup in Melbourne and, since the turn of the year, has posted two top 10 finishes at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and American Express. So, yes, he may have missed the cut at the Honda, but when I see Rickie going to Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament that not only means a lot to him personally, but a place where since 2017 he’s finished 12th, T-14 & T-40, I think with his ball striking and putting he might well just remind everyone why the one-time fourth best player in the world is still around and still more than able to mix it with the best of the best.
Title Image Photo Credit: ‘Golf Channel’/Getty Images