Arnold Palmer Invitational preview

The PGA Tour's "Florida Swing" comes to an end this week with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. Tiger Woods defends the title and will be looking to secure an eighth victory in the event.

Tiger Woods defends Arnold Palmer Invitational (Getty Images)
Fergus Bisset
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published

Lowdown: The PGA Tour's "Florida Swing" comes to an end this week with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. Tiger Woods defends the title and will be looking to secure an eighth victory in the event.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational began life in 1966 as the Florida Citrus Open Invitational. In 1979 the tournament became the Bay Hill Citrus Classic and, by 1996, was known as the Bay Hill Invitational. Since 2007 Arnold Palmer has hosted the event.

Bay Hill has been a happy hunting ground for Tiger Woods. He's been a winner here seven times since the year 2000. Most recently last season when he finished five shots clear of Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell.

Fresh off victory in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Tiger will be a heavy favourite this week. If he is able to claim an eighth victory at Bay Hill, he will knock Rory McIlroy from his perch as World Number 1.

A strong European contingent will look to deny the American. Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Peter Hanson will all tee it up.

The course at Bay Hill was designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee in 1961, though Arnold Palmer completed a redesign in 2009 that added two shots to the par and repositioned almost every bunker. The layout has hosted 32 PGA Tour events over the years. It's one of the more difficult courses visited by the PGA Tour. Last year the average score around the layout was 73.176. Venue: Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Orlando, Florida Date: Mar 21-24 Course stats: par 72, 7,419 yards Purse: $6,200,000 Winner: $1,080,000 Defending Champion: Tiger Woods (-13)

TV Coverage: Thursday 21 - Sky Sports 3 from 7pm Friday 22 - Sky Sports 3 from 7pm Saturday 23 - Sky Sports 3 from 4.30pm Sunday 24 - Sky Sports 3 from 5pm

Player Watch: Tiger Woods rules the roost at Bay Hill. Who might challenge his dominance?

Sergio Garcia - The Spaniard is playing some excellent golf in 2013 and has recorded 13 straight top-25 finishes around the world. He's finished in the top-10 six times at Bay Hill.

Ian Poulter - The Englishman was third in this event last year and has shown good form so far in 2013. He played well at the Accenture Match Play and would have finished well up the leaderboard in the Cadillac Championship had it not been for a poor last round.

Graeme McDowell - Second in this event last year and tied third in his last start at the Cadillac Championship. Look for the Northern Irishman to go well again this week.

Key hole: 18th. At 458 yards, it's not the length of this par-4 that will intimidate the players, it's the difficulty of the approach. Water and rocks wait in front of the green and anything drifting right could end up wet. Where next? European Tour - Maybank Malaysian Open preview

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.

He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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