Scott and Every seek hat-tricks at Bay Hill

The PGA Tour remains in Florida for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Matt Every has won the last two years and Adam Scott is looking for three consecutive PGA Tour wins.

Matt Every was an unlikely winner of this event last season and he’ll have his work cut out if he’s to make it three victories in a row at Bay Hill. Adam Scott has won the last two PGA Tour events – the Honda Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Championship. If he can win again this time out, he’ll become the first player to win three of the four legs of the “Florida Swing” in the same season.

Both Scott and Every seek hat-tricks at Bay Hill, but there are a number of top players on the start sheet this week who will be looking to deny them. World Number 2 Rory McIlroy tees it up, so too do Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Jason Day.

Henrik Stenson swing sequence:

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.

It’s a tournament that’s been won by some famous players over the years. Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Payne Stewart, Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson have all been victorious. Tiger Woods won four times in a row from 2000 then again in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013. Last year, Matt Every fired a final round of 66 to sneak past Henrik Stenson.

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 33 PGA Tour events over the years.

The weather forecast is unsettled. There could be rain and thunderstorms, particularly over the weekend. Watch out for possible delays to play.

Venue: Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida Date: Mar 17-20 Course stats: par 72, 7,419 yards Purse: $6,300,000 Winner: $1,134,000 Defending Champion: Matt Every (-19)

TV Coverage: Thursday 17 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Friday 18 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Saturday 19 – Sky Sports 4 from 4.30pm Sunday 20 – Sky Sports 4 from 4.30pm

Player watch:

Adam Scott – It’s tough to look past the Australian right now. He won at The Honda and at Doral and is the form player in world golf at this point. He is co-owner of the course record at Bay Hill – a 62 that he posted in 2014.

Ryan Moore – Consistent performer who was third last week. He was also tied fourth in this tournament back in 2012.

Jason Kokrak – He loves this course – fourth in 2014 and sixth in 2015. He’s a powerful player and length is a distinct advantage at Bay Hill. He was tied second at Riviera last month.

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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.

Skills required: Mastering the par-5s. The winner at Bay Hill tends to play the long holes well.