2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational

[jxdama]

Its so nice to finally  be able to watch a tournament where a  player  gets  penalized for  missing the fairway  or  green. Normally there are  no penalties. Of  course the announcers are crying about  how they actually  have rough here. They should be  penalized for  missing a shot.

[iacas]

39 minutes ago, jxdama said:

Normally there are  no penalties.

That's not accurate.

You may not like that it's a 70-yard penalty, generally, for hitting it in the rough over the fairway, but to pretend there's "no penalty" is to ignore fact.

[Vinsk]

I’ve loved this course condition. Average score today 75.5. Hardest since 1981. This has been great other than the usual incessant time spent showing the talking heads and not golf. I have zero interest in watching Peter Jacobsen talk. It’s hard enough to listen to him.

[ChetlovesMer]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

 I have zero interest in watching Peter Jacobsen talk. It’s hard enough to listen to him.

DING !!! 

You hit the nail on the head, brother. Why would they ever show him? I'm not even being flippant. Why? I never ever need to see him. Maybe for 10 seconds at the start of the broadcast, but if there are golfers on the course, show me golfers. 

[bjfox10]

I am curious to hear what others opinions are on Victor Hovland’s putting. While I am positive that his bad putting is much better than my bad putting I believe they have similarities. There are 2 things we are both guilty of. First, on putts of a decent length we are very good at leaving them woefully short. The second is on missed putts inside 6 feet everyone in the group groans and says you decelled again.  I know…the best putters decel, I am completely on board with that outcome. But there must be a way of over doing it or maybe how it done. 

I think (and I hope because I have been practicing it this winter) the fix is working on @iacas day 8 where the focus is on rhythm, tempo and time. 

[colin007]

Were the weekend conditions too tough? I don't think so, but my opinion is irrelevant

[Vinsk]

38 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Were the weekend conditions too tough? I don't think so, but my opinion is irrelevant

Absolutely not. There’s been a string of tournaments where they’re firing low every round. This was a welcomed relief from that. These guys need a little punch here and there. 

[iacas]

They think they were, because they think "good shots" weren't rewarded, so the proper winner wasn't necessarily determined.

I… enjoy seeing it now and then.

And Rory and others could have not four-putted.

[Zippo]

16 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I’ve loved this course condition. Average score today 75.5. Hardest since 1981. This has been great other than the usual incessant time spent showing the talking heads and not golf. I have zero interest in watching Peter Jacobsen talk. It’s hard enough to listen to him.

There was a lot of winging about the speed of the greens, too. I say, so what? And I also like the height of the rough off of the fairways. The course should be a challenge for them guys. But, the commentary was atrocious and, again in my opinion, getting worse. I know they gotta make talk to fill any silence but good grief! Stating the obvious gets old very fast. So and so really needs this putt. So and so really needs to hit this fairway. The wind is blowing. We muted them more often than we listened. At least the greens didn't get littered with beer cans when someone made a putt.

Way to go, Scottie! Sneaking in there for the win. Well played!

[Vinsk]

It’s golf. Usually goes both ways. Horschel got a huge stroke of luck with that free drop. He saved two strokes on that one. Seemed like the complaints of not being rewarded for good shots were when they’d hit the green and roll off. These guys are good enough to make adjustments for that. And Rory fired a 65 on Thursday. So the course got a little more difficult. I don’t see it being an issue.

[klineka]

18 hours ago, bjfox10 said:

I am curious to hear what others opinions are on Victor Hovland’s putting. While I am positive that his bad putting is much better than my bad putting I believe they have similarities. There are 2 things we are both guilty of. First, on putts of a decent length we are very good at leaving them woefully short. The second is on missed putts inside 6 feet everyone in the group groans and says you decelled again.  I know…the best putters decel, I am completely on board with that outcome. But there must be a way of over doing it or maybe how it done. 

He's T32 so far this season in strokes gained putting, gaining .437 strokes per round putting, so gaining basically 1.75 strokes per tournament over the PGA Tour average. 

Statistically so far this season it has been his best putting season of his career.

Here are a number of notable players in the top 20 in the world that Viktor has putted better than so far this season.

Rahm, Xander, JT, Hideki, Oosthuizen, Spieth, Burns, Koepka, English, Berger

So out of the top 20 guys in the OWGR, Viktor has putted better than at least half of them this season. 

Curious as to what stats/facts you have that have lead you to believe his putting has been bad?

[bjfox10]

18 hours ago, klineka said:

He's T32 so far this season in strokes gained putting, gaining .437 strokes per round putting, so gaining basically 1.75 strokes per tournament over the PGA Tour average. 

Statistically so far this season it has been his best putting season of his career.

Here are a number of notable players in the top 20 in the world that Viktor has putted better than so far this season.

Rahm, Xander, JT, Hideki, Oosthuizen, Spieth, Burns, Koepka, English, Berger

So out of the top 20 guys in the OWGR, Viktor has putted better than at least half of them this season. 

Curious as to what stats/facts you have that have lead you to believe his putting has been bad?

I was referring to his performance on Saturday and Sunday. I did not looks at his stats until this morning. He did putt well on Thursday and Friday but lost strokes on both Saturday and Sunday. I was really more about what I saw. He left a number of putts 5, 6 or 7 feet short on Saturday and the raced a bunch of putts past the hole on Sunday. When he missed from inside of 6 feet it looked like his backswing was to large for the putt he was trying to make. I was just wondering if others saw the same thing. 

[klineka]

27 minutes ago, bjfox10 said:

I was referring to his performance on Saturday and Sunday. I did not looks at his stats until this morning. He did putt well on Thursday and Friday but lost strokes on both Saturday and Sunday. I was really more about what I saw. He left a number of putts 5, 6 or 7 feet short on Saturday and the raced a bunch of putts past the hole on Sunday. When he missed from inside of 6 feet it looked like his backswing was to large for the putt he was trying to make. I was just wondering if others saw the same thing. 

Sounds like he just had trouble adjusting to the green speeds as they got quite quick/slippery over the weekend. I wouldn't read too much into it. Plenty of players struggled on the greens over the weekend. I mean just on Sunday alone Rory 3 putted from 4ft 4in and Talor Gooch 4 putted from 21 feet which included a 3 putt from 2ft 6in... Viktor wasn't the only one who struggled on the greens over the weekend. 

[Bucki1968]

I'm starting to wonder about the field that Bay Hill is getting. Not a ton of top players showing up anymore. I have played that course a few times and honestly have never really understood why it's always rated as one of the top in the state. I think there are probably four or five courses in the Orlando area alone that are way better. That being said, I wonder if the players don't like the course, don't like where it lands in the schedule, or all of the above (and Arnie isn't around anymore)?

[boogielicious]

19 minutes ago, Bucki1968 said:

I'm starting to wonder about the field that Bay Hill is getting. Not a ton of top players showing up anymore. I have played that course a few times and honestly have never really understood why it's always rated as one of the top in the state. I think there are probably four or five courses in the Orlando area alone that are way better. That being said, I wonder if the players don't like the course, don't like where it lands in the schedule, or all of the above (and Arnie isn't around anymore)?

Could be because it is right before The Players and many pros like to just work on their game the week before and big tournament.

[Flushed]

On 3/6/2022 at 9:18 PM, jxdama said:

Its so nice to finally  be able to watch a tournament where a  player  gets  penalized for  missing the fairway  or  green. Normally there are  no penalties. Of  course the announcers are crying about  how they actually  have rough here. They should be  penalized for  missing a shot.

Spot on - Scottie did incredibly well even with his many missed fairways, but his mentality was super impressive. Stayed in it, holed some major par putts - deserved to win.

[klineka]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:18 PM, jxdama said:

Its so nice to finally  be able to watch a tournament where a  player  gets  penalized for  missing the fairway  or  green. Normally there are  no penalties. Of  course the announcers are crying about  how they actually  have rough here. They should be  penalized for  missing a shot.

There is an argument to be made that the rough around the greens actually helped players get penalized less compared to if the rough was shaved down and balls that missed the green didn't immediately stop.

 

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, klineka said:

There is an argument to be made that the rough around the greens actually helped players get penalized less compared to if the rough was shaved down and balls that missed the green didn't immediately stop.

Yes and no. Multiple layers there, because if the rough is so nasty that the shots from it are tough… they'd probably almost be able to spin the ball a bit even if the ball is farther away.