The spotlight will be on a familiar face when the best on the PGA Tour make their way to the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida for the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week. Tiger Woods is coming off his best start in years at the Valspar Championship and will look to follow it up with another strong performance when he makes his return to Bay Hill. Tiger has won eight times here before. Can he deliver again this week after moving back in to the top-150 in the world ranking for the first time since 2015? With a new swing and his back in decent shape for the first time in years, all eyes will be on Tiger to see what he has in store as we continue to countdown to The Masters in April.
Event Details
Event: Arnold Palmer Invitational
Category: PGA
Date: March 15-18
Location: Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
This year’s field will also include the defending champion Marc Leishman, who returns after he won here for the first time in 2017. Jason Day, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are among the other big names that are set to tee off at Bay Hill this week. Day won this event back in 2016 while Rose is another key name to keep an eye on after he contended for 72 holes at the Valspar Championship last week. With so many big names in this week’s field it will be interesting to see who can come out on top in the 40th edition of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Past Five Winners
2017: Marc Leishman -11
2016: Jason Day -17
2015: Matt Every -19
2014: Matt Every -13
2013: Tiger Woods -13
What To Know About The Course
Greens In Regulation were extremely important a year ago when the winner Leishman led the way in that category while McIlroy finished third in that statistic. Another number to keep an eye on is Par 5 Scoring. Ernie Else ranked second in that statistic when he won here in 2010 and the next three Arnold Palmer Invitational winners all ranked first in that department. The high winds surrounding this course will make Driving Distance and Driving Accuracy another important number to consider when evaluating what to expect at this week’s tournament.
The Field
One of the biggest surprises heading in to this week is the fact that Tiger will be the sports betting favorite. He’s posted at +600 odds. While he wasn’t even a lock to compete at Bay Hill earlier in the year, he is coming off an excellent performance at the Valspar Championship. His history at this course has helped contribute to him becoming the betting favorite. Next in line is Day and Rose at +1200 odds to win outright, followed by McIlroy at +1600 odds to win outright. Fowler, Tommy Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama round out the list of sports betting favorites for the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week according to BetDSI Sportsbook.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Justin Rose over Tiger Woods
Tiger looked good last week. There’s no question about that. However, we haven’t seen him consistently perform at a high level in quite some time. Tiger’s odds to win The Masters jumped to 10/1 with a strong performance. Suddenly, he is the sports betting favorite to actually win an event. Regardless of his history at this course, Tiger probably shouldn’t be the favorite to win as part of an absolutely loaded field this week. However, the fact that he is the favorite makes this an excellent opportunity to bet against him this week. Rose finished third here in 2011 and chased Woods home in 2013. On top of that, we can feel confident in his form heading in to this week. With the odds helping boost Rose’s value even more this week, it makes sense to take him in the head-to-head matchup with Tiger at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Top-Five Pick: Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama will be well rested and ready to go after taking a month off to recover from a wrist injury. Matsuyama has said that his wrist is good to go. He should be motivated to get his season back on track this week. The sixth-ranked golfer in the world has all of the tools to contend for the outright win at Bay Hill this week. At the very least, Matsuyama should be an excellent pick to place in the top-five.
