Arnold Palmer Invitational
Another rising star has etched his name in the history books of the PGAT. This past week Austin Eckroat got the job done and claimed his first victory at the Cognizant Classic. This was definitely a grind for Eckroat, between delays and ultimately a Monday finish he hung tough and sealed a three shot victory over Min Woo Lee and Erik van Rooyen. Eckroat quickly added his name to the list of young rising stars that have already won this year including Nick Dunlap and Jake Knapp. Eckroat was no stranger to stellar play and being in this mix, up to this point he tallied 13 top 25s and five top 10s in just 50 total events. I have a feeling we will be seeing much more high level golf from Eckroat in the future, starting with this week at The Arnold Palmer Invitational, but before we get to the API LIV golf has finally announced that they will stop petitioning for OWGR points in the future.
In my opinion, this was a strange move for Greg Norman and LIV. I realize that they haven't made any headway up until this point with the OWGR but to completely give up and throw in the towel seems wildly premature. After the announcement, many of the players took to social media and expressed their constant frustration with the OWGR. However, from the start all these players knew they wouldn’t receive ranking points and their rankings would ultimately plummet. This year there have been two types of players on LIV, you have your Taylor Gooch type guys who constantly complain and want to be handed invitations and exemptions. Then you have players like Joaquin Niemann who have traveled around the globe to play in events on the DP World Tour to help earn him world ranking points. Due to his efforts, he has been invited to the Masters and the PGA Championship. I’m sure he will also try and qualify for the U.S. Open and Open Championship as well. In my opinion, this is how you turn a crappy situation into a positive one. He could have cried behind a computer screen and complained to everyone who would listen like Taloor Gooch, but instead, he played his way into two majors and hopefully more. I’m still not a huge fan of LIV but I am a huge fan of going out and working for what you want. Speaking of small fields, the API is going to look a little different this year.
the API is still considered an elevated event and with that comes smaller fields, no cut, and more money, sound familiar? Regardless of how identical that platform is to the LIV the PGAT is still going through with their elevated event model. This year at the API the field is set at 69 players. Due to the odd number Nick Dunlap, the first player off will be playing as a single. This is where I’m extremely confused, why couldn’t the tour extend one extra invite to make it an even 70 players? The worst part is that this directly affects Dunlap because he will now be forced to play with a scorer which is always a tricky thing to do. Regardless of the field however Bay Hill absolutely never disappoints. I've had the pleasure of playing Bay Hill a few times in the past and it is incredible through and through. This year the course should provide a stout test for the game’s best including some of the thickest rough Bay Hill has ever produced, high winds courtesy of Florida, and firm and fast greens. The winner this week is going to have to find the fairway often, the toughest part of Bay Hill in my opinion is positioning your shots well on the green and that isn’t possible if you are stuck in the rough. In my mind, I see two guys making a run, Viktor Hovland and Chris Kirk. Viktor is off to a slower start to the season than usual but I think this could be his breakout week. As for Kirk, he has played very solid all year including a win at The Sentry, I'd expect one of these two players to make a serious run. On the other hand, the best thing about Elevated events is the opposite field events. The PGAT runs events simultaneously for the players who don’t qualify for the elevated events. If you are a serious golf fan and want to see a player's career change for forever, tune into the Puerto Rico Open. (Mike)
As Mike has mentioned, the field this week is super small. Players have mentioned it feels empty at Arnie’s place this week due to the small field. There is little to no interest from me when the field is this small. I like to see guys battling for the weekend. I like to see someone make a crazy move on moving day. I like to see tons of golf on Thursday and Friday. I understand the PGA Tour was in a tough spot, but the structure of these signature events is horrible. Maybe they will reconsider the format in the upcoming years, but the excitement around these seems to be muted compared to last year.
Picks of the Week:
My pick to win this week is Xander. This is a course that plays to his strengths and a place he has flirted with success at before. I still am not a full believer in Xander and his ability to close tournaments, especially big ones, but these small field events are perfect for him to get a win. Another guy I really like this week is Viktor. Much like Mike, I think this will be a great week to get Victor’s season really going.
Last week I talked about Anthony Kim’s return to golf. It was pretty interesting to see him after all the years away. He did finish dead last and looked rather rusty, but I feel like that is to be expected. I saw many people predicting he would shoot much higher than he did. I hope he can continue to improve and find his game, golf needs anything it can cling to right now as far as entertainment. The LIV format and the broadcast stinks, and the OWGR news that Mike touched on makes me wonder how much more of AK we will end up seeing. (Tyler)