Arnold Palmer Invitational
Collin Morikawa everyone, that man can play golf. This past week Collin Morikawa captured his first WGC making him one of two players to have a major championship and a WGC before the age of 25. I'm sure you all could guess the second player, and if you guessed Tiger Woods you'd be correct. Morikawa played flawlessly all week on a very demanding golf course. While 90% of the field found themselves in various water hazards around the property costing them numerous penalty shots, Morikawa maintained his composure and limited his mistakes on his route to victory. On Sunday Morikawa ran away with the tournament, the rest of the field laid down and let Morikawa walk his way to victory. Hovland, Horschel, and Koepka gave Morikawa no trouble on Sunday allowing Morikawa to win by 3 shots. Morikawa now has 4 wins and counting. The Florida swing counties as we head to a course in my backyard and one of my personal favorites Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The week we head to Orlando Florida for arguably one of the most meaningful events of the year. The legacy behind the Arnold Palmer Invitational is unmatched. Arnold was a member of the big three which included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas, Gary Player. Now Arnie as many called him, paved the way for the future of the game of golf. He created the event to bring together some of the best golfers around the world to showcase their talents on a premier golf course. As time went on Arnold Palmer became what I like to call a Father figure to the game of golf. Players far and wide looked up to Arnie and saw him as a father figure. Arnie took the time to talk to the players, learn about them, and got to know the people they were aside from their golf sides. Unfortunately Arnold Palmer passed away five years ago now, but even with his death his legacy lives on and players from far and wide continue to come and play in this coveted event. The players love Bay Hill, it's your typical Florida golf course, tons of water scattered around the golf course, typically features quick greens, and high intense winds as we saw last year. What I really like about the course is that they grow the rough out very thick, which you typically don’t see in a Florida course. Typically most Florida courses have traditional Bermuda grass, however at Bay Hill they also have Bermuda Grass but they over seed the grass heavily to give it the look of thick bent grass, the type of grass you typically see up North. Nevertheless the course always proves to be an absolute treat and the field this week is going to be even better.
This week we are in for another major-like field. This week fans can tune in to watch Rory McIlroy, Bryson Dechambeau, Kevin Kisner, Max Homa, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Will Zalatoris, Paul Casey and Patrick Reed. Now there are a couple notables missing the event, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, and Patrick Cantlay. Even though we are missing these big guns the field will prove to be star studded and the leaderboard will be loaded come Sunday morning. This is also going to be a fun weekend for our readers because I (Mike Winter) will be at the event this Saturday to watch the live action. I will be live tweeting the event on Saturday as well so tune into our twitter account @ZeroPuttsGiven_ to follow aloud as I navigate around the golf course this weekend. (Mike)
The week at the Arnold Palmer invitational is always such a great week on tour. The field is usually strong, the course is top notch, the tributes to Arnie are plentiful and plenty of other things I really enjoy. I hope as time goes on people do not forget about the impact that Arnold Palmer had on the game of golf. His reach went far beyond golf, however. The game needs more likable personalities like his. My hope is that this tournament allows his legacy to live on for generations to come.
The big talking point this week is around how good can Collin Morikawa be? He has not been out on tour terribly long, but in that time he has already racked up four career wins, including a major as well as a WGC. The game of golf is evolving and players are too good to think anyone will ever be good enough to win fifty times again. There are too many good players week in and week out that I just do not see a way for someone to be so dominant that they win fifty times. Morikawa is one of the best iron players in the world and that will allow him to grind out scores when he is not firing on all cylinders. I think his career trajectory is something around 20-22 career wins. I believe he will win four majors in his career. He has all of the talent to have a career like this, even more importantly, he seems to have the mental strength to be elite out on tour and that will take him very far out here. (Tyler)
Pick's of the Week:
Mike: Now on to my personal favorite part, our picks of the week. Well, my picks last week were just as far off as you could get. Dustin Johnson proved to be insignificant last week finishing near the bottom. However even the world number 1 is entitled to bad weeks. However this week I'm going in a new direction with my picks. This week my winning pick goes to Jordan Spieth. Now I know this could be slightly premature, but this guy had two top 3's, a top 10 and a top 20 across 4 weeks. He's playing solid, he's confident and he's happy to be contending again. Let me tell you confidence is everything and this guy is ready to win again.
My notable to miss the cut this week is Rickie Fowler. Rickie is in danger of missing The Masters for the first time since 2010 and personally I think he’s putting too much pressure on himself to play well. I also know you need your “A” game on this golf course so if you can’t bring it, the course will eat you alive.
Lastly my underdog pick of the week goes to Will Zalatoris. Will is just playing as solid as it gets. I was looking up some stats last night and one thing that really jumped out at me was in February of 2019 he was ranked 2004th in the world. Two full years later Will has gotten himself to 47th in the world. That is what we like to call hard work and perseverance. Will is ready for a breakout win and Bay Hill could be the sight of his maiden victory. (Mike)
Tyler: My picks last week were no good again. I rode the DJ train a little too hard. I should have known he would have a down week eventually. Tommy Fleetwood did not do much either coming in at T-44. I am not going to hop on the trendy Hovland pick this week even though I think he has been playing some great golf over the last few weeks. For the winner this week I am going with Jason Day at 35-1. I pick Jason a lot here for sleeper or winner, but his game continues to come around and eventually he will have his breakthrough weekend. I think he putts incredibly well this week on his way to victory.
For my sleeper this week I am going with Max Homa at 50-1. These seem like great odds for a guy that just won on tour and has been playing well for quite some time. I like his chances to continue playing well and find himself in a late Sunday afternoon tee time.
My notable to miss the cut is Bryson. I do not like Bryson or any of his antics. He struggled last week before setting the course record at Concession. I think he has a blow up round on Thursday or Friday and that prevents him from making it to the weekend. (Tyler)