Arnold Palmer Invitational – Player Quotes Over the Years

With nine water hazards in play, firm and fast greens, potential wind effects, and the second-lowest combined Driving Accuracy and GIR% on Tour – in the words of Viktor Hovland, “It’s just a beast of a course”. Many of these themes and more are discussed below by the golfers themselves who have toiled over the years at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Other common topics brought up by players include: 

• Tough, “can’t fake it”, mentally challenging, must commit to shots, par is okay
• Course knowledge, length off the tee, fairway finding drives, and a high ball flight into firm greens are all important here
• Laying up with shorter woods and long irons is a disciplined approach that helps players control distance off the tee so as to avoid the hazards and rough
• Following the strategy of Tiger Woods here will lead to success – play conservative, but attack and “crush” the Par 5s

On the Course in General

Francesco Molinari: It’s not easy, this golf course, when it gets firm like this, you don’t get too many chances. I think yesterday playing in the third to last group probably saw it as tough as it can be.

Justin Rose: There’s really no way to fake it around Bay Hill. The rough’s pretty thick. Generally, the greens are quite firm which requires pretty pinpoint iron shots. There’s enough trouble out there that mentally it’s a challenge. You have to really commit to shots. There’s a lot of I guess intimidating-looking golf shots out there on this golf course. 

Matthew Fitzpatrick: It’s quite penal off the tee and missing the greens. If you really hit it well tee to green you can shoot some good scores. And I enjoy playing courses like this, it’s a challenge.

Jordan Spieth: It’s a little tricky because it seems like a course where course knowledge can go a long way, given the difficulty of it and especially on and around the greens. 

Viktor Hovland: It’s just a beast of a course. It’s going to be — you got to be patient — that word is very overused — but it really is important this week. But just kind of knowing that and picking your spots of, okay, half of these holes I’m just going to try to make a par, and then on the other half you can hopefully you can make some birdies on those, and hopefully, that’s enough to kind of be in the 60s or in just a couple under par.

On Short Game Play and the Greens

Tyrrell Hatton: The greens are pretty firm anyway so I think they’re only going to get firmer throughout the week. I wouldn’t say it was an advantage going out really early this morning because they were still kind of rock hard then. It’s obviously a tough course. If you miss fairways you’re punished because the rough is so thick. If you’re trying to pitch a ball on the greens out of the rough, they’re just not stopping. So that’s obviously quite a challenge.

Marc Leishman: If you can drive it on the fairway around here, that’s really important, especially with the greens the way they are, pretty firm and very quick. And then, obviously, you got to try and leave yourself uphill putts, and then you got to make them.

Rory McIlroy: You can’t not feel good about your putting on these greens, they’re so pure, that get the ball started on line with decent speed you know it’s got a great chance of going in.

Graeme McDowell: I heard a comment to where Arnie kind of wants it to play as a U.S. Open off the tee. And Augusta-esque around the greens. And I can see what he’s trying to achieve. The greens, like I say on Sunday, the firmness and the speed of the greens was very Augusta-esque with these new runoff areas that he’s created the last few years.

On the Importance of Attacking the Par 5s

Rory McIlroy: I think the toughest thing about this course is the par-3s. You need to play the par-3s well and play the par-5s well and to be only 1-under on the par-5s is, I need to do that better. I need to take advantage of the par-5s because that’s – look at Tiger’s won it plenty of times around here and that’s what he did. He can be conservative and play conservative for the most part, but if you make birdies on the par-5s, you’re going to be right up there. I feel with my length I can take advantage of those.

Jason Day: I mean today, I was pretty aggressive with the par-5s. You have to come to a golf course like this and just crush the par-5s. That’s more where all the scoring is. If you can get on the fairways, give yourself an opportunity to get to the green or around the green, let the short game take over, and make birdies.

On the Fairways and Off the Tee Play

Jason Kokrak: I think you can play this place a ton of different ways. You don’t have to hit a lot of drivers here — you can if you would like to — but you hit a lot of long irons off the tees. Some of the other guys are hitting maybe a hybrid or a 5-wood off the tee where I’m hitting maybe a 4-iron so I think that makes the fairways a little bit bigger for me, easier to hit. And I’m a high-ball hitter, so I think being able to hit it higher into the greens and stop it in some spots that some other guys can’t. And I feel comfortable here. A lot of the shot shapes are kind of right-to-left off the tee so I tend to like those. And if I can put the ball in the fairway, you can attack this place.

Rory McIlroy: I think that I saw a stat the other day that this course more than any other one on the PGA TOUR, the correlation between strokes gained off the tee and performance at this course is higher than anywhere else and obviously myself and Bryson No. 1 and 2 in strokes gained off the tee for the seasons and we both shot two good scores today. It’s one of these places where there’s a lot of holes where everyone just hits it in the same spots off the tee, but then when you can give yourself an advantage by taking driver and getting it up there where some of the shorter guys are having to go up the sliver of fairway up the right when longer guys don’t have to really worry about that.

Jordan Spieth: Distance control has to be spot on, you got to take risks certain places, lay back other places, and I like the strategy that we have gone to so far. Certain pins, try and push it up further. Lay back. I mean, you got probably five or six holes where you can hit multiple clubs off the tee. So in that sense, it’s a little tougher than some courses the first time you go play them.

Bubba Watson: It’s kind of right in front of you, but you have to play it a certain way and I get bored hitting irons off the tee, so I try to hit driver a lot, which obviously backfires sometimes, and sometimes it’s good.

Rickie Fowler: It’s not too demanding off the tee as far as you’re not always having to hit drivers and it’s not too narrow. There’s holes where you’re hitting 3-woods and potentially irons, but you do have to get the ball in the fairway. And it’s very much a second-shot golf course. 

Players Professing a Love for Bay Hill

Rory McIlroy: As I said earlier, I came away from this golf course kicking myself that I hadn’t played it more often because I feel like it’s a golf course that suits my game. I feel like it’s a golf course that sets up well for me. 

Christiaan Bezuidenhout: Well, it’s just my type of course. It’s not a bomber’s course – like you can’t overpower it over here. I’m not a long hitter of the ball, but I hit it pretty straight, so, yeah, my course management has been good and I was just trying to keep the soft bogeys off the card and keep hitting greens and give yourself chances.

Patrick Rodgers: It’s a golf course that’s easy to love. I played well here in the past. It’s a golf course I always grew up watching the tournament every year and it’s kind of one of those where I knew every hole before I even got here. So it’s just an absolute pleasure to play and I think it fits my game well and it just inspires me to play well around here. I love the greens, I love how fast and slopy the greens are. The strength of my game the last couple of years has been putting and I tend to putt my best the faster the greens get. So I love that you have to think your way around the golf course and you have to manage it and put it in the right spots. I like those golf courses that are a challenge and really make you use your mind.

Billy Horschel: I love coming back to Bay Hill, Arnold Palmer’s event, I grew up about an hour from here, so it’s like a home event to me, it holds a special place to me in my heart, and so hopefully I can have another really solid week and just continue to build the momentum I think and history shows that when I have momentum and I keep building I do some really good stuff down the road.

Corey Conners: I’ve always really liked this golf course. When I was a junior golfer I actually came and watched a few times. And I always loved the place, such great condition, visually like the golf course a lot off the tee. You got to be really precise with your shots.
Graeme McDowell: I’ve always enjoyed the way the golf course sets up for me. I’ve had a couple of good years here. Basically, it’s my home event these days. Used to be the Irish Open was my home event, this is home these days. So it’s a special tournament for me.

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