munneypicks

2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Tournament: For the 4th week in a row, the top players in the world will be in Florida for another tournament. This will conclude the Florida swing as the TOUR will move play to Texas next week. After this week, there will be only 2 more tournaments before the year’s first major, The Masters.

Course: This week the TOUR is heading to Arnie’s place. Bay Hill, outside of Orlando, FL will be hosting the Arnold Palmer Invitational for yet another year. This tournament has been played at Bay Hill since 1979. This is one of Tiger’s courses. He has won here 8 times in the last 15 years. That being said, not many golfers have enjoyed much success here, but 2014 has been a crazy year so far so who can say?

Bay Hill is a par 72 that stretches just over 7,400 yards. This Dick Wilson design isn’t a pushover track. The average winning score here over the past 5 years is -10 (278).

Past Winners:

2014 – Matt Every
2013 – Tiger Woods
2012 – Tiger Woods
2011 – Martin Laird
2010 – Ernie Els

Field: All five of the world’s top five players in OGWR will be on hand this week. Note that field is limited to 120 players. Should be a fun week.

What to Look For: This course will play similar to the other courses in the Florida swing being that bermuda grass in prominent here. Recent form can tell us a lot about how players perform in these conditions. If you look at the list of winners above, all of them had a top 10 finish on the Florida Swing before their win at Bay Hill. This is very telling and I think with this being the fourth week of playing on these Bermuda greens, and some players have acclimated well to Florida golf. 8 time winner Tiger was also a long time resident of Orlando.  A lot of players will use this tournament as the final hoorah before taking their talents to Augusta National.  Another point of note is that it is not easy to win this tournament in your debut. The leader of this week’s market, Rory McIlroy, is making his debut here, but also has a top 10 on the Florida Swing already. But mixed signs give me more than enough reason to stay away at 5/1.

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Free Pick:

Henrik Stenson to Win: I would have had this preview out yesterday but I’ve been struggling with whom to make my lead selection. The choice was between Stenson and Bubba. I don’t think you could go wrong with either choice. They both have top 5’s on the Florida swing (Stenson has 2). Stenson has 2 top 10’s at this course in the past and is combining great course form with great current form. As always with Henrik, if the putter heats up, he wins.

Good Luck

6u Henrik Stenson to win @ 9.5/1

*If your book does not offer e/w betting, place 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to win and 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to place top 5

Chris Munney
@munneypicks
www.munneypicks.com