Brennans Caddy Report-Bay Hill Invitational

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I spent the last few weeks at home in Dallas doing some work around the house and playing some golf.  It was a nice break and now its time to get back to work!  We are going into a stretch of 3 tournaments in 4 weeks starting with the Bay Hill Invitational this week, the Players Championship next week and the Masters the first week of April.

Early this week we flew down to Georgia so Mike could get some practice rounds in at Augusta National.  You may have heard there have been some changes to the course making it longer and harder, and I will get into those changes in more detail in my Masters caddy report in a few weeks.

For now, I will say how fortunate I feel, as I was able to play Augusta again this year.  I played with Mike, Mike Wilson, and our friend George Roberts in a round on Sunday afternoon, followed by dinner at the clubhouse and another round early Monday morning.  We stayed right on the property in one of the cabins and its amazing to be able to play such a prestigious course.

After our time in Augusta we came down to Orlando, Florida for Arnold Palmer's stop this week, the Bay Hill Invitational.  This event has an elite, invite-only field with only about 120 players or so.  The tournament organizers are always good about getting a lot of foreign players in the field as they come over and tune up for next weeks TPC.  This tournament also has a lot of history to it, and I know a lot of the guys come here because it is Arnie's event and they want to support it for him.
 
Bay Hill Golf Course is in great shape this year.  Over the years, there have been many complaints that the greens were too difficult.  Arnold wants this course to be in US Open condition, meaning hard with lots of rough.  The course though still needs to play fair in order for guys to want to play it, and I'm not sure that was the case for a few years.

This year the course is great, the greens are very receptive and there is lots of rough.  Early in the week they generally keep the course a little soft so that they don't kill any of the grass but I wouldn't be surprised if the course gets quite firm by the end of the week. The forecast looks very hot all week so they can dry out the course for the weekend if they choose to.  The rough is also quite high this week, probably the toughest rough we have seen this year on tour so far. 
 
Bay Hill is a very demanding course in my opinion.  Tour players seem to score very well here, but in my opinion for the average player it is a very demanding track.  

On the front nine, hole #6 is a great par 5,  that is a big dogleg left and has water down the entire left side. The more water you try and carry the shorter the hole gets so #6 is a great risk reward hole, but you can pay the price like John Daly did a few years ago (he scored like an 11 on this hole!). 

The finishing holes are great.  Number 16 is a reachable par 5, with water in front and to the left of the green.  You can lay up and hit wedge to the green and make the hole less stressful or you can go for it which forces you to really hit a good shot otherwise you are in the water.  It is another great risk reward hole and one which you will see lots of guys taking chances on Sunday. 

17 is a long par 3 that can play very difficult downwind as the green gets hard and there is very little chance of keeping the ball on the green.  Take par on this hole all four days and you would be very happy. 

Hole number 18 is Bay Hill's signature hole which has provided many dramatic finishes over the years. 

Mike hits driver then mid to long iron for the approach shot that is all over water.  There is a tendency to take the water out of play and hit it a little long but that is not a very good place to play from so it makes the hole great.  Its a finishing hole that really forces you to hit a great shot if you are coming home with the lead.
 
I look forward to the challenge of the next three weeks and would love to get a win this week.  I think it will be very exciting tournament, and will take someone to win here who has been a proven winner.  Hopefully, it's Mike's time this week.

Thanks for reading,

Brennan Little

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