Leaderboard: Fort Worth Invitational

Tiger Woods posted the first photo of himself since his Feb. 23 one-car accident and quipped that work being done on his three-hole practice rounds was coming along faster than his recovery.

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Bay Hill Club & Lodge was an absolute bully at last year's Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Facing fierce winds on the weekend, the field averaged more than 2.1 strokes over par for the tournament, making it the most difficult course on the PGA TOUR for the 2019-2020 season. It was the first time Bay Hill had yielded a scoring average over 74 since 1983, and the highest winning score in relation to par (-4, Tyrrell Hatton) at the event since '83, as well. Approach play was especially perilous, with the field recording an average proximity to the hole of 54'4", the largest number all season on TOUR. They hit only 50.5% of greens in regulation for the week, the lowest number in any non-major since the 2005 RBC Canadian Open at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club (49.8%). While last year's conditions made for a tougher test than players normally face in Orlando, there is one statistic about Bay Hill that reveals itself every year, regardless of the weather. Bay Hill annually ranks among the courses with the most approach shots by the field from outside 200 yards. Last season, there were more than 1,800 approaches from that range - most of any course all season. Since 2016, there have been 9,926 approach shots hit from 200 yards out or farther - nearly 3,000 more than the next-closest course in that span (TPC River Highlands at 7,007). Part of the source of this are the long par 3s at Arnie's place: the quartet of holes have an average length of 216.5 yards on the scorecard. That was the longest average length for par 3s on TOUR last season, and ranked second-longest each of the previous two years - the par-3 holes at Corales Golf Club, host of the Corales Puntacana Championship, averaged 230.5 yards on the card in 2018 and 2019. So how have recent winners at Bay Hill fared on these long approaches? Since 2012, they are a combined 44 under par when hitting approach shots (on all holes, regardless of par) from outside 200 yards. In that span, the winner at Bay Hill has a proximity to the hole 4'9" better than the field average that particular week. Three tournament winners in that span beat the field average by 6 feet or more - Tiger Woods in 2013 (6'1"), Matt Every in 2015 (9'9"), and Rory McIlroy in 2018 (16'9"). McIlroy's performance on these particular shots was especially remarkable. In his 2018 win at Bay Hill, McIlroy led the field in approach shot proximity from outside 200 yards. When McIlroy is at his best, this is a pervasive theme. Only eight times in the ShotLink era (a collection of more than 600 tournaments) has a winner averaged less than 35 feet away on approach shots outside 200 yards (minimum 15 attempts). McIlroy has four of those wins. So which of the players in this week's field show promise in this particular statistic? There are more than 180 with 100 or more approach shots from outside 200 yards on TOUR the last 2 seasons. Of that group, you don't have to look far to find a familiar name: this week's defending champion, Tyrrell Hatton, ranks second in average proximity to the hole (44'2") when facing that length of an approach shot. Bryson DeChambeau, who has finished in the top five twice in the last three years at this event, ranks third (44'10"). The leader in this statistic is Will Gordon (43'2"), who makes his Bay Hill debut this week. How about scoring from that distance? Gordon ranks fourth in score to par per attempt (-0.29), best in the field in Orlando. Talor Gooch is another under-the-radar name who performs well in these situations: his score to par per attempt (-0.27) ranks eighth since the start of the 2019-20 season. Sungjae Im is a remarkable 106 under par when faced with these approach shots the last two seasons, 12 shots better than any other player. In a statistical testament to how often he plays, though, he's also had 38 more attempts than anyone else in that span (Im ranks 24th of 185 players in score to par per attempt, at -0.25). Almost every course in professional golf has its own defining characteristics, whether visually, architecturally, or when diving into the numbers. Longer approach shots into greens are a trend to keep an eye on this week at Bay Hill.

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Just last month, as the shadows were creeping over the Manhattan skyline, Peter Malnati took his little boy Hatcher out on the empty putting green at Liberty National. The almost-2-year-old struggled to hold his dad’s putter, which is taller than he is. Together, the two managed to sink a few putts, but when they didn’t the toddler took matters into his own hands, literally, and dropped the little white sphere to the cup. “I put ball in hole, I put ball in hole,” an excited Hatcher told his daddy, and it was hard to tell who was having the most fun. Malnati knows how fortunate he and his wife Alicia are to have a healthy son. He has done numerous visits to children’s hospitals across the country that benefit from the proceeds of PGA TOUR events and gotten to know families whose kids are patients in those facilities. That’s why Malnati was quick to say yes when asked to become an Ambassador for Play Yellow, a campaign by the Children’s Miracle Network – supported by Jack and Barbara Nicklaus – that is trying to raise $100 million to help the 10 million kids treated in hospitals each year. “We’ve dealt with little viruses and a fever here and there, but never anything that’s been serious with our little guy,” Malnati says. “But the dreadful thought of having a child be sick and needed to be hospitalized, I would want to know that every research dollar, every resource possible, was available if that was my son in the hospital. “So, to be able to be a very, very small part of contributing to that body of work that’s going into helping to keep our little ones safe and healthy and give them the best treatment possible; yes, that has taken on a whole new meaning for me since seeing how much my world really does revolve around that little guy.” Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson, where the Sanderson Farms Championship is being played this week, is one of those hospitals in the Children’s Miracle Network. The tournament is hosting a Yellow Out on Sunday where the iconic ceramic chicken tee markers will be painted yellow, and all fans and volunteers are asked to wear the same color. Yellow is the color Nicklaus used to wear on Sundays to honor Craig Smith, the young son of the minister at Barbara’s church who died at 13 after battling Ewing’s sarcoma. The teenager once told Nicklaus that he won a tournament because Craig was wearing his lucky yellow shirt. Malnati, who picked up his first PGA TOUR victory at the Country Club on Jackson in 2016, already has his shirt picked out for Sunday’s final round. But he laughs when asked if he plans to go head-to-toe in yellow – “No, no Rickie Fowler for me,” he says with a laugh. The 34-year-old Malnati first became aware of Children’s of Mississippi, which is the only all-pediatric facility in the state, early in his career when his wife attended a PGA TOUR Wives Association event there and helped patients paint the colorful tee markers. Seeing the kids had an impact on her and the couple has visited several times since, including when he was defending champion, and Malnati says his association with Play Yellow will be a “family affair.” “It’s a no brainer to be involved with something that just kind of furthers that impact that golf is able to have in the communities where we play,” Malnati says. In truth, though, Malnati has been preparing for this role since 2013 when he played in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to the start of the tournament, he was asked to do a junior clinic for some patient ambassadors at the hospital. Malnati, of course, said yes. He had basically locked up his TOUR card in the previous two-and-a-half months, starting with no status to winning the News-Sentinel Open presented by Pilot and eventually making the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. As he pointed out, Malnati was now in a “really good place. “The game of golf to me, it’s given me so much,” Malnati explains. “It’s just something that I so enjoy. So doing the junior clinic with children from the children’s hospital — it’s not about teaching them skills of golf, it’s about just sharing my love of golf with them. “And so that’s what I did.” Malnati was particularly drawn that day to one little girl who had what he calls an “infectious smile. “You could just see she was genuinely happy and appreciated being there,” he says. “And I felt like her smile kind of reflected the way that the way that I feel about just the fact that I get to go play golf and call it a job to see her be so happy.” He found out later that her name was Madeline Richardson and that she had missed her last two years of school while battling neuroblastoma. Her dad Craig has become one of Malnati’s closest friends, and the pro stays with Craig, his wife Carol and Madeline and her younger sister Elena whenever he plays in the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Madeline is a teenager now and doing well, and Malnati says her parents give all credit to the care she received at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “So that’s a pretty powerful endorsement of the good that I’m hoping to be a part of,” Malnati says. Madeline was also selected to hit the opening tee shot at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in 2013. Malnati happened to be teeing off No. 10 at the same time and was able to run over and watch. The entire experience that week moved him. “So that’s where I first even got the idea that this organization that I was about to be a part of — the PGA TOUR — is actually doing real good and having a real impact in the communities where we played,” Malnati says. “And so that was cool. “It was something that interested me then, and now to kind of take that interest farther and join the Play Yellow initiative is something that I’m really excited about.”

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