ORLANDO, Fla. - Arnold Palmer was as American as a man could be, but the lush green "house" he watched over and cared for so dutifully on the south end of this tourist town has taken on a distinct global flavor in choosing its winners. In the last five years at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, the tournament has crowned champions from Australia (twice), Northern Ireland, Italy and last year, England, as Tyrrell Hatton wore the champion's red alpaca cardigan, an Arnie tradition. Make way: The Arnold Palmer Invitational has become the Arnold Palmer International. South Africa's Ernie Els became the first international player to break through, winning in 1998 at Bay Hill in what was the 20th edition of Palmer moving the tournament across town from Rio Pinar to Bay Hill. Els would win again in 2010), but that first one included a 36-hole Sunday finish as a result of bad weather that week. Players were not re-grouped for the fourth round. Els went out with Tiger Woods, who eventually would win eight titles at Bay Hill, and Davis Love III, a longtime Palmer family friend who wanted nothing more than to win at Arnie's Place. Els went out in 65 in the morning round, trouncing Woods by eight and Love by 10. Neither player recovered to challenge him in the afternoon. Els, who was commuting from the Lake Nona Club just down the road, would win by four. "I became World No. 1 that day, so I was in a very good mood all around," Els said. "That night, myself and Liezl (Ernie's wife) sat in the men's grill with Mr. Palmer, having a few beers, chatting, celebrating the win. It was a great night." Hatton won last March in the PGA TOUR's final start before COVID-19 restrictions would hit. After one round was contested at THE PLAYERS Championship the following week, the TOUR shut down, and players went on a three-month hiatus. England's Hatton survived just as much as he won at API, finishing at 4-under 284, the highest winner's score in the tournament's 42-year history at Bay Hill. Hatton also was the last player on TOUR to win in front of a full crowd (there will be a limited number of fans this week). Previous international winners before Hatton to build and extend this impressive stretch? Jason Day and Marc Leishman pulled off an Aussie double in 2016-17; Rory McIlroy stepped through to win in 2018; and Italy's Francesco Molinari (2019) also landed a victory at one of the TOUR's more iconic settings. Day was the last player to receive a congratulatory handshake and the winner's trophy from Palmer, who died six months later. What's behind such a strong international winning streak at one venue, the longest on TOUR? For one, the Bay Hill event, a limited-field invitational (123 players in this week's field), has always made it a mission showcase the game's top global stars. Long before there were World Golf Championships, Palmer went above and beyond to extend invitations to the very best players in the world. Seve Ballesteros played Bay Hill, as did Ian Woosnam, and Bernhard Langer, and Nick Faldo. Greg Norman and Nick Price, World No. 1s, were Orlando residents for a time who played Bay Hill faithfully. Japan's Jumbo Ozaki, one of his era's longer hitters, competed here. One Japanese golf writer on site in 1995 famously ran out to see how long John Daly hit it, and returned with this report: "He's no Jumbo." The Bay Hill event being directly in front of THE PLAYERS for many years in March (the PLAYERS would move temporarily to May but return to a March date in 2019) helped to strengthen the field. Orlando is a popular place to be in March, with the Masters not far around the corner. Joie Chitwood III, in his first year as API's tournament director, said he received nearly 90 requests for exemptions to compete. Hatton, McIlroy, young Viktor Hovland (Norway), Sungjae Im (Korea), Matthew Fitzpatrick and Paul Casey (England) and Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) are but a handful of players hoping to further the trend of international champions at Bay Hill when play starts Thursday. "I don’t think there is any real specific reason. Sometimes you just have runs like that that you can’t really explain," said Leishman, the 2017 API champion and last year's runner-up. With nearly $3.4 million in career earnings at the API, he ranks second only behind Tiger Woods. Christian Bezuidenhout, a promising young South African playing in his second API and housed at Bay Hill as he competes in several events in the United States, sees the golf course as being very similar to those players might see across the European Tour. "On European Tour-style courses, you plot your way around," he said. "I don't think this is your typical PGA TOUR course. It's not just a bomber's paradise, and you see a lot of 2-irons and 3-woods off the tees. You need a plan here." Bezuidenhout played in the second-to-last group on Sunday a year ago, alongside McIlroy, but was one of many players swept away in windy and firm conditions. The scoring average was nearly 76 on Saturday, and just more than 75 on Sunday. Hatton shot 74 Sunday, making pars at his final seven holes. "There’s a lot of firing away from pins, showing discipline at times, and then when you do have a chance, making the most of it," Leishman said. "Depending on the wind there are different holes on different days that you can attack. A lot of them run the same way so you have runs where you’re downwind, and then then you might have six holes into the wind. So understanding the wind and how it changes each day can be important." Take all those factors, mix in high winds and lots of water on the golf course, and it makes for a demanding test. Bay Hill always crowns a deserving winner. Of late, they just all seem to be players with international passports. "So I think it is just an interesting stat that's popped up," Leishman said. Laughingly, he added, "I like it, but maybe we should keep it quiet, so it keeps happening." When Els won at Bay Hill as an international in 1998, little could he know what he was starting. He enjoyed a strong relationship with Palmer, who was warm to him when Els was just starting out, well before he ever started ticking off major championships. When Palmer first invited Els to Bay Hill in 1993, the two played together the opening two rounds, a memory Els still cherishes. "For me to win the tournament twice was, of course, the greatest thrill and honor," Els said. "Whenever I see photos of Mr. Palmer presenting me with the trophy and us laughing together beside the 18th green, it sends a shiver down the back of my neck." PGA TOUR staff writer Ben Everill contributed to this report
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