Confidence Factor: Arnold Palmer Invitational

BRESCIA, Italy — Martin Kaymer compiled a bogey-free 63 on Friday to lead the Italian Open by one shot at the halfway stage, as several of Europe’s top golfers came to the fore. The Ryder Cup player from Germany birdied five of his last six holes, and had eight in total, as he produced the lowest round of the week to move to 11-under after 36 holes on another day of low scoring at the Gardagolf Country Club. “It’s been a while since I played that solid,” said Kaymer, who missed the cut in three of his last four events. “I was getting very close recently but that positivity was missing on the golf course because I haven’t had a lot of good results. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve won majors and had the situations I had at the Ryder Cup, it’s really exciting to be in a position that you can win a golf tournament again.” Kaymer, whose last win yielded a second major title at the 2014 US Open, was one ahead of Italy’s Francesco Molinari, 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, Graeme McDowell, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Thomas Pieters. Willett reached a career-high ninth in the world after claiming his first major title at Augusta National, but has plummeted to 462nd after struggling for form. The 30-year-old Englishman returned a 65 on Thursday, his lowest round of the season, and followed it up with a 67. “I haven’t made a cut for a while so to actually be this side of the leaderboard is pretty nice,” said Willett. “I’ve been working really hard. I’ve not been getting any results and you just have to keep your head down and hope that you get a couple of days like this under your belt.” The entire field will be separated by just seven shots over the weekend after the cut fell at 4 under par.

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Depending on your exposure, fusion might be most familiar as the scientific process in which multiple particles come together. You may also think of it as when jazz met rock and roll. Or maybe the winner of the word association is the popular sedan. With Tiger Woods performing as well as he has in 2018, we have to wonder if back surgeons are getting flooded with inquiries on another application: fusion surgery. Then there are the folks who play fantasy golf and lean on the fusion of current form with course history to identify value. Lo and behold, Woods is the father of all synergies at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. With eight victories at Bay Hill Golf Club and Lodge, his margin over Vijay Singh in second place on the tournament’s all-time money list is more than $2 million greater than The Big Fijian’s total. Despite Woods’ incredible success at Bay Hill, he’s seeing the four-year-old renovation for the first time this week. Scroll past the ranking for more on how Palmer’s beloved test has matched up in the 120-man invitational. First appearance at Bay Hill since 2013 title, his fourth in last five trips. Tee-to-green game was the primary foundation of last week’s T2 at Copperhead. Putting was already strong. In the process of a T5 at the Valspar, ranked third in strokes gained: putting with highest recorded clip over four rounds since winning 2011 BMW. Five top 15s at Bay Hill since 2011. Just his third start of 2018. Chased Farmers title with a T2 at Pebble Beach. Winner at Bay Hill in 2016. Currently leading the PGA TOUR in strokes gained: putting. A regular leaderboard presence. Leads the TOUR in birdies-or-better percentage after going for the green. Fourth in adjusted scoring. T10 in Bay Hill debut last year. Continues to excel with his first PGA TOUR card with a P2, a solo third and three more top 25s since late January. Slots third in both adjusted scoring and the all-around. All three paydays in six starts at Bay Hill were top 20s. Now rested from a T5 at the WGC-Mexico where he led the field in total distance of putts holed. Five top fives in 2017-18! First Power Rankings since the WGC-HSBC in October. Opened Florida Swing with T13 at the Honda. Added a T16 at the Valspar. Three top 15s at Bay Hill; T12 in his last in 2016. Prevailed by six at the Asian Development Tour’s stop in Brunei on Saturday. Two wins in last four starts. T5 at WGC-Mexico in between. T6 in both prior starts at Bay Hill. Save the stumble at PGA National (MC), he’s just as hot as he was at this time last year when he placed T4 in his API debut. Third-place finishes in two of last three starts.   Wouldn’t mind tighter form upon arrival for his title defense, but he’s averaged 69.625 on his last eight rounds at Bay Hill. Currently seventh in birdies-or-better percentage. Travels after fading to solo sixth at the Hero Indian Open where he led after both of the first two rounds. Three top 15s in last four starts worldwide. T17-T7 in last two APIs. Italian stallion for Bay Hill with three top 10s and a T17 (2015) in the last four editions. Ranked fourth in strokes gained: tee-to-green en route to a T25 at WGC-Mexico. Relatively quiet opening to 2018 mirrors his track record at Bay Hill. In six prior trips, both of his two top 25s among five cuts made are top 15s. Solo 12th last year. Finally reemerged on the leaderboard at Copperhead (T2) where he led the field in strokes gained: approach. Appearing at Bay Hill for the third time, his first since 2014. Among the notables cut at Copperhead, but he’s been a force at Bay Hill. Five straight top 15s punctuated by top fives from 2014-16. Last year’s MC was an anomaly.  RANK PLAYER COMMENT POWER RANKINGS: ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson and Kevin Chappell will be among the notables covered in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider.  This is the 40th edition of the API at Bay Hill. No course could claim to have evolved as much as the stock par 72 in Orlando. The latest sweeping modifications greeted the 2015 field with new Celebration bermudagrass on the fairways and TifEagle Bermuda on the greens (which are not overseeded).  If it can be accepted that three years of play and data are required before attaching identity and expectations to any course after a renovation, then Bay Hill has hit the bull’s-eye. Last year’s scoring average of 72.890 was a four-year high, but moderate-to-gusty winds challenged the field in the first and final rounds. The bottom line is that the course rewards all strengths upon execution. Consider that the leaders in distance of all drives (Rory McIlroy), fairways hit (Adam Hadwin), greens in regulation (champion Marc Leishman), proximity to the hole (McIlroy) and scrambling (Hadwin) all finished inside the top six on the leaderboard.  Leishman’s pace of 11-under 277 was the highest in six years. As referenced above, he got the job done by eliminating the need to scramble more than anyone else, but he also ranked second in strokes gained: putting. Not surprisingly given the value of par, the Aussie also co-led in bogey avoidance in which eight of the 11 golfers who finished inside the top 10 on the leaderboard ranked inside the top 10 for the tournament.  While the absence of dozens of trees felled by Hurricane Irma last September may be noticeable to eyes familiar with the property, the only relevant change to gameplay at Bay Hill since last year occurred beside the green of the par-3 second hole. The bank in between it and the creek isn’t as severe. And despite numerous upgrades, the course will tip at 7,419 yards for the eighth straight year.  Terrific weather is on tap throughout the tournament. Gradually warming daytime highs into the low 80s by Sunday will be accompanied by light breezes and primarily cloudless skies.  The winner will earn a three-year PGA TOUR exemption as well as berths into the next three editions of THE PLAYERS.  ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE  PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week.  MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings  TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider, Facebook Live  WEDNESDAY: One & Done  * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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This week is the 10th anniversary of Jordan Spieth’s first start on the PGA TOUR, the AT&T Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas. Here’s a look back at PGATOUR.COM’s coverage of that week in 2010 at TPC Four Seasons Resort as Spieth entered Sunday in contention as a 16-year-old amateur RELATED: Read 16-year-old Spieth’s letter to the AT&T Byron Nelson requesting a sponsor exemption in 2010 Setup HE’S JUST 16, BUT SPIETH IS THINKING BIG THIS WEEK Jordan Spieth knows the odds are against him winning this week’s Byron Nelson Championship. After all, he’s an amateur playing in his first PGA TOUR event on a sponsor’s exemption. Oh, and he’s also just 16 years old. But while the rest of us expect this week’s champion to be someone, er, older, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur Champion is not about to dismiss the notion completely. “Nobody that’s here enters a tournament if they don’t think they can win — at least in their own minds think they can win,” Spieth said Tuesday from the TPC Four Seasons at Las Colinas. “Obviously I know the percentage chances of me winning an event like this right now. “But anything can happen.” The reality, of course, is that Spieth will be quite happy if he can simply make the cut and play on the weekend. Another Dallas product, Justin Leonard, did it as an amateur playing on a sponsor’s exemption in 1993 when he finished tied for 56th. Leonard, though, was a college player at Texas and about to turn 21. Spieth doesn’t turn 17 for two more months and is still a junior in high school at Dallas’ Jesuit College Preparatory School. He’s slated to graduate next year. “Making the cut would be something special in itself,” said Spieth, the youngest amateur given a sponsor’s exemption at the HP Byron Nelson and the first in 15 years. “But obviously you try and get it going and see where that takes you. It’s all about momentum out here. See where it goes.” Certainly, golf fans will be interested to see where Spieth’s career goes. He’s currently No. 1 in the American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Rankings and claimed the U.S. Junior Amateur title last year after reaching the semifinals as a 15-year-old in 2008. If you’re looking for the next big thing in golf, maybe Spieth is the kid you should watch. Just ask the locals who know all about him — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who’s ranked No. 1 in Golf Digest’s top athlete golfers, stays in contact with Spieth and recently played a few holes with him in South Carolina. But even with expectations rising with every swing, Spieth appears to be well-grounded, his demeanor calm. That’s the approach he plans to take this week on a course he’s played many times and a tournament he’s attended as a fan since he was 5 years old. “You’ve got to think of it as another tournament,” he said. “Obviously with what we’re doing here and all the interviews and cameras and the big guys out there, all the manufacturers, it’s quite a bit different than anything I’ve ever seen before. “But once you get on the course, if you’re just thinking you’ve got a 7-iron in your hand, you’ve got to think of it as something you’re hitting on a driving range, a shot that you’ve hit thousands of times and not make it bigger than it needs to be.” Make no mistake, though — this is big. It may not exactly be a coming-out party, but you can consider it an introduction. But before Spieth tees off Thursday afternoon with playing partners Blake Adams and David Lutterus, he has high school classes to attend on Wednesday morning in English, Spanish and Physics. If there’s any homework, he may not get to it until this weekend. Unless he makes the cut. Then it may take him a while longer. Making the cut A VERY SURREAL – AND HISTORIC – DAY So you’re 16 years, 9 months and 24 days old. Hundreds of your classmates have ditched high school to watch you achieve the improbable. Word spreads through the course and now others want to join the fun. You just might do this thing. You just might make the cut. You reach the final few holes and the decibel level rises. The gallery chants your name. One of your playing partners, one of the great untold stories of this tournament, is shooting lights-out and will eventually claim a share of the clubhouse lead. But this moment is for you. You’re the rock star. You’re the flavor of the day. And when it’s over, when you had made par at 18 (although you really should’ve rolled in the 9-footer for birdie) and you had sealed your spot for the weekend — the sixth youngest player to ever make the cut at a PGA TOUR event — things should have slowed down. Sorry, think again. There were autographs to sign. Everybody wanted to talk with you. Radio stations. Television stations. You climbed into the booth where Nick Faldo and Kelly Tilghman were waiting. That was pretty cool. After all, you watch Golf Channel all the time. “Sir Nick” — you call him by his knighted name; how cute — has a few majors in his pocket. Kinda nice to rub those elbows. You tape an interview with ESPN that will air on SportsCenter. Then time to entertain the golf media in the press room. They hang on your every word. You even crack a joke or two. They laugh. It’s all pretty amazing (especially the jaded reporters laughing part). “Almost surreal,” you say. Wrong. It is surreal. A day like this doesn’t come around often, when a 16-year-old turns a PGA TOUR event on its ear. No one expects Jordan Spieth to win this week’s Byron Nelson Championship — although Spieth himself isn’t ruling out the possibility — but no one will forget the buzz he produced on Friday when his 1-under 69 left him at 3 under for the tournament, safely inside the cutline. There were other players Friday who produced more fireworks. Cameron Beckman went out and tied the course record at TPC Four Seasons Resort, shooting 61 to grab a share of the second-round lead at 10 under. One of Spieth’s playing partners, Blake Adams, is also at 10 under after his impressive 64. Adams is the hardest-luck story you’ve ever heard, a former Nationwide Tour player whose battle against an inhumane succession of injuries — torn rotator cuffs, bulging disk, arthritis, broken ankle, broken fingers, bad hip, etc. — is a study in resiliency. Perhaps any other day, the spotlight would belong to him. Perhaps any other day, the loudest cheers would be in his name. “I kinda almost felt bad for Blake because everybody was screaming my name out there and he was tied for the lead,” Spieth said. “But you know, that’s him. He doesn’t mind, I’m sure.” Adams doesn’t mind because he knows the crowds — including hundreds of students at Jesuit College Preparatory School — came out to watch the Dallas teen. At 7:15 a.m. local time Friday, when Adams, Spieth and the third member of their group, David Lutterus, resumed their first round, roughly 200 people were in attendance. “I don’t think too many people would want to come out here to see me play at 7:15 in the morning,” Adams said, ‘but there was a lot of folks out there to watch him. “It was a great atmosphere.” Once the group finished their first round, Spieth shooting 2-under 68 with two birdies on his last three holes, they took a quick 30-minute break before starting their second round. One hole into the round, Speith mistakenly played out of turn, having forgotten that this was a new round and not just the continuation of the previous round. When his caddie informed him of the faux pas, Spieth quickly apologized to Lutterus. No harm done. It helped to have a couple of laid-back players — Adams lives in southern Georgia and Lutterus is an Australian currently living in Fort Worth — accompanying the high school junior on this two-day emotional journey. Spieth said he learned a lesson by watching the calm demeanor that Adams displayed while moving up the leaderboard. “The guys that I was playing with were great,” Spieth said. “Awesome guys.” Meanwhile, Spieth just kept firing at pins. He played with his usual aggressiveness and he didn’t seem unnerved at all on a course he’s played plenty of times. He got to 4 under at one point. Playing well, feeling the moment — it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to him. So what if the rest of the guys in the field are fighting for the cash, fighting for the livelihoods. They don’t have to take final exams in a couple of weeks. Besides, as you’ve said all week, anything can happen. “I don’t want to think of myself as the amateur out here,” Spieth said. “I want to think of myself as a contender.” Will reality set in at some point? Perhaps so. Perhaps Spieth will get a first-hand look at what Moving Day means on the PGA TOUR each Saturday. Perhaps he’ll make the mistake of reflecting on what has happened in the past two days and struggle with the enormity of the stir he’s created. If nothing else, though, he knows the last two days have been fun. And if he continues to handle the situation with the kind of steadfastness and maturity he’s displayed this week, it will continue to be fun. And as for the gallery members who cheered his every move, called out his name, turned TPC Four Seasons Resort into Friday Afternoon Lights? Spieth said it best — “really cool.” “It’s a new experience for me,” he added. “I could get used to it.” So could the rest of us. Final result THRILLS FOR US, VALUABLE LESSONS FOR SPIETH The word “surreal” has not been a regular part of the Spieth family vocabulary. But this week, that’s the most appropriate way to describe the thrill ride that 16-year-old Jordan Spieth gave the Byron Nelson Championship. “We’ve used the word ‘surreal’ about three times as much as we had cumulatively up until now,” said Spieth’s dad Shawn as he waited for his son to get out of the scorer’s trailer following his 2-over 72 that left him in a tie for 16th. Certainly the amount of attention that Jordan Spieth brought to this week’s event at the TPC Four Seasons Resort course went beyond the wildest expectations of anyone associated with the event. By becoming the sixth-youngest player to make the cut at a PGA TOUR event, Spieth became the story of the week, and golf fans in the area took notice. Spieth and playing partner Corey Pavin, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, had the largest gallery of the day. The size of the crowd was, dare we say, Tigeresque. “I was walking to the fourth hole and it looked like there was a thousand people following him,” said eventual champion Jason Day, who was playing alongside Blake Adams. “I turned to Blake and said, ‘There are more people following that young amateur than us.'” Day, in fact, was glad to fly under the radar while the spotlight shined on the high school junior from Dallas. As for Spieth, it was a week unlike any other. The key will be to learn from all the pros he played with and benefit from the experience. “I definitely loved being able to learn from the guys I was playing with, and just on and off the course, seeing how they were approaching their pre-round routine and stuff,” Spieth said. “That was pretty neat to get that kind of experience.” Shawn Spieth knows once all the dust settles, once Jordan and the family get to reflect on what happens, that the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur gained some valuable lessons playing with Blake Adams, David Lutterus, Tom Pernice Jr. and Pavin this week. “He’ll look back and learn from playing with the guys he played with this week,” Shawn said. “Everybody he played with played at a slower pace, real calm — he knows he has to channel his energy that way to continue to get better and better.” In fact, Jordan said that was one of the issues in Sunday’s round. After shooting three rounds in the 60s, he struggled out of the gate Sunday, failing to get the quick start he needed to get the crowd revved up. With bogeys at the second and third holes, Spieth dropped to 4 under and eliminated any outside chance he had to contend. He bounced back with birdies later in the front nine but rode a rollercoaster on the back side with two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. “It’s all business out there,” Jordan said. “They (TOUR pros) remain neutral. They know that they can’t get too excited or too down on themselves. I did today. I got way too down on myself early, and then I got way too excited at some point in the round, too. It messed me up a little bit.” Still, the Spieth family will never forget the outpouring of support for Jordan, with people following his every move. They even broke out in a chant late in Jordan’s round. “It’s been great for our family,” said mother Chris Spieth. “Just a great experience.”

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