A brutal and fair test of PGA Golf turned unfair at the very end, at least according to Shane Lowry, as the Florida swing got underway with a tidbit of a controversy last week. Now the tour heads up north on Route 95 about an hour before heading inland for another to Bay Hill Lodge & Golf Club, the host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Located in the heart of one of the busiest tourist destinations globally, the private country club and lodge is a perfect spot for the second stop on the Florida swing. PGA DFS was in high demand last week, and contests across the industry have a bit of a step up for this tournament with a stronger field, but it pales in comparison to next week’s big DFS Golf contests for the Players Championship.
While no golfer in the top 10 World Golf Rankings played last week, half of them will make the trip to Orlando here. Let’s take a look at some of the other important information and statistical trends from the event for our .
PGA DFS Preview | 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Course Facts & Figures
Bay Hill Golf Club & Lodge provides another solid test of golf. While water hazards are still a big feature on the course, it is not quite as prevalent as the 15 out of 18 holes from last week. It also provides two more par 5’s, which always helps the scoring average quite a bit. A signature finishing hole awaits golfers, as “rock formation” or “rock wall” should be read once or twice on shot tracker.
Par & Yardage
Par 72: 7,454 yards
Course Difficulty
A few years ago, the wind was a factor when Bay Hill played has one of the hardest courses on tour. It typically still plays as one of the hardest, with a scoring average over 73.
Hole Dispersion
- Four Par 3’s : 231, 199, 215, 221
- 10 Par 4’s: 461, 434, 390, 460, 480, 400, 438, 370, 467, 458
- Four Par 5’s: 555, 574, 511, 590
Grass Types & Hazards
- Grass Type: Bermuda
- Rough Length: 2-3 inches
- Green Size: 7,500 square feet
- Holes with water in play: 9
Designer
Arnold Palmer
Best Stats for DFS Golf Picks This Week
Off the Tee: Finding the fairway will be difficult again, with the average for the event coming in the low 60% range. That is well below the tour’s average.
Approach to the Green: With longer than normal Bermuda rough, it makes hitting the greens here even harder. Greens in regulation come in no higher than 60%.
Around and On the Green: Putting will not be the problem, as the greens are some of the easiest to putt on. However, missing the green can be quite penal, as the average last year for getting up and down after missing the green was 56%.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Course History
While nobody owns Bay Hill like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy is putting forth his best effort, as he is a fixture on the first page of the leaderboard every year. He has come in the top 10 in all five trips since 2017, and he won in 2018. Long, difficult courses with reachable par 5’s throughout seem to resonate with McIlroy. Bryson DeChambeau returns to action on the PGA Tour after there were rumors he would not be returning. But he is here as defending champion and will turn plenty of eyeballs looking to see what he does on the drivable, par-5 sixth hole. Before his win last year, DeChambeau had two other top-fives here and is 5-for-5 in playing the weekend.
No one comes all that close to either of them in terms of results here, but a few others are worthy of some words. For example, Sungjae Im and Matthew Fitzpatrick have five top-10s between them in their last six combined starts. Im has only played here three times, while Fitzpatrick has played here four other times, having missed the cut twice in those four other trips. Jason Kokrak is also worthy of mentioning, as he has come in the top 10 four times since 2014 and has just one missed cut in the last eight years.
Tyrrell Hatton, Keegan Bradley, Ian Poulter, Zach Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama are the only other golfers in the field that have not missed a cut here in at least four starts. Hatton won the event back in 2020, while Matsuyama has only one top-10 here, coming back in 2016. Poulter and Johnson not finished better than 26th since 2015 but have not missed a cut in the last 10 years. Bradley has done a bit better, with three top-10s since 2013, while his other finishes were between 26th and 49th. Keith Mitchell gets an honorable mention, as he has made the cut in all three trips and has two top-10s.
PGA DFS Golf Rankings & Stats
The only hole that really sticks out is the 16th hole. One of the shortest par 5’s on tour will yield plenty of eagle chances, with close to 20 converting. Both par 5’s on the front side accumulate over 10% of the DFS scoring, but the first one is long, and the second one has water looming on every shot. In total, the four par 5s equal about 50% of the scoring.
2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational PGA DFS Player Preview
As mentioned earlier, half of the world’s top 10 competing here, but the strength of the field does not stop there. Twenty-seven of the next golfers in the world rankings are also teeing it up.
Latest PGA DFS Content
- CJ Cup Byron Nelson Preview: Course Breakdown, PGA DFS Model Plays & Much More
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson DFS Core Plays: Trust Tom Hoge & These 3 Players at TPC Craig Ranch
- PGA DFS Picks: Top Values for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson (2024)
- DraftKings Golf Cheat Sheet: Best PGA DFS Sims Picks for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson | Jordan Spieth
- RBC Heritage Preview: Course Breakdown, PGA DFS Model Plays & Much More
- Stokastic DFS on Youtube
Arnold Palmer Invitational Stats: Strokes Gained Review
Last season at this event, DeChambeau had one of the highlights of the year, aiming for the green on the par-5 sixth hole and clearing the water with ease. He did not take it right at the green, ending up just right, but he had less than 100 yards into the green for his second shot on a par 5. Those drives alone earned him quite a few strokes gained off the tee, as he used his brute force and new driving distance to his supreme advantage here last year. It will be interesting to see him try to do the same this year, as his accuracy numbers are down compared to what they were at the height of his powers. DeChambeau also played well in all the other facets of his game to win here last year, edging out Lee Westwood, who will be back in action here.
It seems as though both strokes gained off the tee and strokes gained putting take a hit in terms of coming in the top 10, while strokes gained around the green and strokes gained on the approach were much higher than the average week for golfers finishing in the top 10. With greens being some of the easiest to putt on and fairways being hard to hit, it is no surprise that those features about the course even out the field in terms of strokes gained.
Averages for Last Year’s Top 10
- Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 0.30
- Strokes Gained on Approach: 0.76
- Strokes Gained Around the Green: 0.54
- Strokes Gained Putting: 0.67
- DFS Points: 80.5
- DFS Ownership: 13.62%
- Average DFS Salary: $8,335
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[PGAPAGE]
