Arnold Palmer Invitational

"Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears."

- Arnold Palmer

Update: Arnold Palmer Invitational 

John Rahm is a bad man and your clubhouse leader at 7 under par. He started his round birdie, birdie, birdie and then finished his round with Eagle, birdie, birdie. The man is just LOCKED IN, with only 24 putts on his way to an opening round 65.

He's now +135 to win outright. 

Here's the leaderboard heading into the weekend: 

Weekend Notes:

As we mentioned on Wednesday, wind is usually a big factor in this tournament. Well, it looks like it's going to be a factor over the weekend, which makes for fun golf. 

Rory Struggles: McIlroy shot two over in his opening round, he's 9 behind the leader and he may not even make the cut. Not a good look. 

The Other Dudes: Taking a quick glance at the rest of the leaderboard presents some interesting storylines for the weekend along with outright odds: 

Scottie Scheffler: World #2 and going for his 2nd AP Invitational win in a row. +750.

Chris Kirk: Won the Honda Classic last week, had a great opening round. +2800

Jordan Spieth: Looking to return to form ahead of April +3000

Rickie Fowler: The comeback story fans want. +2200

Our Pick

Fine, Jordan Spieth sitting three back (-4) at +3000 to be the outright winner. Seems like good value there. Please don't make me regret this Jordan. 

Golf Fact To Make You Seem Smart

Here we are, Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill!

Who remembers that highlight from the 2017 Arnold Palmer when PGA pro Cody Gribble bopped a gator on the tail to shoo him off the course?

That’s insane right?? It did get me thinking though, what’s the official ruling when a ball lands near a scary ass animal that has the potential to chomp my hand off? 

Rule 16.2.a essentially says take some free relief, no closer to the hole, when a dangerous animal near a ball could “cause serious physical injury to the player if he or she had to play the ball as it lies”.

While this applies for animals like alligators and bears, it does not apply to animals like fire ants. Sorry Bryson Dechambeau. To be fair, I definitely wouldn’t wanna hit my ball near a buncha damn fire ants either. 

PGA Tour Makes Major Changes

Oh boy. 

The PGA Tour has announced major changes to next years schedule and many golf fans ain't happy about it. 

Here's the deal: The Tour announced that next year, they'll be playing 12 elevated events with smaller fields and no cuts. If that sounds similar to the oft maligned LIV Golf, it's because it is.

Who cares and why is this a big deal?

The typical tour event has 125 players or more, and a cut after 36 holes. They mentioned this about 2 million times throughout Full Swing on Netflix.

Many golf fans take issue with this, because the cut, and the battle to make the cut, is part of what makes the game of golf great. No struggle, no greatness. 

Even worse, the stated reason for the change? To appease advertisers. Here's what Rory McIlroy had to say about it: 

Bottom Line: Golf is changing. With the advent of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour feels compelled to make changes to keep up, but are they fixing something that wasn't broken to begin with? 

Worst of all, it's the golf fan who seems to be considered least of all in this whole situation.

We'll keep ya'll posted on how everything shakes out. 

This Airbnb Has It's Own Golf Course

The centerpiece of this ultimate playground is the USGA-rated private golf course comprised of 3 greens, multiple fairways & 26 tees.

For The Group Chat

If you ain't cheating you ain't trying. Don't believe me? Ask Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. 

Oh wait, wrong sport. 

Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

You haven’t lived until you’ve worn a terrycloth cabana shirt during summer.

That's all folks! See you Friday.