Els wins Arnold Palmer Invitational

Ernie Els captured his second straight win on the PGA Tour this year with victory at the rain-delayed Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bay Hill, Florida. Els had previously won the WGC-CA Championship at TPC Blue Monster, Doral before sitting out last week’s Transitions Championship.

After seemingly coasting through his final round with a five shot lead, Els had stood on the 15th tee on Sunday two shots clear of the field, but heavy rain washed out the latter stages of the last round and the finish was moved to Monday. With rain continuing to fall, Monday’s scheduled tee-time was postponed and moved back to later in the day.

The delay might just have helped Els refocus on the job in hand, as he conspired to throw away his five-shot lead after carding a double bogey on the 13th and a bogey on the 14th hole to drop to just two shots in front of American Kevin Na.

Resuming play on Monday, Els closed with a one-under par round of 71 to maintain his two-shot advantage over Na and Italy’s Edoardo Molinari. Na birdied the long 16th hole to move within one of Els, while the South African settled for par after finding the trees. Another par followed on the 17th before Na found trouble on the final hole to hand back the stroke he had gained on Els, Na drove into the rough down the right-hand side of the fairway en-route to a bogey while Els recorded another par to seal the win.

Molinari, involved in a personal rankings battle with his brother Francesco – who finished fourth in the Open de Andalucia – climed above his brother in the world rankings and boost his chances of a Ryder Cup place. Both Molinaris – successful for Italy in the World Cup – hold strong chances of making Colin Montgomerie’s team for the Celtic Manor clash with the United States.

Els’ 11-under total of 277 saw him become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2001 to win twice on the Florida Swing and gave the South African his first back-to-back success since 2003, and 18th PGA Tour win of his career.

Retief Goosen finished in a tie for fourth, alongside Chris Couch, while Ben Curtis finished alone in sixth place following a final round 74, which saw him drop down the leaderboard after starting the round just one shot behind the lead.

Els’ victory was worth $1.08 million taking his season’s earnings to more than $3 million. Els also moves up to seventh spot in the World rankings. He will now head to the Houston Open this week before taking on the returning Tiger Woods and the rest of the field at Augusta next week for the season’s first Major tournament – the US Masters.

Holmes and Love lead at Bay Hill

JB Holmes and Davis Love III share the early lead after the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Florida. It’s the ideal start for Love as he seeks to qualify for the US Masters in just over two weeks’ time – he needs a win either in this event or next week’s Houston Open to make sure he’ll be at Augusta.

Love twice chipped in during a six-under par five-hole stretch early in his round, which set the tone for his six-under par total of 66 and share the lead with big-hitting Holmes. Holmes carded a bogey-free round during his 66, helped by fine early conditions.

Jason Dufner, Henrik Stenson and Mike Weir are locked together in a tie for third place, a stroke behind the leaders while a group of five, which includes Ernie Els and Robert Allenby are among those who opened with four-under par 68s.

Love has never won Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill, although he has come close. He finished a shot out of a playoff in 1999, while a year later in 2000 finished as runner-up to Tiger Woods.

World number two Steve Stricker started with a round of 69 while Phil Mickelson and last week’s Transitions winner Jim Furyk both carded rounds of 71 as did Retief Goosen. The trio are among a group of 17 players tied on the one-under par mark.

Our pick for the title, Nick Watney, started well and was quickly two-under par. However, just as quickly he found himself two-over par where he stayed for the rest of the round and now has some work to do if he is to make the weekend’s action. Camilo Villegas fared even worse, coming home in 77 while Steve Elkington – the man at the centre of favouritism allegations – finished three-over par after his first round.

Michael Campbell continued his torrid start to 2010 with an eight-over par round of 80 and continues to look out-of-love with the game at the moment.

Arnold Palmer Invitational preview

Bay Hill, Orlando is this week’s stop on the PGA Tour for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and things are getting serious ahead of the season’s first Major – the US Masters – a mere 16 days away. A strong field has assembled at the Florida course and world number two Steve Stricker and number three Phil Mickelson will be looking to fire a warning at Tiger Woods that he won’t get everything his own way when he returns at Augusta National.

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Vijay to bypass Arnold Palmer Invitational

Fijian Vijay Singh will be a notable absentee from a high quality field at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The former US Masters and two-time US PGA champion has been forced to withdraw from the tournament following a back injury.

It will be the second straight week Singh has been forced to sit out, after also withdrawing from competing in last weekend’s Transitions Championship which was won by Jim Furyk.

Singh hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since his 2008 FedEx Cup success, but had started well in 2010 with a top-5 finish in the Honda Classic and an 11th-place finish in the WGC-CA Championship and would have held high hopes of a good showing at Bay Hill.

Singh’s participation in next week’s Houston Open – where he is also a past champion – is also in doubt due to the injury.

Singh’s place in the 120-man field at Bay Hill will be filled by Sweden’s Carl Pettersson, who tied for eighth last week at the Transitions Championship in Innisbrook, Florida.

Tiger Roars Again at Bay Hill

Tiger Woods sent out a warning to the rest of the golfing world that he is back and ready to add to his Majors tally after overhauling a five-stroke deficit in the final round of the Bay Hill Invitational tournament to win the Arnold Palmer hosted event. It was Tiger’s 66th title and his first since returning to competitive action following knee surgery.  It was also the sixth time he has won the event.

Woods fired a final-round 67, to peg back countryman and overnight leader Sean O’Hair, who folded under the intense media spotlight and pressure of playing with Tiger to shoot a one-over-par 73 and lose out by a single shot. O’Hair had been chasing a third PGA Tour title.

Woods had started the day brightly with birdies on the second and third holes, and finally drew level with O’Hair on the 15th following a 25-foot birdie putt. Tiger edged in front at the 16th after O’Hair bogeyed the hole to Woods’ par, but Woods promptly gave the shot back on 17. It wasn’t until the 72nd hole that Tiger finally sealed the win to claim the title and $1.08million in fading light at the Orlando venue by sinking a 16-foot putt for birdie.

Although defeated, O’Hair wasn’t too downbeat about missing out. In an interview afterwards he said:

“I’ve got to look at the positive side of this, I’m playing great and the swing changes that I’m making are coming around … I didn’t give myself enough birdie opportunities out there today.”

Woods was understandably delighted to be back among the winners and in a greenside interview after celebrating the win with his caddie, Stevie Williams, said:

“It feels good to be back in contention again and to feel the rush and to have to deal with everything coming down the stretch. It’s been a while but it kind of felt good.”

Zach Johnson, the 2007 US Masters champion, finished a further two strokes behind after shooting a final round 69.

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