Arnold Palmer Invitational - Preview

Written by Sports Desk
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 14:43

Tiger Woods headlines the field for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Woods is a six-time champion at Bay Hill and even though he has not won a tournament in more than a year he is the favorite at SBG Global.com.

Woods will be joined the field by defending champion Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell.

Oddsmakers still have the love affair with Tiger Woods even though he has not won in a long time.  Woods is the only golfer on the board with single-digit odds as Tiger is 7.5 to 1.  The next choice in the betting odds is Dustin Johnson at 16-1.

Based on recent play those odds should really be reversed as Johnson has played far better than Tiger in the last year.  Woods did have a good final round at Doral two weeks ago but he still has not proven he can put together four good rounds and he is not putting well enough to win.

Dustin Johnson was second two weeks ago at Doral and he has the length and the putting skills to win at Bay Hill. He leads the PGA Tour in birdie average and is 11th on tour in greens in regulation.  If Johnson doesn’t win then perhaps Graeme McDowell will. He didn’t play well two weeks ago at Doral but he should do very well at Bay Hill considering his length and his all around game.

Phil Mickelson has lower odds than he should based on his recent play as does Ernie Els. Neither has really looked like they are going to be major factors on the PGA Tour this golf betting season. Els is the defending champion but he is not in the best form of late.

Two golfers that are playing well are Justin Rose who was looking great last week at the Transitions until falling apart on Sunday and Gary Woodland who took advantage of Rose’s collapse to win last week. Not to be forgotten is Hunter Mahan who is one of the main contenders this week with odds of 23.5 to 1.