Golf
Checking moisture content
Buzzard over the course
Bay Hill Invitational
The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned, since 1974, by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, Florida, a suburb southwest of Orlando.
The event was founded in 1979 as a successor to the Florida Citrus Open Invitational, which debuted in 1966 and was played at Rio Pinar Country Club, east of Orlando. It has had a number of different names since then, most of them including ‘Bay Hill’, but has played under the Palmer name since 2007.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational is one of only five tournaments given ‘invitational’ status by the PGA Tour and, consequently, it has a reduced field of only 120 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 156 players). The other four tournaments with invitational status are the RBC Heritage, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the Memorial Tournament and the Quicken Loans National.
Invitational tournaments have smaller fields (between 120 and 132 players), and have more freedom than full-field open tournaments in determining which players are eligible to participate in their event, as invitational tournaments are not required to fill their fields using the PGA Tour Priority Ranking System. Furthermore, unlike full- field open tournaments, invitational tournaments do not offer open qualifying (aka Monday qualifying).
In June 2014, the PGA Tour approved a resolution to grant the winner a three-year exemption, one more than other regular Tour events and on par with winners of the World Golf Championships, The Tour Championship and the Memorial Tournament.
34 I PC JUNE/JULY 2016
ospreys stalking the fish in the lakes and buzzards swooping over the rough. Not to mention my first encounter with alligators! That is something that I will definitely remember for a long time.
Day 7 - Friday 18th March (Tournament Round 2)
It was a cooler start to the day, but still considerably warmer than the weather back home! It was also darker, so lights were vital on the machinery and head torches mandatory for the guys not driving equipment. When you looked around the course, it looked like a swarm of fire flies buzzing about. Once we completed our morning jobs, we
were able to catch up with some of the golf out on the course before starting our second shift at around 5.00pm, where I headed out with the divot team to repair the fairways after play had finished. Most of the divots were in set areas on the
fairways, as players would generally land close by their playing partner’s ball and that made it a lot easier to make sure all had been filled. There were plenty of us for this task, so I
was given the opportunity to head off with Andrew and Ben to check the moisture content on the greens. As I had never done this before, it was a great learning experience and was done to ensure that the greens would run firm and fast for the next few days. Using a moisture meter, they demonstrated the procedure and were looking to achieve around 22% moisture content. I couldn’t believe how quick the process was and how much the moisture increased with very little water added, but it was great to learn from Ben and Andrew and I’m glad that I went and looked at the finer details of greens management.
Day 8: Saturday 19th March (Tournament Round 3)
With rain scheduled for later, it was important that the first jobs were completed before it arrived, so an early start was essential. Round three was well under way and the golf was starting to get more exciting as the leading players’ scores were so close. Once the first shift was completed, we
headed out and watched the play unfold but, around lunchtime, the heavens opened, but luckily not enough to postpone the round. During the break between shifts, I had an opportunity to speak to some of the members of the Bay Hill team and they were able to explain what work had been carried out prior to my visit. Because of the wet weather, the divots
were larger, so I went out with Doug and linked up with the back nine divot team. There were more of us today, as there was no cutting being done due to the rain, so we finished earlier than expected. The rain had come as a bit of a shock as
this was the first time I had worn waterproofs during my time in Florida, but I was glad that I packed some before leaving the UK! The rain had come from a storm that was predicted to be quite disruptive, but luckily it had dispersed considerably before reaching us, otherwise it could have been a completely different story.
Day 9: Sunday 20th March (Tournament Final round)
The final day of the tournament had arrived and the golf had started to attract a huge spectator following. This was the final morning where we had a chance to get everything looking spot on and it certainly didn’t disappoint, with feedback coming from everyone saying that the course was the best it had looked. Luckily, the rain was holding off and we
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