It is a debut for the world number one, long awaited by Palmer who more than once had urged the Northern Irishman to try his hand at this test. Finally Rory said yes and the challenge can begin with all the trappings of the race at the highest level. In fact, the field includes the top five players in the world, as well as Rory, Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott and Jason Day and there are also 18 major winners, 70 tour champions, 11 WGC winners, for a total of 120 participants including Francesco Molinari, who moved up one position in the ranking last week (from 65 to 64), but is still hunting for points to get back into the top 50 and snatch the entrance ticket to the Masters, scheduled from 9 to 12 April.
Tiger Woods unfortunately declined the invitation. The champion does not yet feel ready to return to competitive play and his friend Arnold Palmer has taken note of this, understanding and respecting his choices: “Tiger must find the youthful confidence he had in his game – said the elderly champion – and relying on a coach in that belief”.
Woods' decision came as a cold shower on the tour, because it suggests that the "divine" will also desert Augusta. The tiger promises that he will try, that the Masters is his goal, but commentators doubt that he will be able to recover in a few weeks. What afflicts the former number one, now 85 in the world, is not clear: whether the golfer's tic or a spasm that undermines his short game or a psychological block or a physical problem, the fact is that Tiger now appears very little. Choosing not to play Bay Hill, where he won eight times for a total of $7,3 million, does not bode well for the future. Let's just hope that the successes of his partner Lindsey Vonn, winner yesterday for the seventh time in her career of the downhill in the World Cup, will be a stimulus.
For participants in the Orlando contest, the pot is rich: 6,2 million dollars, 1,116 million for the first. The course, designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee in 1961, is a par 72 of approximately 6700 metres. Matt Every defends the title, while Jordan Spieth, the 21-year-old Texan who won the Valspar Championship last week, will not be there.
The European tour instead returns to the Old Continent after the long trip to South Africa. The Madeira Islands Open begins today, on the high ground course of the Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra on the beautiful Portuguese island. The race is combined with the Challenge Tour, thus opening its season. Eight Italians involved: Alessandro Tadini, Renato Paratore, Matteo Delpodio, Niccolò Quintarelli, Filippo Bergamaschi, Nicolò Ravano, Lorenzo Gagli and Nino Bertasio. The prize pool is 600.000 euros (one hundred thousand euros for the winner) and is a good opportunity to be exploited especially for those who play in the second European circuit.
