The good news is that the golf season is in full swing, with beautiful tournaments following one another at breakneck speed. This week we are in Orlando, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the most exclusive competitions on the circuit, wanted by the charismatic 84-year-old former champion and in which Francesco Molinari, the Turin champion, winner of three races on the European Tour, currently number 53 of the world.
Unfortunately, however, even the bad news is more than one. The first is that there is no Tiger Woods, defender of the 2013 title and eight-time winner of this tournament. Tiger announced it on his website, with a laconic statement: “Today I called Arnold personally – he writes – to tell him that I won't be able to play in this year's tournament. I would like to express my regrets to the fans, volunteers, staff, sponsors. Unfortunately my back spasms have not subsided”. The yellow remains of this physical problem that has afflicted the world number one for many months and is seriously compromising his season. Woods does not provide details on the causes of these "spasms". In the meantime, thoughts turn to the Masters, scheduled in a few weeks (April 10-13). “It is still too early to say what I will do – he adds – I will certainly continue to monitor the situation and evaluate it with my doctors”. No one doubts that the world number one will do everything to participate in the major he loves the most, but time is short and the situation, apparently, is very uncertain.
The second bad news is that in Italy no TV will broadcast the first two days (Thursday and Friday) of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Sky has decided to broadcast only the last 36 holes (Saturday and Sunday, on SKY Sport 3, starting at 20pm). A choice dictated by space requirements, but which demonstrates how much golf is still a second-class sport in our country, especially when it comes to making programming choices. It's a demeaning attitude for enthusiasts, who are already accessing a paid service, enduring commercial breaks and now having to watch a nice halved race. Because it's true that golf is more exciting in the final holes, but it's also true that the most competitive and interesting triads are created at the table in the first two days. In short, let's hope it's an exceptional case and not a precedent that makes school. Not even the Valspar Championship was broadcast last week, which has a lower specific weight than this week's tournament, but which saw among its protagonists Matteo Manassero, number 48 in the ranking, a twenty-year-old whom the whole golf world sees envy, and who finished eighth, playing very well for four days and remaining competitive and competing for 72 holes. Matteo rests this week, but his stars and stripes stay shouldn't end here, especially since, as we said, the Masters is approaching.
First-level field meanwhile for the Arnold Palmer Invitational: from world number two Adam Scott, to Justin Rose, to Henrik Stenson, for a total of 120 players on the field. The prize pool is $6,2 million, of which $1,116 goes to first place. The course is the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a 72m par 6700, dated 1961 and designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee. Among the favorites, in addition to the players already mentioned, are Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell, Keegan Bradley, Ian Poulter.
Patrick Reed is also back on the field, after his extraordinary success at the WGC Cadillac. It is an excellent opportunity for the 23-year-old Texan to further climb the rankings and to prove that he truly is "one of the top five players in the world". The comparison in the first two days is consistently top, given that his tee times are with Adam Scott and Justine Rose.
