Bay Hill Key Fantasy Stats

Arnold Palmer Invitational

March 16th – 19th, 2017

Bay Hill Club

Orlando, FL

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,419

Purse: $6.3 million

with $1,134,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Jason Day

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most important stats for Bay Hill Course, based on data from last years Arnold Palmer Invitational, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2017. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four catagories.
The scoring average of the field at Bay Hill in 2016 was 71.48, so with par being 72 that means the average score was a half a shot under par, making Bay Hill the 28th hardest course to score on in 2016 (only 22 courses played easier). It’s also important to see how the weather played a factor, last year’s weather was mostly cloudy with rain over the weekend. Winds blew 7-12mph on Thursday and Friday while it blew 10 -15 mph over the weekend. So with wind not playing much of a factor and soft conditions it’s the reason for the 2nd year in a row the course played under par. The previous four years it played over par in 2011 it was the 8th hardest on tour with a 73.20 average. So the course most times does play over par.

In looking at the stats for Bay Hill last year Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green, Proximity to Hole and Rough Proximity are important. Last we pick putting inside ten feet because last year it was 37th hardest of the 37 courses that kept the stats so with 89.73% of the putts made more players made putts inside of ten feet than any other course ranked. So players are expected to make the putts

So how did the winner Jason Day become victorious last year? He played the par 5s in 10 under ranking T-5th which isn’t bad considering that he made two bogeys on them in the final round. He was T-1st in par breakers, but in our stats Day was 4th in Strokeds Gained Tee-to-Green, 58th in proximity to hole and T-25th in Rough Proximity. His strong suit was putting, he was 6th in Strokes Gained putting, 4th in One-Putt Percentage and 1st in 3-putt avoidance. As for putting inside ten feet, he ranked T-23rd and was 5th in putts from 4 to 8 feet.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: Stat is good barometer on overall play from drives to hitting into the greens. For years Bay Hill is always in the top-15, in 2010 it was T-4th. Last year it ranked T-19th.

*Proximity to Hole: Average length that a player hits from the pin with shots from the fairway, last year it was T-7th.

*Rough Proximity: Average length that a player hits from the pin with shots out of the rough. Showing how hard the rough is at Bay Hill it was the hardest course to get close to the hole from the rough, players were only able to average 51 feet, 2 inches on each shot from the rough, so it’s important to drive it well and keep it out of the rough.

*Putting inside ten feet: No matter how good your game is, you have to make these putts in order to win. Last year Bay Hill ranked the hardest of the 37 courses ranked so it’s a hard stat for players on this course.

Below is the average of positions on stats from 2017 PGA Tour statistics:

(be aware of the field of 120, 21 players have no stats for 2017 and aren’t included in this list.  As an example players not in this list are Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Martin Kaymer, Tyrrell Hatton, Jeughun Wang, Danny Willett and Matthew Fitzpatrick).

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.