Wild winds bring carnage to Bay Hill, and major weather draw advantage

To quote the golf analytics website, DataGolf, Thursday simply “wasn’t a great day to have an early tee time” on the PGA Tour. 

One may have been able to surmise that from the broadcast, which showed flagsticks bending from the wicked winds whipping through Florida — and much of the East Coast. Bay Hill was even more of a torture chamber than it already is for top pros. They weren’t alone, either. The Epson Tour event, being held a couple hours north of Orlando in Atlantic Beach, featured 37 women who failed to break 80.

But in Orlando, the first 16 players to finish their first round averaged a score of 77.4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a smooth five over (or worse). But groups who started just a couple hours later saw the wind ease off slightly in the afternoon. And the final groups? They had it remarkably easier.  The final 12 players got around in just 73, a 4-shot swing in the weather waves — as big as you’ll see all season. 

Unfortunately, when players don’t score well, they’re not often inclined to speak with the media afterward, so few players were interviewed from the morning wave. Scottie Scheffler got around in 1-under-par 71, and was asked what element of Thursday was most challenging. Scottie Scheffler elected not to choose.

“You pick your poison out here,” the World No. 1 said. ‘You can probably create a story with whatever it is. The greens are tough, the rough is high, and the wind is up.”

Ask the guys in the afternoon, and they were happy to spend the morning watching on TV. Around 4 p.m., the conditions really began to calm, allowing Wyndham Clark, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Shane Lowry all to card late rounds in the 60s. Along with Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, who both shot 2-under 70s, the afternoon crowd make up a dominant part of the early leaderboard. Just don’t tell them it was only about the conditions they faced.

Bezuidenhout: “It only died down like my last two and a half, three holes. We also played most of the round in tough conditions. I’m not sure how the wind was this morning, but it actually looked pretty hard out there, if you look at the scoring and stuff. But this golf course is always going to play hard, with wind, without wind.”

Clark: “I would say for sure like the last five holes it calmed down a little bit. But then it was tough to find where the wind was, so that’s a challenge in itself. I would say the greens got really baked out. I was surprised how fast they were with the conditions. Yeah, I mean, maybe the last four holes were easier.”

The only consolation for players who got the bad end of the draw is that they’ve got another 54 holes to make up for it. But the API is unlike some of the other Signature Events in that it has a 36-hole cut. So, some pros on the bad end of things will be grinding all day Friday to make sure Mother Nature isn’t to blame for them missing the weekend.