WOODS Returns to Bay Hill looking for 6th INVITATIONAL Win

The 31st Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard will feature defending champion Tiger Woods along with most of the players from the recent Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams. The PGA Tour event is scheduled for March 23-29 at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida.

The world’s No. 1 player and a five-time winner at Bay Hill, Woods will be joined by the other two current major champions, Trevor Immelman and Padraig Harrington, among 29 players entered from the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Woods has won five times at Bay Hill, four consecutive years, 2000 through 2003, and again in 2008. Last year, he sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the final green for a round of 66 and a 270 total to win by one stroke over Bart Bryant. Woods has never missed a tournament at Bay Hill as a professional, and this will be his 13th appearance since starting in 1997. He also played as an amateur in 1994.

Golf historians will note that it was at Bay Hill in 1991 that Woods began his domination of United States Golf Association events. He won the 1991 U.S. Junior Amateur at Bay Hill, then followed with two more U.S. Junior Amateur and three U.S. Amateur titles before joining the PGA Tour in 1996. As a professional, he has won three U.S. Opens, including last year, for a total of nine USGA national championships, a record he shares with Bobby Jones.

In addition to Woods, past Bay Hill winners in the field of 120 players are Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry, Fred Couples, Paul Azinger, Chad Campbell, Rod Pampling, Tim Herron, Andrew Magee, Paul Goydos and Robert Gamez. Nine members of Captain Azinger’s victorious 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team are entered. They are Campbell, Perry, Stewart Cink, Ben Curtis, Jim Furyk, J.B. Holmes, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan and Boo Weekley. From the European Ryder Cup team are Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Oliver Wilson.