posted March 12, 2007 at 14:13 EST in Golf Articles

The obvious storyline is Tiger Woods, who puts his streak of seven consecutive tour victories on the line this weekend after a five-week delay between tournaments. The consummate competitor, he certainly knew how to stack the odds in his favor to pick up his eighth consecutive win.

Woods, who for years resided in the very Bay Hill neighborhood which hosts Palmer’s tournament, is the event’s career money-leader ($2.9 million) after having won it four consecutive times at the beginning of this decade (2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003).  Tiger has never missed a cut at Bay Hill and his win in 2003 was by… eleven strokes!

 

The chaos which will tail Tiger throughout this weekend is reasonably calculated to thrown off every other player’s game.  Try as they might, few will be able to ignore the allure of Tiger’s return to the Tour, his chase for his eighth consecutive Tour victory, and the fact that it all occurs in his former back yard.

Three different players have won the tournament since Tiger last claimed it in 2003.  However, none of the players (Chad Campbell [‘04], Kenny Perry [‘05] and Rod Pampling [‘06]) are marquee names who could be expected to endure the tidal wave of coverage that this weekend’s tournament will generate. 

Pampling’s win last year was his first since winning the now-defunct International tournament in 2004 in Colorado (a tournament which operated not off of stroke-play rules, but those of the off-beat Stableford system).  Pampling was the 92nd ranked player on the tour last season when he claimed victory in Orlando.  This year, the gritty Australian arrived in Orlando ranked 89th in the Fed Ex Cup race.

Chad Campbell, the event’s 2004 winner is 43rd in the FedEx Cup standings (his best finish this year was 4th in match-play several weeks ago), while Kentuckian and 2005 winner, Kenny Perry, enters this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational ranked 133rd.

Another name to keep an eye on is Mark Calcavecchia.  While he has missed three cuts this year, including, most recently, the Honda Classic two weeks ago, he has two top-10 finishes (8th, Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and 4th, The Buick Open). 

 

On a whim, he purchased a new putter two weeks ago and the result was his first win of 2007 (and 13th career win) last weekend at the PODS Championship in Innisbrook, Florida.  He is a gritty veteran who will bring a load of emotional momentum into this weekend in Orlando.

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