ORLANDO, Fla. – Rory McIlroy began this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational doing a bit of head-scratching.
A past champion and regular contender here at Bay Hill, McIlroy has become somewhat of an expert at navigating what is consistently one of the toughest non-major tests on the PGA Tour. But when he showed up at Arnie’s Place for this year’s edition, he noticed an unfamiliar sight: The rough was up – juicier than usual – especially around the greens.
And gone were most of the closely mown areas that used to surround many of those putting surfaces.
“Historically, it's been you'd miss a green and [the ball would] run off and you'd still have the chip off short grass, for example, and now that's all been filled in with rough,” McIlroy explained.