In certain parts of the country, the daffodils are blooming, frost delays are fading and the return of daylight savings time is less than a week away, promising more late-afternoon sunshine for the 9-to-5ers to hit a few practice balls on their way home from work.
This week, Arnold Palmer’s bag will be parked at the right corner of the Bay Hill practice range, one more reminder of the great man at the tournament that bears his name and, in many ways, lights the fuse on the most meaty and meaningful part of the PGA Tour season.
While talk still swirls about a possible deal between the tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the notion of reunification floats in the air like the soon-to-arrive spring pollen, this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is when the story of the season fully takes flight.
The West Coast portion of the tour schedule is its own thing and Rory McIlroy’s victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am along with Ludvig Åberg’s career confirming victory in the Genesis Invitational gave the tour a perfect blend of person and place to jump-start the year as football’s immense shadow slowly disappeared.
Florida, with all of its sun-splashed quirkiness, is where the tour season seems to come fully out of its dormancy the way many of us do this time of year.
This week is the fourth signature event of the season and it’s followed immediately by the Players Championship. The Masters is less than six weeks away and major championships follow every month thereafter through July.
The next 15 weeks on the tour schedule include four signature events, three major championships and the Players. While others parse through the details of whether Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm might be allowed to play tour events sometime down the road, there’s a future-is-now feel to this part of the schedule.
This is where Scottie Scheffler hit full burn status last year, winning at the API to start a run of four wins in five starts. The one he didn’t win – the Texas Children’s Houston Open – he tied for second while collecting trophies almost literally as fast as he could.
It’s not fair to expect Scheffler to do what he did a year ago but it’s fair to assume he will start every event for the foreseeable future as the player to beat. His game has looked scratchy in three starts this season since returning from injury but he has two top-10 finishes without having his best stuff.
(Scheffler’s) built for the long run because, in part, it seems as if he sees nothing but what’s in front of him. He’s adept at ignoring the noise around him and resolute in his self-belief, two traits that are invaluable in professional golf.
The story of professional golf is filled with players who find their sweet spot and ride it as long as possible, essentially defining their careers in a compressed time frame. They flash and then they fade.
Scheffler isn’t going to be one of those players. He’s built for the long run because, in part, it seems as if he sees nothing but what’s in front of him. He’s adept at ignoring the noise around him and resolute in his self-belief, two traits that are invaluable in professional golf.
Golf is freckled with potential rabbit holes and Scheffler leaves those for others to dive down, trusting what has gotten him to this point. The special ones don’t come along often and Scheffler is one of the special ones.
He also plays without the burdens that McIlroy carries into every start. McIlroy is built to carry those weights but there are times when their weight is apparent.
There are times when it feels as if McIlroy almost has to apologize for his career, which says more about us than about him. He’s been so good, so magnetic and so close so many times that McIlroy has established an extraordinarily high bar for himself.
This year exemplifies it. Everyone knows it has been more than a decade since his last major championship victory – as if the 18 PGA Tour wins and seven DP World Tour wins in that same time frame, not to mention three FedEx Cups, are somehow diminished because of that.
This feels as if it could be McIlroy’s giant season not just because of winning his first tour start this year but because the majors are at places he likes – Augusta National, Quail Hollow (where he has four wins), Oakmont and Royal Portrush (near where he grew up).
Like others, McIlroy lives for stretches like the one that begins this week. For all the talk about what pro golf needs at the moment, nothing would be better than McIlroy going on a scorched earth tear.
Xander Schauffele is expected to return this week after missing time due to a nagging rib injury, coming off a two major championship season that was overshadowed by Scheffler’s brilliance.
Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa keep flashing on leaderboards. Jordan Spieth is enthused now that his wrist surgery is behind him. Åberg is the new big easy.
Palmer was fond of saying the road to success is always under construction. It’s time to see who the best builders are.