Editorial by: Graydon Fox

PRIZES:

1^st Place: TaylorMade M4 Driver

2^nd Place: TaylorMade Hi Toe 64 Degree Wedge

3^rd Place: Two dozen TaylorMade Project (A) Golf Balls

Top 3 Winners:

1) jd029831
2) eeebo319
3) asphaltrehabboise

Golf Ball Selector:

We at The Crowd’s Line are excited to announce that we are partnering with Golf Ball Selector to deliver a special contest with our most unique prizes yet!!

At GolfBallSelector.com they match each player’s unique swing and preferences to a particular golf ball based on:

• Spin rate
• Ball construction
• Cover hardness/overall ball weight
• Aerodynamics
• Other factors to optimize your game.

**Use offer code SPRING2018 at signup and get a FREE Standard Plan at no cost to get a simple fitting session valid for a 30-day period.**

Overview:

On Thursday, March 15th, the Arnold Palmer Invitational will be played at Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.

The purse for this tournament is $8,700,000 and the winner gets 500 points towards their FedEx rankings.

Course Information:

Bay Hill was built in 1961 by Dick Wilson and totals 7,419 yards.  The course became a favorite of Arnold Palmer’s who has tinkered with the design over the years.

Bay Hill is not a course that can be simply overpowered so players with a well-rounded game will certainly be favored.

Previous Winners:

• Robert Gamez- 1990
• Paul Goydos- 1996
• Tim Herron 1999
• Tiger Woods- 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013
• Ernie Els- 2010
• Matt Every- 2014, 2015
• Jason Day- 2016
• Marc Leishman- 2017

Notable Omissions (Rankings):

Dustin Johnson (1), Justin Thomas (2), John Rahm (3), Jordan Spieth (4), Brooks Koepka (8), Sergio Garcia (9).

Odds:

According to Bovada here are the players with the best odds of winning the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational:

1. Tiger Woods +650
2. Jason Day +1200
3. Justin Rose +1400
4. Rory McIlroy +1600
5. Rickie Fowler +2000
6. Tommy Fleetwood +2200
7. Hideki Matsuyama +2200
8. Tyrrell Hatton +2500
9. Henrik Stenson +3000
10. Patrick Reed +3000
11. Alex Noren +3000
12. Bubba Watson +3300
13. Adam Scott +3500
14. Marc Leishman +3500
15. Brian Harman +4000
16. Louis Oosthuizen +5000
17. Brandt Snedeker +6600
18. Kiradech Aphibarnrat +6600
19. Emiliano Grillo +6600
20. Kevin Kisner +6600
21. Luke List +7500
22. Zach Johnson +7500
23. Kevin Chappell +7500
24. Kevin Na +8000
25. Jason Kokrak +8000

*For the full list of competitors and their odds of winning CLICK HERE.

Summary:

Tiger Woods (+650) headlines a strong field for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and enters as the odds-on favorite after his second-place finish at the Valspar Championship.  The second-place finish for Woods was his best since 2013 and he now comes to Bay Hill where he has won an astounding eight times.  The rest of the field features four top ten players including Justin Rose (+1400), Hideki Matsuyama (+2200), Rickie Fowler (+2000), and Jason Day (+1200).

Scoring Rules:

1. Entrants are scored based on the total strokes of their predicted players and the predicted rank/place at the end of the tournament.
2. The total strokes of the contestant’s predicted players are weighted according to the predicted rank/place.
3. The total strokes of a player that was predicted to place higher will contribute more to the entrant’s final score.
4. If a player you chose misses the cut or does not finish a round the golfer gets +28 for the round.
5. Entrants are ranked according to lowest to highest score.

 

Contest Rules:

To be eligible to win a prize in any contest at The Crowd’s Line, you must be at least 18 years old and a resident of the United States or Canada. You must also submit your score prediction on our official prediction tool (blog widget), and include a valid email address. Contest winners are determined according to The Crowd’s Line scoring methodology. If more than one entrant has the same winning score, final contest rankings and prize winners are selected by random draw. Only one entry per person is allowed for each contest; multiple entries from a single player will be deemed invalid. There are no prize substitutions or exchanges available from The Crowd’s Line.

All prizes will be fulfilled and shipped to recipients by Wednesday, March 21, 2018.