Bay Hill has made a noticeable trade on considered one of its ultimate holes

One in every of Bay Hill’s ultimate holes seems to be noticeably other this yr.For many years, the par-3 seventeenth hollow has featured a big, seaside bunker in entrance of the fairway that bled into the water, wolfed up brief tee balls, and produced difficult restoration pictures, particularly to back-right pins.However that bunker is not more, changed via thick tough.The seaside bunker was once added to Bay Hill as a part of a 2009 redesign via Palmer Direction Design to coincide with Arnie’s eightieth birthday. The intent of the preliminary design was once to make the fairway glance smaller from the tee field. This yr, No. 17 is indexed at 221 yards.Jason Day, a previous Arnold Palmer Invitational champion, hadn’t noticed the adjustments in individual, but if proven some footage at the apply inexperienced on Monday, he was once somewhat surprised.For one, Day says, the tee shot will probably be “a complete lot extra intimidating,” particularly in the event that they’re enjoying it the entire long ago. The elevate to a back-right flag is longer, with water changing a lot of the world the place there was sand (Scottie Scheffler discovered the bunker on Sunday en path to his 2nd API identify). Come the weekend, when the vegetables are at their firmest, that would end up particularly tough.“No less than there was once a bit of little bit of room for error as a result of that inexperienced, if you have Bermudagreens vegetables and it does get a bit of bit less attackable relying at the stipulations, it will get beautiful shallow,” Day defined. “So, whilst you hit it in that [right] section, there was once nonetheless probability for it to roll again within the water, however there was once sufficient room for error.”Arnold Palmer Invitational offered via Mastercard – Ultimate RoundWithout having noticed any tee pictures from PGA Excursion professionals into it, it’s not possible to grasp needless to say, however the slope of the brand new grassed house between the fairway and the lake doesn’t glance too critical. Balls landed into the financial institution must, extra ceaselessly than now not, keep dry.From there, Day thinks the problem is decreased in comparison to the bunker technology.“It’ll be more than likely more effective to hit the ones tough pictures than the bunker shot now, simply because whilst you’d hit the bunker shot – it will roll down onto the flat, and in case you had a mean lie, it was once very tough to hit it prime and cushy and stay it brief sufficient, particularly to that back-right pin that was once just about the bunker,” Day stated. “Whether it is thick tough, that provides a tricky part, however since you’re on such an upslope, you simply have to cut it up and it’ll simply come down cushy.”