The Champion’s Breakfast :: Mar 23rd Every, Stenson and a pair of albatrosses

Every puts poor form in the past

Before Matt Every’s maiden PGA Tour win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year, he had recorded six top 25 finishes in the ten events prior to Bay Hill. So, it’s fair to say that despite never winning on the PGA Tour, he had the form to suggest it was coming.

However, after that victory, he endured a significant loss of form. In the 24 events Every played between his two Bay Hill wins, he finished in the top 25 only twice and missed the cut nine times, so although he was the defending champion, a win seemed a long way off.

The 31-year-old has rocketed up from No.96 to No.40 as a result of his win yesterday and has received his second Masters invitation, where he will be hoping to improve on his missed cut last year following rounds of 77 and 78.

Henrik happy with form

Despite Stenson’s frustration at his two three-putts on 15 and 16, which he said cost him the tournament, the Swede said he’s happy with his form heading into Augusta.

And why wouldn’t he be? In three PGA Tour events in 2015, he’s finished second, T4, T4, and moved up to No.2 in the world at the expense of Bubba Watson, who withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational before he started after the death of a close friend.

Asked if he felt good pre-Masters, Stenson said: “Absolutely.  My goal is to play as good as I can and be up in contention as many times as I can and the more times I’m there, the more tournaments I will win. It’s still a lot of good practice to feel the heat and be out there in contention today.”

Albatross alert!

What’s that saying about buses? You wait ages for one and then two come along at once? Well, that was certainly the case at Bay Hill this week as Daniel Berger shot the first ever albatross at the course on Saturday, only for Zach Johnson to do the same yesterday.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational has never seen an albatross since the tournament began in 1979, and both were on different holes.

Berger found the hole with a 4-iron on the par-5 6th hole, while 2007 Masters champion Johnson’s was with a 5-iron on the par-5 16th. The last time two players made an albatross in the same tournament was at the 2007 Players Championship.

Here’s the clip of Johnson’s albatross:

And it’s safe to say that Berger felt his albatross didn’t get the praise that it merited on American TV. He tweeted:

Washout in Madeira

Last year, the Madeira Islands Open was reduced to 36 holes and this year, it didn’t even get to that stage after the tournament was abandoned following a combination of strong winds and flooding.

Thursday’s play was abandoned due to strong winds, and while the players were able to get their rounds completed after a delayed start on Friday, the rain set in on the small Atlantic island to totally end any chance of the tournament even reaching the 36-hole stage.

As you can probably guess, the weather was of huge frustration to the players, but Ireland’s Kevin Phelan found a good way to pass the time among the delays…

Koepka a doubt for Augusta

Brooks Koepka’s debut at the Masters in less than three weeks is in doubt after he had to withdraw from the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Koepka suffered a rib injury when warming up on Friday and after battling on for most of the weekend, he succumbed to the discomfort and withdrew after the 12th hole yesterday.

“Hurts to breathe. It’s not even fun to take steps and walk,” said the 24-year-old.

As for the Masters, he said: “I haven’t really thought about that. I’m kind of taking it minute by minute right now. I’m going to get a lot of treatment and see how it goes.”