Eric Cole Back To Playing The Underdog Role At Bay Hill
9 months agoIt's hard to quantify just what went wrong last week for Eric Cole at PGA National, as the former Honda Classic runner-up carded an opening 78 around a relatively benign layout in Palm Beach Gardens. His last-place position on the Thursday leaderboard came as a shock to many of us in the golf industry, as PGA National's strategic layout seemed to fit Cole's precision-based playstyle to a tee. This week, however, expectations will be completely off of the 2023 Rookie of the Year as Eric Cole makes his second-ever trek to Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill. His last competitive round here was in last year's Invitational, where Cole carded an 80 to finish five shots off of the cutline. Given his stellar run of play over the last 12 months, we remain bullish on Cole's long-term outlook, but Bay Hill's daunting layout doesn't exactly present an ideal get-right spot for a struggling player.
Source: PGA Tour
Source: PGA Tour