Scot Russell Knox has elected not to contest this week’s $US 20m Arnold Palmer Invitational and instead is taking the week off to give himself a better chance of banking next week’s $US 25m Players Championship title.
Knox, 37, is staring at four missed cuts in succession and should not play all four rounds of Arnie’s event, following a disappointing run over his last three events in sitting out the weekend rounds in the Phoenix Open, the Genesis Invitational and last week’s Honda Classic.
Scotland’s Russell Knox choosing after three missed cuts in succession not to contest this week’s $20m Arnold Palmer Invitational (Photo – PGA Tour)
This indifferent form spell, and after having played the weekend rounds in 10 of 11 prior 2022/23 wraparound season events, and also not having broken 70 in six rounds, has sat Knox on his backside.
It’s why he’s chosen to forgo teeing-up this week in suburban Orlando, and a tournament Knox has played just five times since earning his full PGA Tour card for the 2014 season.
Knox finished T43 in the 2014 Arnold Palmer, T29th in 2015, T73rd in 2018, missed the cut in 2020 and finished well down in 70th place when he last visited the event in 2021.
He said to Associated Press: “When you’re playing well, you don’t even think about it. Right now, in this instant snapshot, the game is quite stressful.
“I see my game not as good as it potentially is, and with the changes the tour is making and the standard of everyone’s game, I am feeling the most pressure I’ve felt in these first few months of the new season”.
The ‘pressure’ as Knox says is the Tour’s decision to seriously elevate the prize-money profile of a number of events, including the recent Genesis Invitational and now Arnie’s event and also next week’s PGA Tour flagship event, the Players.
Knox added: “The money on offer now is the most it’s ever been, and the opportunity is the highest to play some decent golf.
“I am feeling the pressure to play some decent golf.”
And with next week’s Players Championship just a short drive from his Florida abode, and also on the back of a T6th a year ago at TPC Sawgrass you can understand why Knox has chosen to sit out Arnie’s event.
The absence this week of Knox leaves Martin Laird, and the 2011 Arnold Palmer champ, as the lone Scot teeing-up at Bay Hill.
