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Arnold Palmer said he was surprised and disappointed when he learned Rory McIlroy wouldn’t be playing in his Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week after McIlroy opted to use next week’s Shell Houston Open as his final Masters tuneup.
“Frankly, I thought he was going to play, and I was as surprised as a lot of people when he decided he was not going to play,” Palmer said.
Palmer made himself available for an interview session with the media covering this week’s event Wednesday morning even as showers were interrupting play and forcing the pro-am to be reduced to nine holes. That brought back memories of the Honda Classic pro-am a few weeks back that was cut to 10 holes by rain.
Palmer said he had conversations with McIlroy, a Palm Beach Gardens resident, about playing in his event “some time ago” and that “for some reason I got it in my mind that he would be playing, but that, obviously, is wrong.”
McIlroy’s absence is notable insofar as many of the game’s top players are in the Bay Hill field, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson.
With only two more events leading up to the Masters, which runs from April 11-14, many if not most are using it as their final pre-Masters event.
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