ORLANDO, Fla. - Arnold Palmer no longer plays the Bay Hill Invitational. Now it’s his grandson’s turn.
The tournament on Wednesday gave one of its 20 special invitations to 18-year-old Sam Saunders, a senior in high school, club champion at Bay Hill and above all, the grandson of Palmer.
“Sam has displayed his talent through the past couple of years and this is an opportunity for a young man to get out and get some experience in the game that might not otherwise come his way,” Palmer said. “We, we’ll see how he does with the big boys. I think that will be great.”
Saunders has caddied for his grandfather and twice played Bay Hill as a marker when there was an uneven number of players or someone withdrew.
He is a two-time club champion at Bay Hill, as a 15-year-old and last month, when he won by 17 shots. Saunders also won the Florida State High School championship as a junior, was medalist at the U.S. Junior Amateur last year and qualified for the U.S. Amateur last year at Winged Foot.
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