Arnold Palmer Invitational
Last player in Arnold Palmer field is making big noise at Bay Hill
Andrew Novak prepars to play a shot during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
David Cannon
ORLANDO — Andrew Novak still retains much of the build of the football player he was as a kid, a tight end who knew how to block but preferred to line up on defense and hit somebody. He also was a standout pitcher and catcher in baseball and a swingman in basketball with decent shooting stroke.
But golf became his pursuit, where playing defense isn’t much fun and strokes even less so the more they occur. But as a teenager he found the perfect job, picking up balls on the driving range at Charleston National Golf Club in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and the all-sport standout found his athletic niche.
“I probably only made about 40 bucks a week doing that a couple of days,” Novak explained, “but I didn’t care. I got free golf.”
In his first attempt at tackling Bay Hill Club in this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Novak found himself having to play defense, managing his game as best he could as he figured out the nuances of the Championship Course. Not much fun. But he has grown enough as a player to accept the circumstances. “I was kind of finding my feet, scraping it around, just glad to make the cut,” he said. “Today I could play offense. I was dialed in.”
The last man in the field in the $20 million signature event—“Yeah, I was 72 out of 72,” he said with a grin—Novak indeed changed gears to attack mode and went from just being happy to play the weekend to giving himself an outside chance at his first PGA Tour title. Thanks to Saturday's bogey-free, seven-under 65, the seventh-year pro moved from the middle of the pack to inside the top 10 on the leaderboard.
It was a good day’s work, but one not foreign to the 29-year-old Wofford University product. In the two signature events on the West Coast, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational, Novak finished T-13. He qualified for the latter on the strength of a third place at the Farmers Insurance Open.
This week’s berth is the result of the tour increasing the field size to a guaranteed 72 players. Novak got in via the current FedEx Cup points list used to fill the field after other eligibility categories have been satisfied.
“He has been proving all year that he belongs,” said Novak’s caddie, Jeff Hawley. “Once you get in, you’re in, and Andrew responds to tough competition and tough conditions.”
On the strength of a strong approach game and 11 one-putt greens, Novak toured crusty Bay Hill without a bogey after making five bogeys and a double the first two rounds. He gained more than six strokes total on the field, by leading in putting and around the green. Par saves at the eighth—where he stuffed a wedge from 92 yards after a poor drive—and ninth were particularly satisfying. Those came after he dropped a 35-footer for birdie at the par-three seventh.
“I think momentum-wise, 8 and 9, that’s what really what set up the back nine,” said Novak, who capped his round with a 9-iron approach to 18 feet at the last and holed it. “Instead of being one or two under I was kind of riding high and able to keep it going.”
Ranked 80th in the world, Novak has played in only one major in his career, the 2022 U.S. Open, so his goal for the rest of the year is to change that. He’s running out of time on the Masters, but that’s obviously the first step. “I’ve improved every year to where I need to win one of these things,” he said.
“I feel like when I work at something, I don't really hit a ceiling. I get better,” he continued. “I feel like this year has been more of the same. I wasn't the greatest player coming out of college, but I've kept moving up, and if I just keep doing that, eventually I'm going to keep catching up to people. When I play golf, I feel like my game can stand up with all these guys.”
Well, Novak, who one day would like to take on a job coaching football, can’t tackle the opposition. But maybe he’ll eventually find a way to out-hit them.