As Sam Saunders watches over his grandfather's tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational thinks more would be better
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ORLANDO — Invoking the spirit of his grandfather and namesake of the tournament he represents, Sam Saunders expressed his desire to see the field expand at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“One thing my grandfather loved was he wanted all the guys. He wanted as many guys as he could to come here and play his golf course and compete and have a real, honest, meaningful competition, and whoever walks away as champion, it should mean a lot to 'em,” Saunders, vice president of partnerships for the tournament, said Tuesday at Bay Hill Club. “So, yeah, it would be really nice to see that evolve, and I'm very optimistic that we'll get back to that place at some point.”
Designated as a signature event in 2022, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which begins Thursday, features a field of 72 players, far fewer than the 120 once included in the PGA Tour’s invitational tournaments. As opposed to other signature events, the invitationals—the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Genesis Invitational and the Memorial Tournament—are contested with a cut to the low 50 and ties and any players within 10 shots of the 36-hole leader. It’s one distinction among the $20 million signature events the tour introduced four years ago.
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Signature events are intended to feature only the top players on the tour, but Saunders, himself a former tour player, understands that the depth of talent leaves plenty of fine golfers out of the mix. Many of them will instead be competing at this week's opposite-field event in Puerto Rico.
“I would love to see more guys here,” said Saunders, 38, a former club champion at Bay Hill. “There's so many great players. It's so hard to see some of the names that aren't here sometimes. But I know the tour has adapted and evolved to the times, and we try to be as supportive and a team player as we possibly can. So I'm very optimistic and excited about the future and having more guys here.” More From Golf Digest 
What the future holds for the tour schedule overall and the API in particular is a topic of speculation with no clear answers thus far. The tour currently is in the process of reconfiguring its schedule and competitive paradigm. Saunders was asked if he and tournament officials have had any say in the process.
He chose his words intelligently, if rather carefully.
“Well, you know, the tour runs their business, and we're a team player, but we run our business here,” he said. “Drew [Donovan, tournament director] and his team do an incredible job. Our staff here do everything they do. But we can only focus on us and what we can do to be the best tournament and give the best presentation that we can.
“And, yes, I mean, if there's an opportunity to voice our opinions and our feelings while still being supportive and trying not to jump off the rails on anything, yeah, we of course we want to be additive when we can. But, really, I think the best thing we can do as an organization is focus on our golf course, our event, you know, what it means to come to the Arnold Palmer Invitational.”
