Sleeper Picks: Arnold Palmer Invitational

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The PGA TOUR travels to Bay Hill Club and Lodge for the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Here's how the PGATOUR.COM experts sized up the top contenders:

Note: Joining our panel for the picks is Amanda Balionis, the new host of PGA TOUR Today. To learn more about Balionis, click here.

EXPERT PICKS How it works: Our experts from PGATOUR.COM select the player they think will win this week's event. By using a draft process, no two picks can be the same. The player who wins the previous week picks last the following week. To see who our experts picked, click here. SLEEPER PICKS Of the players who didn't make the cut for our top picks, which have the best chance as sleepers? MORE: Power Rankings | Inside the Field | Inside the Course | FANTASY GOLF: Play our game -- FREE!

Sleeper picks: Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard

Expert   Pick order Player selected   Amanda Balionis CHRIS COUCH. Couch held the lead after the second round last week at the Transitions Championship, and he held up fine over the weekend. This is a guy who knows how to win and looks like he is starting to get his swagger back on TOUR. Mike McAllister ERIC COMPTON. Has played well on the Nationwide Tour this year, including a T4 in Panama, and now he needs to translate that competitiveness to the PGA TOUR. He did shoot four respectable rounds last year at Bay Hill, finishing T30. Lauren Deason TOMMY GAINEY. Would anyone really be surprised if he continued the trend on TOUR this year by winning for the first time? Gainey has made six cuts in a row, and he's seriously contended for the win twice already in 2011. Helen Ross CHAD CAMPBELL. The Texan has played solidly in Florida with ties for 28th and 29th on tough tracks in PGA National and Innisbrook. His record at Bay Hill is equally strong with a win in 2004, no missed cuts in eight starts and nothing lower than 22nd since the victory. John Schwarb BEN CURTIS.His last four starts at Bay Hill: sixth, cut, cut, fourth. So I'll sweat this out on Friday afternoon with the former British Open champ, who this year has missed three cuts. Perhaps his season kicks off big this week. Anne Szeker SAM SAUNDERS. Sort of a left-field pick, but Palmer's grandson had two finishes this year that make me want to keep an eye on him: T15 at the AT&T Pebble Beach and T10 at the Panama CLARO Championship on the Nationwide Tour. John Swantek SEAN O'HAIR. It's been a rough year on TOUR for O'Hair. He's ranked 116th in the FedExCup race, but maybe a return to Bay Hill, where he's finished third, second and 21st the last three years, will spark something. Ryan Smithson JOHN SENDEN. One of the best iron players on TOUR, and he'll need it this week at Bay Hill. Has cashed in each of his last three starts, and had a solid 68-70 weekend at Copperhead last week. Won't win, but a tie for eighth sounds about nice. Chris Dunham BOO WEEKLEY. Don't know why I keep picking guys who have recently had W/Ds as sleepers, but here we go again. Hitting greens in regulation may be the No. 1 key to success at Bay Hill. Last year, nine of the top 11 were in the top 20 in GIR. Brian Wacker RICKY BARNES. I'm hoping Barnes plays the way he did a few weeks ago at The Honda Classic (tough-ish track), where he tied for fourth, as opposed to the way he did at Bay Hill last year when he shot a third-round 82. He tied for 28th in Tampa.

Standings after Week 12

LAST WEEK: Mike McAllister nearly won last week with his sleeper pick of Webb Simpson: Position Name Wins Top-5s Top-10s Top-25s FedExCup points 1 Mike McAllister Managing Editor, PGATOUR.COM 0 2 2 3 500.47 2 Lauren Deason Editorial Coordinator, PGATOUR.COM 0 1 1 1 230.00 2 Chris Dunham Editorial Coordinator, PGATOUR.COM 0 2 2 2 206.07 3 Brian Wacker Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM 0 0 1 3 211.00 5 Helen Ross Chief of Correspondents, PGATOUR.COM 0 0 1 3 205.50 6 Anne Szeker Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM 0 0 1 2 186.50 7 John Schwarb Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM 0 1 1 1 157.00 8 Ryan Smithson Site Producer, PGATOUR.COM 0 0 0 0 40.07 9 John Swantek Host, On The Tee 0 0 0 0 23.00