Tiger Woods' Wins at Bay Hill and the Arnold Palmer Invitational

Tiger Woods has a remarkable record in the Arnold Palmer Invitational: eight career wins in this one tournament. That ties the PGA Tour record for most wins in the same event. And that's not the only record Woods has set in the tournament founded by Palmer.

What follows is a look at each of Woods' wins in this tournament, played at Bay Hill Club in Florida, the golf club that Arnold Palmer owned until his death.

2000 Bay Hill Invitational

Tiger Woods' first win at Bay Hill Club was in the year 2000, when the tournament was still called the "Bay Hill Invitational," before it was renamed for its host and club owner.

Woods started the final round two strokes ahead of second-place Davis Love III. But Woods shot 70 to Love's 72 to win by four strokes. At this point, that matched Woods' largest margin of victory since the 1997 Masters. Woods didn't make a bogey over the last 34 holes of the tournament.

It was Woods' 10th win in his last 16 PGA Tour starts, and the 18th win of his PGA Tour career.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 69-64-67-70—270
Davis Love, 72-67-63-72—274
Skip Kendall, 70-67-71-67—275
Neal Lancaster, 70-68-69-70—277
Loren Roberts, 71-69-70-67—277

2001 Bay Hill Invitational

In 2001, Tiger made it two wins in a row at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational, pipping Phil Mickelson by a stroke.

In the final round, Mickelson took the lead with consecutive birdies late, then held it with a good par save on his final hole. Woods was shaky with the driver throughout the final round, and hit only two fairways on the back nine. On the 16th hole, Woods hooked his drive nearly out of bounds, but hit a 7-iron to the par-5's green and 2-putted for birdie to tie Mickelson.

Woods hit a terrible drive on the 18th hole; it appeared to be heading out of bounds, but hit a spectator and dropped to the ground. Then a different spectator picked up Woods' ball, before dropping it. Then Woods himself dropped the ball, taking relief from the cart part.

Finally, after all that, Tiger hit a 5-iron 195 yards to 15 feet from the cup. And then sank the birdie putt to win, beating Mickelson by a stroke. It was Tiger's 25th PGA Tour victory in just his 96th start as a pro golfer.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 71-67-66-69—273
Phil Mickelson, 66-72-70-66—274
Grant Waite, 66-71-72-69—278
Steve Lowery, 68-70-70-71—279
Vijay Singh, 71-70-66-72—279
Greg Norman, 69-71-68-71—279
Sergio Garcia, 71-66-68-74—279

2002 Bay Hill Invitational

Tiger Woods became the first golfer to win the Bay Hill Invitational three consecutive years with this victory.

He trailed Phil Mickelson by one stroke at the turn in the final round, but Mickelson stumbled down the stretch — including bogeys at the final three holes — and finished up five shots behind Woods.

Woods turned in a good, steady 69. It was his 30th career PGA Tour victory at age 26, making him the youngest-ever to reach 30 wins on the PGA Tour.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 67-65-74-69—275
Michael Campbell, 72-68-68-71—279
John Huston, 67-71-70-72—280
Len Mattiace, 73-66-68-73—280
Rocco Mediate, 69-70-71-70—280
Phil Mickelson, 69-71-69-71—280

2003 Bay Hill Invitational

Tiger Woods made it four consecutive wins in this tournament, and he made it a runaway — an 11-stroke victory. That's the largest margin of victory in tournament history. Four consecutive wins in the same tournament also tied a PGA Tour record.

But although he won easily, it wasn't an easy final round for Woods. He suffered food poisoning Saturday night and spent parts of Sunday's final round doubled over with the dry heaves; or sitting when he could, trying to conserve energy.

Plus, the final round was played in a steady rain, standing water often accumulating on fairways. Despite the rain and Woods' obvious discomfort, Tiger closed with a round of 68.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 70-65-66-68—269
Kirk Triplett, 73-69-68-70—280
Stewart Cink, 69-69-70-72—280
Kenny Perry, 72-68-69-71—280
Brad Faxon, 70-71-65-74—280

2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational

By 2008, the tournament was renamed to honor its host and the owner of the Bay Hill Club, Arnold Palmer.

Tiger Woods' fifth win in this event was well-earned as he beat back a challenge from Bart Bryant. Woods won by sinking a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole, a putt he celebrated by ripping the cap off his head and slamming it to the turf.

It was Woods' fifth overall win in this tournament; it was his fifth consecutive win to start the 2008 PGA Tour season. It was Tiger's 64th overall PGA Tour win, tying Ben Hogan on the PGA Tour career wins list.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 70-68-66-66—270
Bart Bryant, 68-68-68-67—271
Cliff Kresge, 67-68-71-67—273
Vijay Singh, 66-65-73-69—273
Sean O'Hair, 72-69-63-69—273

2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational

For the second year in a row, Woods reached the final hole of this tournament needing a birdie to win. And for the second year in a row, he got that birdie.

Here, Woods sank a 12-foot birdie on the 72nd green to beat Sean O'Hair by a stroke. O'Hair had led Woods by five at the beginning of the final round, but Woods shot 67 to O'Hair's 73.

This was Woods' first win since the 2008 U.S. Open, after which he underwent major knee surgery. It was only Woods' second tournament since returning to play following an 8-month post-surgery layoff.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 68-69-71-67—275
Sean O'Hair, 67-65-71-73—276
Zach Johnson, 72-69-68-69—278
John Senden, 70-69-73-67—279
Nick Watney, 67-71-73-68—279
Pat Perez, 70-70-70-69—279
Scott Verplank, 70-69-71-69—279

2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Woods' seventh win in this event was also his first PGA Tour victory in two-and-a-half years, since September of 2009. All of the scandals involved with the breakup of his marriage intervened (as did injury issues), but here, Woods got his PGA Tour career back on the winning track.

He began the final round only one stroke in front, but ended it winning by five. It was Woods' 72nd career win on the PGA Tour, one shy of tying Jack Nicklaus for second place on the all-time wins list.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 69-65-71-70—275
Graeme Mcdowell, 72-63-71-74—280
Ian Poulter, 71-69-68-74—282
Bubba Watson, 69-70-72-72—283
Bud Cauley, 70-73-68-72—283
Brian Davis, 70-73-70-70—283
Ernie Els, 71-70-67-75—283
Ryan Moore, 71-71-71-70—283
Johnson Wagner, 71-69-69-74—283
Kevin Na, 73-68-69-73—283

2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Win No. 8 by Tiger in the Arnold Palmer Invitational didn't require any of the heroics, nor was it a runaway, as at many of his previous wins. Woods just played a solid final-round of 70 to win by two strokes.

The fireworks were related to what this victory meant off the golf course: Woods returned to the No. 1 spot in the world rankings; and he tied Sam Snead for most wins in the same PGA Tour event.

Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times, first in 1938 and last in 1965. Woods, after this victory, claimed a share of that record with eight Arnold Palmer Invitational wins. (Woods, later in the year, also added an eighth career win in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.)

It was career win No. 77 for Woods on the PGA Tour, five short of tying Snead for that record, too.

Final Leaders
Tiger Woods, 69-70-66-70—275
Justin Rose, 65-70-72-70—277
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 69-71-68-72—280
Keegan Bradley, 74-69-66-71—280
Mark Wilson, 71-68-70-71—280
Rickie Fowler, 72-67-67-73—280

Photo credit: "Tiger Woods" by Keith Allison is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0