Birdies, as plentiful as ever on the West Coast — an average winning total of just over 267 in the six full-field, four-round events — have thus far been somewhat harder to come by on the Florida Swing of the PGA Tour, and they’ll be equally hard earned at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Fla., this week.

Despite losing a total of 130 yards and its par being lowered from 72 to 70, Palmer’s Bay Hill course is playing tougher than ever and has many onlookers likening it to a U.S. Open venue.

“I don’t know if [280] will win this week,” the Sony Open champion, Paul Goydos, said on Tuesday. “But I think you wouldn’t be unhappy shooting even par.”

Overseeding with rye grass has seen the rough grow to four inches ,and it appears sufficiently thick to discourage the wild and sometimes careless driving that some Tour courses permit. A sideways chop with a sand wedge might not be necessary, as it so often is at the U.S. Open, but stopping a ball on the green with anything longer than a short iron will be difficult, especially during the weekend when the rain predicted for Thursday and Friday will have moved away and the temperature is expected to hit 80 degrees.

“It’s definitely the thickest rough we’ve seen on tour this year,” said Troy Matteson, while defending champion Rod Pampling added that driving accuracy is likely to be more important than ever.

“It always is a factor here,” Pampling said. “It’s a tough driving course. You really don’t want to miss the fairway. It’s difficult to get anywhere near the greens with any sort of control.”

The increased challenge is, of course, Palmer’s attempt at diminishing the effect of technologically advanced equipment, which he and several other past greats believe is having a seriously negative impact on the game. Concerned primarily with the distance the golf ball is traveling, Palmer intends for his setup of the course to emphasize the importance of shot making, strategy, and course management.

“I think the one thing in the back of my mind was to make the golf course challenging,” he told reporters yesterday. “And we will continue to make the necessary changes as time goes on only for the purpose of making it interesting and making it a good golf course. And I’m looking to see how it plays as a par 70. I know it’s just a number, and that the lowest total wins irrespective of how many under par it may be, but we think it might add a little spice to the tournament, a little interest.”

Of course given this is the Arnold Palmer Invitational (with all due respect to the host, it may take a while for most people to refrain from calling it simply ‘Bay Hill’), it could be played on a nine-hole, pitch and putt course and still arouse a good deal of interest. And, with the exception of the WGC World Matchplay in which the top 63 players in the world appeared (no. 65 J.J. Henry got in after South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel pulled out), the best field of the year has been assembled giving it even greater significance. From the world’s top 10 only Padraig Harrington, Adam Scott, and Jim Furyk, who had wrist surgery in New York on Monday, are missing. From no. 11 to no. 20, only David Toms and David Howell aren’t playing.

Also competing for the $990,000 first-place check and 4,500 FedEx Cup points will be Robert Allenby, who has five top 10 finishes from six events this season; Darren Clarke, who has finished in the top 10 here the last three years; last week’s winner, Mark Calcavecchia; Kenny Perry, who won the Bay Hill Classic in 2005 but couldn’t defend his title because of injury; Pampling, who won 12 months ago with a total of 274, and the man he beat, England’s Greg Owen, who seemed to have the tournament all sewn up before three-putting from two feet on the 71st hole.

The man they all have to subdue will surely be Tiger Woods, playing in only his third event in America this season. His recent record at Bay Hill isn’t great (20th, 23rd, and 46th since 2004), but he did win four years in a row from 2000 so he knows his way round. And any time a course gets more difficult, you can be sure Woods is licking his lips thinking about the sizable group of players whose chances of beating him have now more or less disappeared. His drives will almost certainly need to be straighter than they were at Torrey Pines in January when he won the Buick Invitational despite hitting just over 46% of the fairways. But at 7,137 yards, Tiger can afford to hit a lot of 3-woods and long irons to ensure that his tee shots find all the right places.

Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, World Matchplay winner Henrik Stenson, and FedEx Cup points leader Charles Howell will be looking to keep pace, but after having his PGA Tour winning streak broken at seven by Nick O’Hern at the Matchplay three weeks ago, Tiger will be eager to launch another. And with such a distinguished field present and the Masters just around the corner, this week would be a great time to start.