Bean ruined dream pairing with Palmer

Mark Carnevale has bittersweet memories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, especially this year.

Carnevale, who now works as an on-course announcer for PGA Tour Radio, played the tour for most of the 1990s. He had met Palmer when he was just starting out on the mini-tours through a friend who was a member at Bay Hill, and Carnevale played in a few of the shootouts.

“I saw a television interview in which Arnold told this story about his dad telling him, ‘If this is what you want to do, put your mind to it and you can do it,’” Carnevale said. “That’s what kept me going in this game.”

This is the 25-year anniversary of Palmer making his last cut on the PGA Tour — at Bay Hill, no less — and Carnevale remembers it well.

It was the 1993 Nestle Invitational, and the third round was tough on most everyone. Carnevale had two double bogeys and a triple bogey and shot 44 on the front nine, and then rallied for a 36 on the back for an 80.

He was looking at the scores in the trailer when he realized he likely would be playing with Palmer. That would have been the first time. It wouldn’t be the famous shootouts Palmer had with a large group at Bay Hill, rather just the two of them.

“I remember thinking, ‘What a place for me to thank him for where I am,’” Carnevale said.

But there was still golf to be played, and Andy Bean was still on the course. The bad news for Carnevale was that Bean bogeyed the 17th, which wrecked Carnevale’s dream pairing.

“Now I’m playing with Andy, and I was distraught,” Carnevale said. “The whole time I was telling him, ‘Really? How many times have you got to play with Arnold?’ That is one situation I’ll never forget. Who knew that would be his last cut?”