The PGA Tour continues the Florida swing with a couple of elevated events for the next two weeks. This week, the Arnold Palmer Invitational is taking place at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Fla. where many of the game’s best players will once again be on hand.
Last week, Chris Kirk won the Honda Classic in a playoff over Eric Cole at PGA National. This was Kirk’s first win on the PGA Tour in eight years as he jumped to No. 6 in the FedEx Cup Standings.
Kirk is in the Arnold Palmer Invitational field this week as the Puerto Rico Open is also taking place this week on the PGA Tour.
For some of the top golfers, the month of March is where the schedule starts to ramp up, with THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass is next week. Some will play the Valspar Championship in a few weeks before ending the month competing in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play event.
As a result, this week, next week’s PLAYERS Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event make three elevated events for the top PGA Tour players to compete in this month.
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The Arnold Palmer Invitational is also a time to remember Arnold Palmer and the history behind this tournament. Palmer, who won 62 times on the PGA Tour, good for fifth-best all time, became the catalyst for captivating fans in the early stages of golf television as he collected trophy after trophy.
Of Tiger Woods’ 82 PGA Tour victories, he won Palmer’s event a Tour-record eight times, highlighted by his winning putts with emphatic fist pumps and a hat throw down.
Although Woods is not in the field this week, 44 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are teeing it up, making it the strongest field in the event’s history.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational will be televised between NBC and the Golf Channel.
Round | Date | Time (ET) | TV |
1 | Thursday, March 2 | 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Golf Channel |
2 | Friday, March 3 | 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Golf Channel |
3 | Saturday, March 4 | 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Golf Channel NBC |
4 | Sunday, March 5 | 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Golf Channel NBC |
In addition to NBC and the Golf Channel, the Arnold Palmer Invitational will also be broadcast on ESPN+ and Peacock. PGA Tour Live for the marquee and featured groups can be exclusively found on ESPN+. The featured holes on ESPN+ will be the par-3 2nd, par-5 6th, par-3 14th and the par-3 17th.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational will also be on the airwaves of Sirius XM.
ESPN+: 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Peacock: 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Sirius XM: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
ESPN+: 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Peacock: 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Sirius XM: 12 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. ET
ESPN+: 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Peacock: 12:30 P.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Sirius XM: 1 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
ESPN+: 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Peacock: 12:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Sirius XM: 1 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET
Tickets to walk the grounds for the Arnold Palmer Invitational begin at $65. The White Claw Fan Deck, which is sold out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (unless resale tickets are available), costs $115 and has access to get close up to players as the reach the finals holes on the course to go along with food truck options, only to those with White Claw Fan Deck tickets.
The total purse for the event is set for $20 million and the winner will receive $3.6 million.
All of the top names on the PGA Tour are present, including the trio who continue to mix around the top spot in the OWGR from Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and current World No. 1 Jon Rahm.
Scheffler, who is also No. 5 in the FedEx Cup standings, is the reigning champion for this event in what was his second career PGA Tour win last year. Including Scheffler, the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings are teeing it up at Bay Hill.
World No. 9 Justin Thomas is playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time since 2015, while World Nos. 6 and 10, respectively, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa are teeing it up for the first time at Bay Hill since 2020.
Scheffler won last year’s event at just 5-under par, the highest winning total since 1983. Despite mother nature getting in the way of double digit scores, the key to winning this week will be the mid-range game with the irons. Last year, Scheffler was first in strokes gained approach the green.
This is Scheffler’s second opportunity to continue his perfect stretch of defending a PGA Tour title at a stacked field, which he did a couple weeks ago at the WM Phoenix Open.
In seven events this season for Rahm, he has finished no worse than eighth. Adding a fourth title to an already hot season for the Spaniard would continue to put him on pace for a season comparable to Palmer in the early 60s when he won eight times in both 1960 and 1962.
Rahm, who is looking for his second win in as many starts following his Genesis Invitational title, is currently sixth in strokes gained approach the green and atop the PGA Tour in strokes gained total.
Tony Finau, who is one of the 13 PGA Tour winners from this season in the field, enters this week looking to get things going through a challenging course. Finau has two top 10s in his last five starts but has finished no worse than 20th since his victory at the Cadence Bank Houston Open in November.
The string of picking ball striking players continue as Finau is fifth in strokes gained approach the green. Finau is also second in strokes gained total (only behind Rahm) and within the top 25 in strokes gained putting, which will be an added bonus if he can get the putter going.
Jason Day has been able to rejuvenate himself back into contention week in and week out. Day has four top-10s in his last five starts, including a T9 at The Genesis Invitational, a solo fifth at the WM Phoenix Open and a T7 at the Farmers Insurance Open for his last three.
The former World No. 1, who won five events during the 2014-15 season, including the PGA Championship, won the 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational. His trajectory is leading closer and closer to winning for the first time since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.
Rory McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic in January, but the results have not gone his way since coming back to the United States. Luckily for McIlroy (and others), he is back to working on Bermuda greens, compared to the Kikuyu and Poa greens over his last few tournaments.
McIlroy won this event in 2018 and has finished better than 13th in seven of eight opportunities. He wants to return as one of the top faces on the PGA Tour alongside Rahm and Scheffler.
Tee #1: Callum Tarren, Justin Lower, Tyson Alexander
Tee #10: Sam Ryder, Adam Schenk, Min Woo Lee
Tee #1: Patton Kizzire, Joseph Bramlett, S.H. Kim
Tee #10: Byeong Hun An, Alex Noren, Sahith Theegala
Tee #1: Andrew Putnam, Wyndham Clark, Lee Hodges
Tee #10: Taylor Moore, Alex Smalley, Thomas Detry
Tee #1: K.H. Lee, Stewart Cink, Aaron Wise
Tee #10: Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas (Marquee Group)
Tee #1: Si Woo Kim, Ryan Brehm, Cam Davis
Tee #10: Chris Kirk, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth (Featured Group)
Tee #1: Tom Hoge, Harris English, Zach Johnson
Tee #10: Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Jason Day (Featured Group)
Tee #1: Adam Svensson, Luke List, Nick Taylor
Tee #10: Seamus Power, Sungjae Im, Cameron Young
Tee #1: Russell Henley, Lucas Herbert, Luke Donald
Tee #10: Trey Mullinax, J.J. Spaun, Lucas Glover
Tee #1: Ryan Palmer, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ryan Fox
Tee #10: Aaron Baddeley, Scott Stallings, David Lipsky
Tee #1: Justin Suh, Cole Hammer, Greg Koch
Tee #10: Aaron Rai, Thriston Lawrence, Pierceson Coody
Tee #1: Brian Harman, David Lingmerth, Davis Thompson
Tee #10: Troy Merritt, Davis Riley, Taylor Montgomery
Tee #1: Keith Mitchell, Patrick Rodgers, Hayden Buckley
Tee #10: Danny Willett, Padraig Harrington, Ben Taylor
Tee #1: Taylor Pendrith, Greyson Sigg, Ben Griffin
Tee #10: Matthew NeSmith, Robby Shelton, Will Gordon
Tee #1: Sepp Straka, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson
Tee #1: Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa (Featured Group)
Tee #10: Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie
Tee #1: Justin Rose, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler
Tee #10: Garrick Higgo, Joel Dahmen, Shane Lowry
Tee #1: Max Homa, Rory McIlroy, Tyrell Hatton (Featured Group)
Tee #10: Billy Horschel, Martin Laird, Brendon Todd
Tee #1: Tom Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott
Tee #10: Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, Tommy Fleetwood
Tee #1: Keegan Bradley, Gary Woodland, Francesco Molinari
Tee #10: Charley Hoffman, Emiliano Grillo, Kurt Kitayama
Tee #1: Peter Malnati, Kevin Streelman, Beau Hossler
Tee #10: Nick Hardy, Kyle Westmoreland, Kamaiu Johnson
Tee #1: Eric Cole, Adrian Meronk, Ludvig Aberg
Tee #1: Brian Harman, David Lingmerth, Davis Thompson
Tee #10: Troy Merritt, Davis Riley, Taylor Montgomery
Tee #1: Keith Mitchell, Patrick Rodgers, Hayden Buckley
Tee #10: Danny Willett, Padraig Harrington, Ben Taylor
Tee #1: Taylor Pendrith, Greyson Sigg, Ben Griffin
Tee #10: Matthew NeSmith, Robby Shelton, Will Gordon
Tee #1: Sepp Straka, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson
Tee #1: Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa (Marquee Group)
Tee #10: Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie
Tee #1: Justin Rose, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler (Featured Group)
Tee #10: Garrick Higgo, Joel Dahmen, Shane Lowry
Tee #1: Max Homa, Rory McIlroy, Tyrell Hatton (Featured Group)
Tee #10: Billy Horschel, Martin Laird, Brendon Todd
Tee #1: Tom Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott
Tee #10: Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, Tommy Fleetwood
Tee #1: Keegan Bradley, Gary Woodland, Francesco Molinari
Tee #10: Charley Hoffman, Emiliano Grillo, Kurt Kitayama
Tee #1: Peter Malnati, Kevin Streelman, Beau Hossler
Tee #10: Nick Hardy, Kyle Westmoreland, Kamaiu Johnson
Tee #1: Eric Cole, Adrian Meronk, Ludvig Aberg
Tee #1: Callum Tarren, Justin Lower, Tyson Alexander
Tee #10: Sam Ryder, Adam Schenk, Min Woo Lee
Tee #1: Patton Kizzire, Joseph Bramlett, S.H. Kim
Tee #10: Byeong Hun An, Alex Noren, Sahith Theegala
Tee #1: Andrew Putnam, Wyndham Clark, Lee Hodges
Tee #10: Taylor Moore, Alex Smalley, Thomas Detry
Tee #1: K.H. Lee, Stewart Cink, Aaron Wise
Tee #10: Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas (Featured Group)
Tee #1: Si Woo Kim, Ryan Brehm, Cam Davis
Tee #10: Chris Kirk, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth (Featured Group)
Tee #1: Tom Hoge, Harris English, Zach Johnson
Tee #10: Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Jason Day (Featured Group)
Tee #1: Adam Svensson, Luke List, Nick Taylor
Tee #10: Seamus Power, Sungjae Im, Cameron Young
Tee #1: Russell Henley, Lucas Herbert, Luke Donald
Tee #10: Trey Mullinax, J.J. Spaun, Lucas Glover
Tee #1: Ryan Palmer, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Ryan Fox
Tee #10: Aaron Baddeley, Scott Stallings, David Lipsky
Tee #1: Justin Suh, Cole Hammer, Greg Koch
Tee #10: Aaron Rai, Thriston Lawrence, Pierceson Coody