Arnold Palmer Invitational R1

March 04-07
Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
$9,300,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

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Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut at Riviera two weeks ago, appears to be back in form and in control of the ball at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Starting on the back nine, he made two birdies and a bogey at the 18th, then sank a 55-foot putt for birdie at the par-3 2nd followed by four more back-to-back birdies for a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead.

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McIlroy, who has previously won at Bay Hill and has not had a finish lower than a tie for sixth in the past four years, felt this was his best round of the year. Having observed Tiger Woods as he won his eight API titles he feels he knows how to tackle the course.

“I feel like you don’t have to do anything special to shoot a good score here. You can be really conservative off the tees if you want to be. There’s a bunch of irons that you can hit off tees. I think the toughest thing about this course is the par 3s, and I played them in 3 under today. So that was a bonus.”

“I’ve watched Tiger enough here over the years and the way he played this course was, he played it very conservatively, he took care of the par 5s, and that was usually good enough to get the job done. So sort of take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.”

Corey Conners, also starting on the back nine, opened with three consecutive birdies, made another at the 15th and eagled the par-5 16th then bogeyed the 18th to make the turn in 31. Two more birdies on the front nine gave him the lead briefly before a three-putt bogey on the 9th left him tied with McIlroy for the lead.

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One shot behind in solo third is Bryson DeChambeau who put off trying to drive the green at the par-5 sixth hole due to the wind and settled for birdie.

“There was a high expectation level of me trying to go for the green there, and it was a little pressure that I wasn’t expecting,” said DeChambeau. “But no, it was fun. The crowds were great with it. I pulled out an iron as a joke off the tee box. And for me, it was just too much off of the right and more into the wind than anything.”

“If it’s more downwind. I’ll be able to do it tomorrow, hopefully, or some time during the weekend.”

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Last yeat’s Arnold Palmer Invitational was the last PGA event that allowed unlimited numbers of fans in, a week before the pandemic shut down golf. This year, the numbers are capped 25% of capacity, about 5,000 masked fans a day.

Playing alongside DeChambeau and making his Bay Hill debut was Jordan Spieth who produced three birdies and an eagle at the par-5 16th but unfortunately also three bogeys for a 70 and a tie for fifteenth. One of the latter came at the 6th where he hit off the toe of his driver, found the water and did well to keep it to bogey with a 25-foot putt.

“Definitely proud of the way I responded, but the way I putted today, certainly would have liked a lower number,” said Spieth. “But it all just comes down to one shot for me today.”

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
T1	Rory McIlroy *	-6	66
T1	Corey Conners *	-6	66
3	Bryson DeChambeau *	-5	67
T4	Jason Kokrak	-4	68
T4	Sebastián Muñoz *	-4	68
T4	Byeong Hun An *	-4	68
T7	Lee Westwood	-3	69
T7	Matthew Fitzpatrick	-3	69
T7	Viktor Hovland	-3	69
T7	Sungjae Im *	-3	69
T7	Keegan Bradley *	-3	69
T7	Martin Laird *	-3	69
T7	Victor Perez *	-3	69
T7	Lanto Griffin	-3	69
T15	Jordan Spieth *	-2	70
T15	Cameron Tringale	-2	70
T15	Tommy Fleetwood	-2	70
T15	Peter Malnati *	-2	70
T15	Matt Wallace	-2	70
T15	Christiaan Bezuidenhout *	-2	70
T15	Rory Sabbatini	-2	70
T15	Andrew Putnam	-2	70
T15	Jason Day	-2	70
T15	Padraig Harrington *	-2	70
T15	Max Homa	-2	70
T15	Ian Poulter	-2	70
T15	Adam Long *	-2	70
T15	Paul Casey	-2	70
T29	Doug Ghim *	-1	71
T29	Richy Werenski *	-1	71
T29	Kevin Na	-1	71
T29	Charley Hoffman	-1	71
T29	Robert MacIntyre	-1	71
T29	Luke List	-1	71
T29	Emiliano Grillo *	-1	71
T29	Henrik Norlander	-1	71
T29	Kyoung-Hoon Lee *	-1	71
T29	Maverick McNealy *	-1	71
T29	Mark Hubbard *	-1	71
T29	Chris Kirk	-1	71
T29	Justin Rose *	-1	71
T29	Brendan Steele	-1	71
T43	Tyler Duncan	E	72
T43	William Gordon *	E	72
T43	Lucas Glover	E	72
T43	Alex Noren	E	72
T43	Denny McCarthy *	E	72
T43	Bernd Wiesberger	E	72
T43	Harold Varner III *	E	72
T43	Steve Stricker	E	72
T43	Erik van Rooyen	E	72
T43	Matthew NeSmith *	E	72
T43	Cameron Percy *	E	72
T43	Anirban Lahiri *	E	72
T43	Sung Kang *	E	72
T56	Kevin Kisner *	1	73
T56	Keith Mitchell	1	73
T56	Danny Lee *	1	73
T56	Harris English	1	73
T56	Patrick Reed	1	73
T56	Paul Goydos *	1	73
T56	Henrik Stenson *	1	73
T56	Talor Gooch *	1	73
T56	Sepp Straka	1	73
T56	Tim Herron *	1	73
T56	Patrick Rodgers	1	73
T56	Doc Redman	1	73
T56	Will Zalatoris	1	73
T56	Nick Taylor	1	73
T56	Danny Willett	1	73
T71	Chez Reavie	2	74
T71	Tom Hoge	2	74
T71	Wyndham Clark	2	74
T71	John Huh *	2	74
T71	Brian Stuard *	2	74
T71	Bo Hoag	2	74
T71	Jason Dufner	2	74
T71	Marc Leishman *	2	74
T71	Charles Howell III *	2	74
T71	Russell Knox *	2	74
T71	Billy Horschel	2	74
T71	Cheng Tsung Pan *	2	74
T71	Zach Johnson *	2	74
T71	Brendon Todd *	2	74
T71	Branden Grace	2	74
T71	Joel Dahmen *	2	74
T87	Shane Lowry	3	75
T87	Kristoffer Ventura	3	75
T87	Jazz Janewattananond	3	75
T87	Pat Perez *	3	75
T87	Brandt Snedeker *	3	75
T87	Aaron Wise *	3	75
T87	Jim Herman *	3	75
T87	Austin Cook *	3	75
T87	Hideki Matsuyama	3	75
T96	Patton Kizzire	4	76
T96	Kramer Hickok	4	76
T96	Matthias Schmid (a)	4	76
T96	Cameron Davis *	4	76
T96	Charl Schwartzel *	4	76
T96	Kyle Stanley *	4	76
T96	Robby Shelton	4	76
T96	Matt Every	4	76
T96	Matt Jones	4	76
T96	J.T. Poston *	4	76
T96	Rickie Fowler	4	76
T107	Sam Burns	5	77
T107	Cameron Champ	5	77
T107	Tyrrell Hatton *	5	77
T110	Francesco Molinari *	6	78
T110	Brian Gay *	6	78
T110	Robert Streb	6	78
T110	Hudson Swafford	6	78
T110	Rod Perry *	6	78
T115	Robert Gamez *	7	79
T115	Dylan Frittelli *	7	79
T115	Graeme McDowell	7	79
T115	Tyler McCumber	7	79
T115	Adam Hadwin	7	79
120	Si Woo Kim *	8	80
T121	John Augenstein *	9	80
T121	Camilo Villegas	9	81
123	Kamaiu Johnson	12	84
* Player started on the back nine