March 04-07
Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
$9,300,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

Lee Westwood closed his round with an eagle-par-birdie combination courtesy of two 30-foot putts for a 7-under 65 to take a one-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday.

"It's nice to still be playing in these tournaments," said Westwood. "You've got to be top 50 in the world and if you would have said to me 20 years ago will you still be top 50 in the world at 48 I might have been slightly skeptical. And it just shows that I'm still capable of playing well in these tournaments with all the good young players around me and obviously contending, because that's what I'm doing this week."

Westwood fired eight birdies, his eagle at the par-5 16th as well as three bogeys to post his lowest score at Bay Hill since he first played in the event in 1998.

Westwood hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2010 but has won five times on the European Tour since turning 40, won the Race to Dubai last year and is currently 39th in the World Rankings.

"I haven't lost any of my length and I haven't lost any of my enthusiasm to go and work in the gym. My nerves are still intact, I still get into contention and enjoy it rather than kind of back off."

Overnight leader Corey Conners made three bogeys and two bogeys to close with a 71 and slid back into second place alongside Bryson DeChambeau.

DeChambeau's much anticipated attempt to drive the par-5 sixth hole finally happened after being postponed in the first rounds due to adverse wind.

As he approached the hole the wind still wasn't quite right but DeChambeau decided to try it anyway.

"For the most part, that's a shot that I know I can do, and I was able to accomplish that. I would have done it without the fans, but the fans definitely edged me on a little bit and it was fun to give them what they wanted."

His tee shot sent his ball flying 370 yards straight over the water and landed just 70 yards from the tee.

“Oh, man, I felt like a kid again, for sure,” said DeChambeau. “It was exciting. Especially when you pull it off and you know, it was almost like winning a tournament. I don't know. It's kind of the feeling I had, It was like, ‘Oh, I did it.' I got the same chills and feeling when I saw it clear and there was no splash. It was like, ‘Yes! I gave the fans what they wanted!”

Jordan Spieth continues his bid to return to the winner's circle for the first time since 2017 and opened with a birdie and a hole-in-one at the par-3 2nd. A second birdie at the par-3 7th gave him the lead and he made the turn in 32. He made two more birdies on the back nine before bogeying the 14th and 17th to close with a 68, two shots behind Westwood, alongside Keegan Bradley whose 64 was the low score of the week.

Spieth's playing partner, Justin Rose, woke up with back issues and chose to withdraw after finding the water three times and making a quintuple-bogey 9 at the par-4 3rd, leaving Spieth to finish his round on his own.

"It's been an exciting week, playing back in front of fans and, obviously, quite a visible WD playing with Jordan out there. Just kind of woke up with a bit in a sort of spasmed lower back today and tried to kind of get through it. My warm-up was hard work, and I just couldn't stay down in a shot. I missed basically every golf shot left to start the day. Even my little chip into the fourth hole out of the rough from the lefthand side was creating pain."

"And with the eye on next week and what have you, I just felt like it was a prudent call, just to call it at that point. But I felt bad with Jordan having momentum to sort of change, change the vibe of the group."

Rory McIlroy's two birdies and two bogeys for a 72 place him at 7-under in a tie for seventh alongside Doug Ghim, Jazz Janewattananond and Richy Werenski.