A Slew of Major Champions Co-Lead in Orlando

by George McNeilly | Mar 9, 2024 | Pro News

Six golfers are tied for the lead midway through the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented By Mastercard, and they include the most recent Major winner as Brian Harman fired a 4-under-par 68 for a two-day total of 7-under-par 137.

Harman joins fellow University of Georgia Bulldog Russell Henley along with Masters champions Hideo Matsuyama (2021) and Scottie Scheffler (2022), 2019 British Open winner Shane Lowry and last year’s U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark.

Clark began the day one under par and had the lowest round among the leaders carding five birdies over his final six holes to shoot 6-under-par 66.

“I would say I always — a stat I always love to try to excel at and do well is a bounce back. So, birdieing 13 after bogeying 12 was huge. It’s kind of a pretty straight putt and straight putts from 20 feet are so hard to make, said Clark. We played just inside right and it stayed right where we wanted, and literally the last roll it went in. So, that was just huge, because it’s always nice to bounce back after a bogey.”

Clark’s 66 was the low round Friday when course conditions put players to the test. Arnie’s course played firm and fast, making birdies more of a commodity than usual.

“I mean, honestly, I bet you if I shot even par I would be in the top five and have a chance to win,” said Clark. “Tomorrow’s supposed to have some wind and be hot, so it’s going to get firmer and faster, which it’s already doing, into the greens, so even par tomorrow would be fantastic. Then it looks like maybe a little rain on Sunday, so it might ease up. But, yeah, I mean, right now, if you said, ‘Hey, you shoot 3-under on the weekend,’ I would take it, because I think that would have a really good chance on the last couple holes.”

Harman, with three career TOUR victories his credit, was ready to call it a day.

“(This course) has whipped me pretty good, but it’s a place where, if you take on some spots off the tee, you can have some short clubs in. That’s just been my plan this week, try to take on what I can, and try to use what little advantage I have.”

Lowry is bidding to become just the third wire-to-wire winner in the tournament’s history, joining Fred Couples who did it 31 years ago and Jason Day as recently as 2016.

“I played well these last two days,” said Lowry. “I feel like I probably should have shot better than 1-under today. I’ll take it. If you had asked me at the start of the day, I probably would have taken it. I’m pretty happy to be where I am right now. Obviously, look, there’s no trophies given out today, so I’ll just dig in over the weekend and see where it leads me come Sunday.”

Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard 2024 Leaderboard

POS	PLAYER	TO PAR	RD 1	RD 2	RD 3 Time	RD 4	TOTAL
T1	Shane Lowry	-7	66	71	1:40	–	137
T1	Hideki Matsuyama	-7	67	70	1:40	–	137
T1	Russell Henley	-7	68	69	1:30	–	137
T1	Brian Harman	-7	69	68	1:30	–	137
T1	Wyndham Clark	-7	71	66	1:20	–	137
T1	Scottie Scheffler	-7	70	67	1:20	–	137
7	Will Zalatoris	-6	69	69	1:10	–	138
T8	Emiliano Grillo	-5	69	70	1:10	–	139
T8	Stephan Jaeger	-5	72	67	1:00	–	139
T10	Justin Thomas	-4	69	71	1:00	–	140
T10	Byeong Hun An	-4	71	69	12:45	–	140
T10	Sahith Theegala	-4	68	72	12:45	–	140
T10	Max Homa	-4	71	69	12:35	–	140
T10	Nick Taylor	-4	69	71	12:35	–	140
T10	Sam Burns	-4	68	72	12:25	–	140
T10	Viktor Hovland	-4	71	69	12:25	–	140
T17	Corey Conners	-3	70	71	12:15	–	141
T17	Sungjae Im	-3	71	70	12:15	–	141
T17	C.T. Pan	-3	71	70	12:05	–	141
T17	Brendon Todd	-3	74	67	12:05	–	141
T17	Lee Hodges	-3	68	73	11:55	–	141
T17	Austin Eckroat	-3	72	69	11:55	–	141
T23	Cam Davis	-2	72	70	11:45	–	142
T23	Harris English	-2	69	73	11:45	–	142
T23	Xander Schauffele	-2	72	70	11:35	–	142
T23	Min Woo Lee	-2	69	73	11:35	–	142
T23	Sepp Straka	-2	69	73	11:20	–	142
T23	Andrew Putnam	-2	71	71	11:20	–	142
T23	Matthieu Pavon	-2	74	68	11:10	–	142
T30	Eric Cole	-1	70	73	11:10	–	143
T30	Cameron Young	-1	73	70	11:00	–	143
T30	Lucas Glover	-1	73	70	11:00	–	143
T30	Jordan Spieth	-1	69	74	10:50	–	143
T30	Rory McIlroy	-1	73	70	10:50	–	143
T30	Justin Lower	-1	67	76	10:40	–	143
T30	Tom Hoge	-1	72	71	10:40	–	143
T30	Taylor Moore	-1	72	71	10:30	–	143
T30	Chris Kirk	-1	69	74	10:30	–	143
T39	Webb Simpson	E	73	71	10:20	–	144
T39	Adam Hadwin	E	69	75	10:20	–	144
T39	Jason Day	E	70	74	10:10	–	144
T42	Grayson Murray	1	72	73	10:10	–	145
T42	Erik van Rooyen	1	72	73	9:55	–	145
T42	Si Woo Kim	1	75	70	9:55	–	145
T42	J.T. Poston	1	71	74	9:45	–	145
T46	Denny McCarthy	2	72	74	9:45	–	146
T46	Patrick Cantlay	2	74	72	9:35	–	146
T46	Seamus Power	2	72	74	9:35	–	146
T46	Nick Dunlap	2	72	74	9:25	–	146
T46	Mackenzie Hughes	2	75	71	9:25	–	146
T46	Keegan Bradley	2	71	75	9:15	–	146
T46	Patrick Rodgers	2	72	74	9:15	–	146
T53	Jake Knapp	3	77	70	9:05	–	147
T53	Ludvig Aberg	3	73	74	9:05	–	147
T53	Luke List	3	69	78	8:55	–	147
T53	Tom Kim	3	73	74	8:55	–	147
T53	Rickie Fowler	3	75	72	8:45	–	147
T53	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	3	74	73	8:45	–	147
	CUT LINE
CUT	Adam Schenk	4	72	76	–	–	148
CUT	Nicolai Hojgaard	4	77	71	–	–	148
CUT	Matt Fitzpatrick	5	74	75	–	–	149
CUT	Sami Valimaki	5	76	73	–	–	149
CUT	Adam Scott	5	73	76	–	–	149
CUT	Justin Rose	5	72	77	–	–	149
CUT	Collin Morikawa	6	70	80	–	–	150
CUT	Kurt Kitayama	7	78	73	–	–	151
CUT	Tommy Fleetwood	9	73	80	–	–	153
CUT	David Ford(a)	10	71	83	–	–	154
CUT	Adam Svensson	15	79	80	–	–	159

arnoldpalmerinvitational.com

About the Author

George McNeilly

George McNeilly is an award-winning multimedia broadcaster, producer and writer with a journalism background that has spanned the globe from four Olympics, 17 Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals, Major College Football, Basketball and Professional Golf. A former Senior ESPN executive, George teaches Sports Business at Full Sail University and is managing partner of McNeilly Communications.