Looking for his third win at Bay Hill in the past five years, Scottie Scheffler leads a top-tier field into the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.
He’s one of only 72 competing for a $4 million winner’s check from an elevated $20 million purse.
“Mr. Palmer’s legacy and the way the golf course is, it’s very challenging, and so it’s always a fun test I think for us as players. So, yeah, it’s good to be back, for sure,” said Scheffler, who sits atop the Official World Golf Rankings.
It’s the third of nine signature events, attracting other notable players like world number two Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, who enters the week ranked third.
Scheffler is making his fourth start of 2026 after winning the American Express in Palm Springs. He went on to record top-five finishes at both the WM Phoenix Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Fresh off a tie for 12th at the Genesis Invitational two weeks ago, Scheffler is pleased to be returning to Arnie’s place, where he has won every other year since 2022 and had never had a finish worse than a tie for 15th in his 2020 debut.
“I always enjoy the harder tests that we see. Here in Orlando, we typically always get wind. It’s very rare to get a stretch here where you don’t get a ton of wind. I feel like the standard is usually about 10 to 20 miles an hour, which for golf is a great amount of wind,” Scheffler added. “Shaping up to be, I think, a very challenging week around the course. They made some changes with some runoff areas and stuff like that.”
Colin Morikawa achieved his first signature victory last month at Pebble, and Jacob Bridgeman won his two weeks ago at Riviera, where Scheffler’s result ended his streak of 18 straight top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour. Morikawa finished the Genesis tied for 7th place as he aims to navigate Bay Hill.
“One of the most more challenging golf courses we have all year. It’s nice to come off a couple good finishes and see how your game stacks up. But this course, you just could never let up, and it’s going to be a grind starting tomorrow morning all the way through Sunday,” Morikawa said.
Rory Takes Aim at a Second Career Win on Bay Hill
McIlroy claimed the Arnold Palmer in 2018 and carries some momentum heading into this event and next week’s Players Championship with a runner-up finish to Bridgeman at Riveria.
“I’m really happy with the signs that I saw at Pebble Beach and Riviera. I think I did really well in strokes gained approach in those two events. I drove the ball pretty well at Riviera. I just couldn’t make a putt for 27 holes,” McIlroy said. “Really happy with where my game was coming out of the West Coast, and I’ve kept ticking along the past week and played some golf and I’m excited for these two weeks, I feel like I’m in good shape.”
Russell Henley Ready To Defend Title
Last year’s API winner, Russell Henley, returns to the site of his fifth career PGA Tour title and has the chance to become the first back-to-back winner here since Matt Every in 2015.
“I took three and a half months off in the fall. This will be my fifth event this year. So, I feel like I’m starting to feel a little better and get more and more clarity about the game,” Henley said. “I’m excited to be in Florida and playing this tournament. I think it’s going to be a good weather week. It’s going to be warmer than it was on the West Coast. I’m excited to play a firm golf course. I just love the challenge of this place.”
JT On The Road To Recovery
Justin Thomas arrived in Orlando for his first tournament since last year’s Team USA Ryder Cup defeat. The 16-time Tour winner sat out the first seven events of the season while recovering from back surgery November 13.
“It was the first of the year I was able to start chipping and putting. Kind of slowly progressed through that. It’s basically kind of 50 yards add each week, essentially was kind of like the formula that we used,” Thomas said. “Just paying attention and listening to everything. But I tried to be very, very diligent and smart and conservative of any kind of timeline of coming back, just because I didn’t want this to be an issue down the road.”
“March Is Going To Be Major” on The PGA Tour
All the top players will look to carry momentum into next week’s Players Championship near Jacksonville in Ponte Vedra Beach, where the Tour’s flagship event pays $4.5 million to the winner from a $25 million purse.
There’s clearly an ongoing, rather overt effort to elevate it to a “Major,” while pro golf has traditionally recognized only four: The Masters, British Open, U.S. Open, and PGA (of America) Championship.
The Tour itself recently released a 30-second promotional video touting that “March is going to be major,” which was met with mixed reviews, including McIlroy, a two-time Players winner, dissenting, and TV’s Brandel Chamblee passionately affirming the assertion. He is, of course, an analyst on media rights-holding Golf Channel.
No matter where your opinion falls, you might say The Players is clearly “better than most,’ a phrase made famous by a former API winner during an NBC Sports’ telecast a quarter-century ago.
Gary Koch was describing an incredible 60-foot, double-breaking birdie putt on the legendary island green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass by Tiger Woods, who went on to win the event in 2001.
“I’m all confused. I think a lot of people are. I personally like to think we have four major championships. I like to think that the Players is the best regular-season event that the PGA Tour presents,” Koch told me at media day last week for the Valspar Championship, March 19-22, at Innisbrook Resort near Tampa to close out the 2026 Florida Swing.
“The Players has the strongest field. It’s played on a beautiful golf course, and it’s somewhat like Augusta in that regard. It’s held at the same location every year. Spectators are familiar with the holes because they return to the same site annually. This familiarity often leads to tremendous drama, especially with that finish. It’s the top event that the PGA Tour organizes,” Koch said.
Photo Credit: Alex Forsyth, PGA
