The PGA Tour heads to Central Florida for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Here’s everything you need to know for the week at Bay Hill. Click here for full tee times.
How to watch:
Thursday, Rd. 1: Golf Channel, 2-6 p.m. ET; live stream: http://www.golfchannel.com/pgastream
Friday, Rd. 2: Golf Channel, 2-6 p.m. ET; live stream: http://www.golfchannel.com/pgastream
Saturday, Rd. 3: Golf Channel, 12:30-2:30 p.m. ET; live stream: www.golfchannel.com/pgastream
NBC, 2:30-6 p.m. ET; live stream: www.golfchannel.com/pganbcstream
Sunday, Rd. 4: Golf Channel, 12:30-2:30 p.m. ET; live stream: www.golfchannel.com/pgastream
NBC, 2:30-6 p.m. ET; live stream: www.golfchannel.com/pganbcstream
PGA Tour Live schedule (Times ET) (Click here to watch)
Thursday, featured groups: 7:30AM-6PM ET
- 7:43AM: Rose, Snedeker, Stenson
- 7:54AM: Fowler, Day, Poulter
- 12:44PM: Mickelson, DeChambeau, Koepka
- PM: TBD
Friday, featured groups: 7:30AM-6PM ET
- 7:54AM: Mickelson, DeChambeau, Koepka
- AM: TBD by Twitter
- 12:33PM: Rose, Snedeker, Stenson
- 12:44PM: Fowler, Day, Poulter
Saturday, Featured groups: 9AM-2:30PM
- TBD
Saturday, Featured holes: 2:30-6PM
- Nos. 14 and 17
Sunday, Featured groups: 9AM-2:30PM
- TBD
Sunday, Featured holes: 2:30-6PM
Nos. 14 and 17
Purse: $9.1 million ($1,638,000 to winner)
Course: Located 10 miles southwest of downtown Orlando, Bay Hill Club & Lodge (Par 72, 7,454 yards) is hosting a PGA Tour tournament for the 41st consecutive year.
Defending champion: Rory McIlroy defeated Bryson DeChambeau by three strokes for his 14th career PGA Tour win and first since the 2016 Tour Championship.
Miscellaneous notes:
- Playing in the field this week: Four of the top six and 12 of the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking (highest ranked is No. 2 Justin Rose); seven Players champions; 23 major champions; 10 former winners of this event; 12 of 16 winners on the PGA Tour this season.
- Twelve years ago, the tournament, previously called the Bay Hill Invitational, was renamed the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It is one of only two current PGA Tour events named after a former player – the other being the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.
- This is the third playing of the event since Arnold Palmer passed away on September 25, 2016, just two weeks after his 87th birthday.
- Tiger Woods (who withdrew from the tournament on Monday with a “neck strain”) has the most wins in event history with eight, his most recent in 2013. Only four other players have won more than once here: Tom Kite (1982, 1989), Loren Roberts (1994-1995), Ernie Els (1998, 2010), and Matt Every (2014-2015).
- Woods’ eight victories here are tied for the PGA Tour record for most wins in a single event (Sam Snead at Greensboro and Woods also at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) and most Tour wins on the same golf course (Woods also at Firestone CC for the WGC-FedEx St. Jude and Torrey Pines South where he has won seven Farmers Insurance Opens and the 2008 U.S. Open).
- The course record is 62, shot three times: Andy Bean in the second round in 1981 on a par-71 course; Greg Norman in the second round in 1984 on a par-71 course; and Adam Scott in the first round in 2014 on a par-72 course.
- Players have posted 22 double-digit scores on the 6th hole since 1983, with the highest being an 18 by John Daly in the final round in 1998 (six balls in the water, shot 85).
- Bay Hill Club & Lodge ranked as the 15th most difficult course to par last season on the PGA Tour, as players averaged 72.02 (+0.02) – nearly one stroke easier than 2017’s average of 72.89.
- In 1965, Palmer played in a golf exhibition at Bay Hill with Jack Nicklaus, Dave Regan, and Don Cherry. After shooting 66 and falling in love with the course, he made Bay Hill his winter home and purchased the Club & Lodge outright in 1976 with a group of partners after having leased it for several years.
- Palmer and Ed Seay redesigned the course in 1989, changing all the greens and lengthening the course. Palmer contined to make tweaks to the course until his death in 2016.
- In 2017 – at the first playing of the event since his death – a 13-foot tall, 1,392-pound bronze statue of Palmer was unveiled overlooking the 1st and 10th tees where it will be accessible to players and spectators alike.
– Stats provided by Golf Channel Editorial Research Department
Source: Internet
