March 9, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; Russell Henry (left) hugs his caddy after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Image Bay Hill Club and Lodge is a challenging course that tends to separate the wheat from the chaff and produce worthy winners.
After all, Tiger Woods has won on the course eight times, and champions over the past decade have included Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Australia’s Jason Day.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational will test an elite field that includes the top 10 players in the world on Thursday in the PGA Tour’s latest signature event in Orlando, Florida.
Scheffler was awarded the Red Cardigan in Honor of Arnold Palmer in 2022 and 2024. He also finished fourth in 2023 and tied for 11th last season, which were shortcomings by his standards.
“I think there’s definitely a special aspect to it,” Scheffler said of winning an event that honors the game’s greats. “When you see tournaments like this, it makes you think about Mr. Palmer’s legacy. Not only what he meant to the game, but everything he did for the community here and in Pennsylvania and what he did for the game of golf. So there’s always a special meaning to that.”
Scheffler won the American Express in his season debut, but had a slow start since then. He shot 73 at the Phoenix Open, 72 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and 74 at the Genesis Invitational, but recovered to finish solid each time.
It’s a notable subplot early in the PGA Tour season, but it’s nothing that weighs too much on Scheffler’s mind.
He said, “Last year on the tour, I led the tour in scoring in the first, second, third and fourth rounds.” “So I’m not too worried about the very small sample size.”
Russell Henley, currently ranked 7th in the world, was named the Bay Hill champion last Sunday, beating Collin Morikawa by one stroke thanks to a chip-in eagle on the 16th hole.
“As I said last year, I have been following this tournament since I was a kid, and to see them all perform amazingly through to the round of 18, play well under pressure and win this tournament is a dream come true,” Henry said. “It’s still kind of weird to think I did something like that.”
Last week on tour, Irishman Shane Lowry made double bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes at the Cognizant Classic, missing his chance at victory and handing the win to Colombia’s Nico Echavarria.
As Lowry took the field for his fourth event in a row this week, he got some words of encouragement from one of his closest friends in golf.
“I played golf with him on Monday morning. He was fine. He felt good,” McIlroy said. “I reminded him that at PGA National in 2014, he made a bogey on 16 and lost the tournament, and he went on to win two majors that year. So I tried to say, ‘This is one event and it was two bad holes and two bad swings. That doesn’t mean the rest of the year is going to be bad.’”
The last player everyone will pay attention to is Justin Thomas, who is on tour for the first time since undergoing back surgery last November.
When asked if he felt 100 percent, Thomas said, “I do.” “Okay, I don’t necessarily have to go out and do a two-hour driving session, but I didn’t want to do that before I had the surgery, so I definitely don’t want to do that now.”
–Field level media
