ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Arnold Palmer Invitational begins Thursday at Bay Hill and the tournament’s field is the strongest golf has seen since The Open Championship in 2022.
Nine of the Top 10 and 44 of the top 50 golfers in the world will chase the title this week in Central Florida. World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler is the defending champ and he continues to battle World No. 1 Jon Rahm and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy for the top ranking on the planet.
Scheffler will tee off at 7:38 Thursday morning and he will be paired with last year’s PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and the reigning U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick. Last year, Scheffler played a perfect back nine to win this event by one stroke over three other players.
He would later vault to World No. 1 and win the Masters. McIlroy is also one of the favorites to win the API this week. The 33-year-old from Northern Ireland has excelled at Bay Hill. In eight appearances, he has six Top 15 finishes and a win in 2018. He has finished no worse than T27. McIlroy enters Thursday with four wins in his last 15 worldwide starts.
The purse for the Arnold Palmer Invitational is worth $20 million dollars.
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