This week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge will again draw a star-studded field.
The current trajectory of sanctioned events feels front-loaded, but that is how the schedule is at this point in the season, just before majors begin ramping up next month with The Masters.
Moving forward, it will be difficult to find many consecutive weeks without at least one elevated event, as the PGA Tour is now in serious competition with LIV Golf in terms of retaining the world’s best golfers. As usual, the lowest 65 golfers and ties from this week’s small field of 120 players will advance after 36 holes.
Let’s take a look at who sits atop the odds leaderboard pre-flop.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational Odds
| Golfer | Odds |
| Jon Rahm | +1800 |
| Scottie Scheffler | +2200 |
| Rory McIlroy | +2200 |
| Xander Schauffele | +3500 |
| Will Zalatoris | +3500 |
| Tony Finau | +3500 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +3500 |
| Max Homa | +3500 |
| Justin Thomas | +3500 |
| Colin Morikawa | +3500 |
The Arnold Palmer Invitational Course – Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, FL
From this event’s first iteration in 1979, Bay Hill Club and Lodge have been the hosts, as golf legend Arnold Palmer has played MC. Palmer redesigned this Dick Wilson creation in 2009 after it had been first put out in the early 1960s.
Looking at the scorecard, we see that the par 72 course is 7,466 yards long, well above the Tour average of 7,200 yards. Big numbers are prevalent on this course, as one might anticipate from one in Florida.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational Power Rankings
Until I see otherwise, Rahm is the best player in the world. Coming into this week, he has gained an astounding 3.25 strokes per round over the course of his last 36 rounds. The score is by far the highest in this field and one of the best we’ve ever seen.
Even though McIlroy hasn’t performed at his best in his last two starts, he hasn’t finished lower than T32, which serves to highlight his greatness and the bar we set for him.
The winner here last year at -5, Scheffler, is again starting to heat up at exactly the right time this season. Coming into the week, he is +20.1 in Strokes Gained: OTT over his past 24 rounds.
Second, only behind Tom Hoge, Schauffele is +25.4 in SG: Approach over his past 24 rounds, a critical metric for success here. Unlike Hoge, Schauffele can win on any given week.
Morikawa recently finished in a T-6 at Riviera, where he earned 8.25 strokes from the tee to the green. Having participated in four tournaments this year, missing the cut in Phoenix but…
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