Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

The top five golfers in the world rankings — and 47 of the top 50 — are gathered at Bay Hill Club & Lodge for the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting this Thursday in Orlando, Fla.

Considering the stated goal of the PGA Tour’s signature events was to ensure the best players were competing against one another more often, mission accomplished. Most elite golfers feel a special connection to Palmer, whose family still runs the event, and nobody is going to turn down their share of a $20 million purse.

“Arnold would write me a letter pretty much every year from when I was eligible to play the event I think in 2010, and I didn’t make it here until 2015,” World No. 2 Rory McIlroy said Wednesday. “I think there was one point where he said he was going to break my arm if I didn’t come, so eventually I did.”

This is where World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler began his dominant 2024 run. Winning the invitational for the second time in three years propelled him into The Players Championship the next week and the Masters the month after that.

“Definitely gave me a little bit of a jump start to the year, a lot of confidence going forward,” Scheffler said.

A key change he made during Palmer week last year was a putter switch that seemed to solve the only inconsistency in his game. Scheffler said the comfortability with the new flatstick left him “feeling more free” on the greens, which he carried into a highly successful year that also featured an Olympic gold medal and the FedEx Cup.

Even though Scheffler has yet to win a tournament in 2025, McIlroy and company find themselves looking up at him. The Northern Irishman won a different signature event last month, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and captured the Arnold Palmer in 2018.

World No. 4 Ludvig Aberg of Sweden is back for the first time since a signature win of his own, The Genesis Invitational, and World No. 5 Collin Morikawa is playing fine golf himself but is searching for his first victory since late 2023.

Then there’s the other member of the top five, Xander Schauffele, who has missed most of the season due to a rib strain with a small cartilage tear. The World No.3 is playing his first tournament in two months after a “perfect storm” of issues that led to his absence, he said, including ignoring some warning signs.

“Trainer had to go back, renew his visa (in December). I was left on my own and apparently I’m still a toddler,” Schauffele said. “I kept training and golfing and training and golfing, and I’m used to having someone either hold my hand or do something as simple as soft tissue. I didn’t get any help, and I think that is sort of what put my back against the wall.”

Schauffele will try to start fresh after having the best 2024 of anyone not named Scheffler, which featured his first two major titles at the PGA Championship and the Open Championship.

This is one of the few signature events to include a cut because it is a player-hosted event. The top 50 and ties plus anyone within 10 shots of the lead will advance to the weekend out of the 72-man field.

The only other past Arnold Palmer winner in the field besides Scheffler and McIlroy is Australian Jason Day (2016). Since Palmer’s death in 2016, the winner is awarded a red cardigan sweater in his memory.

–Field Level Media