Arnold Palmer Invitational 2024: Course and current form stats

• A layout full of risk/reward opportunities

• Brits enjoy positive Bay Hill history

• Cantlay can improve on last year's tied-4th

Tournament and Course Notes

• With $20m up for grabs, an elite field has arrived at Bay Hill for the fourth 'Signature Event' on this year's PGA Tour calendar;

• Opened in 1962, Bay Hill was purchased 12 years later by seven-time major winner Arnold Palmer and in 1979 the course made its debut on the PGA Tour. This year's instalment will be No 46. This parkland course is located around eight miles south-west of downtown Orlando, close to Florida's Butler Lake;

• The late Arnold Palmer made a number of changes to the course in 2009, and again in 2015. He wanted to develop a layout full of risk/reward opportunities, and was keen to promote attacking golf;

• As for these changes: He increased the number of potential pin positions, after redesigning all 18 putting surfaces; he moved fairway bunkers further from tees, while extending greenside sand closer to the edges of putting surfaces; and he made the sand more visible from tees and fairways, in order to encourage the bold and the brave;

• In the second of these renovations he widened fairways (average width 30 yards), and reduced the size and density of the rough. These various changes upped Bay Hill's total par from 71 to 72 and, more recently, the Bermuda grass greens have all been re-surfaced;

• Bay Hill is neither short of sand, nor lacking in water and is a course which tends to get tougher the closer a golfer gets to the green. Hitting fairways is generally not overcomplicated but finding putting surfaces is certainly more problematic. Large water hazards come into play on nine holes. On the 2023 PGA Tour schedule only three courses had larger putting surfaces than Bay Hill.

Good Current Form

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler returns to action following a two-week break.

The remarkably consistent 27-year-old is also a former champion at Bay Hill and has remained top of the Ranking for more than nine months.

As for ranking positions, no one has flown up the standings as quickly as Ludvig Aberg.

In a little over 13 months, the 24-year-old Swede has climbed more than 3,000 spots and is currently sitting inside the top 15.

He's won on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, along with two more runner-up finishes on American soil.

On his Bay Hill debut last year he was 24th and he certainly hits a long enough ball to navigate his route around this demanding course.

Good Course Form

The Europeans have enjoyed plenty of positive results at Bay Hill.

Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton have both triumphed here, and also finished second.

Englishman Hatton, who won't be teeing-up this Thursday as he now plays on the LIV Tour, has posted a quartet of top-four finishes over Arnold Palmer's course.

As for those Europeans who will be playing this week: Victor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood have all previously stood on the Bay Hill podium.

Rose has stood there twice, while Fitzpatrick's last five visits read: 14-9-10-9-2.

Two Americans to consider, based on course form, are Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay.

Spieth's two visits have yielded a brace of tied-fourths and, on Cantlay's only trip to Orlando 12 months ago, this also ended in tied-fourth.

In his most recent outing at Riviera, three weeks ago, Cantlay posted another fourth.

Elsewhere, perhaps the 43-year-old Adam Scott, whose form during the early weeks of 2024 appears to be promising, can use his vast experience to claim the third Bay Hill podium of his illustrious career.

Latest betting for this year's Masters Tournament

Stroke Averages

Lowest 10 At Bay Hill (2018-23)
Average .... (Rounds)
70.50: Rory McIlroy (24)
71.05: Chris Kirk (20)
71.25: Scottie Scheffler (12)
71.36: Matt Fitzpatrick (22)
71.40: Sung Jae Im (20)
71.46: Jason Day (13)
71.54: Emiliano Grillo (13)
71.75: Harris English (20)
71.83: Keegan Bradley (24)
71.88 : Corey Conners (16)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves

Please Note: Due to technical issues we are unable to list performance data for 'Week 9' on 'Current Form' table. Apologies and hopefully back to normal next week.