The PGA TOUR continues its four-week stay in Florida by heading to Orlando, Florida, for this week’s Signature Event. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard will take place at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, which is still owned by the family of the legendary golfer. The iconic course always draws a strong field, and its status as a Signature Event means an elevated purse will be on the line for this week’s tournament, which begins Thursday, March 5 and will conclude on Sunday, March 8.
Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history, and course for the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The Format of the Arnold Palmer Invitational
Since this week’s Signature Event is considered an “invitational,” it has a slightly larger field and does include a cut. It’s still a limited field of the best golfers in the game, but not all of the field plays the full four rounds. It’s set up with the same formatting as The Genesis Invitational a few weeks ago in L.A. After Round 2, the field of 72 will be cut to the top 50 (and ties) along with any players within 10 strokes of the lead.
As a Signature Event, the total purse for the event is a total of $20.0 million, with the winner claiming $4 million and 700 PGA TOUR FedExCup points.
The history of the tournament
The Arnold Palmer Invitational began in 1979 as a successor of the Florida Citrus Open Invitational, held in the Orlando area since 1966. Palmer purchased the land for the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in 1974, and he and his family have hosted the event every year since 1979.
Palmer passed away in 2016, and since then, the winner earns a red cardigan sweater in his memory.
Last year, it was Russell Henley who claimed the title by one stroke over Collin Morikawa to claim his fifth career PGA TOUR win. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler won two of the previous three years, sandwiched around a one-stroke win by Kurt Kitayama in 2023.
This week’s field is stuffed with star power as a Signature Event and includes 28 of the top 30 in the OWGR. Justin Thomas is playing his first PGA TOUR event since having back surgery last fall, and Sungjae Im will also make his season debut after recovering from a wrist injury. Jacob Bridgeman, who won The Genesis Invitational two weeks ago in the most recent Signature Event, and Nico Echavarria, who won last week at the Cognizant, are both in the field this week along with Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Gotterup.
Check out the full field and opening odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
A Closer Look at the Course
This week’s venue is another beautiful Florida course that stretches 7,466 yards and plays as a par 72. It’s known as one of the best and most challenging courses in the PGA TOUR’s regular rotation. It’s a fairly flat layout, but the length, difficult rough and fast greens along with plenty of water make it very tough to post a low score.
If the wind kicks up, the course can get even more difficult, leading to plenty of wayward shots ending up in the water or the deep rough. The past nine events at Bay Hill have featured scoring averages over par, which is a huge change from the low-scoring conditions we’ve seen over the past few weeks.
It’s a tough test that requires precision and length off the tee and excellent approach play. Strokes Gained: Approach, Total Driving, and Strokes Gained: Par 5 are all key factors to consider along with course history and current form.
If you’re looking for ways to refresh your memory of the course, here are the Round 4 highlights from last year’s tournament, Scottie’s highlights from Round 4 in his 2024 victory, and a hole-by-hole flyover from last year.
Stay tuned to DK Network all week as we run down our top picks and best bets for this week’s event!
