ORLANDO: Wyndham Clark handled a stressful day at Bay Hill by eliminating as much trouble as possible. Two late birdies as the wind finally waned carried him to a 5-under 67 and a two-shot lead Thursday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
It was clear from the start Bay Hill was going to be a beast with cold weather and big wind on a course with thick rough and putting surfaces that already had a yellow sheen to them.
Clark, with a pitching wedge to 2 feet on the 18th for one final birdie, had the highest score to lead the tournament in eight years.
Only 14 players broke par, the fewest in 36 years at Bay Hill with an asterisk — this now is a signature event with only 72 players in the field, compared with 120.
But it was tough.
“Pick your poison out here — you can probably create a story with whatever it is,” defending champion Scottie Scheffler said after the world’s No. 1 player shot 71. “The greens are tough, the rough is high, and the wind is up.”
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Corey Conners and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were the only other players to break 70, each with a 69. Rory McIlroy was poised to join them until a bogey on the final hole to join the group at 70.
Lowry was watching some of the feature groups on streaming before his afternoon tee time and didn’t like what he saw — Cameron Young on his way to an 82, Max Homa with an 81 and, unlike last week at PGA National, a premium on par.
“I turned on the TV and watched some golf this morning and it didn’t look much fun out there. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to my round,” Lowry said. “But I think we got favorable conditions. Even though it wasn’t easy, I felt like did I a good job of making my way around the golf course. I was pretty happy with my result.”
The wind died but the greens were getting crustier, so call it a draw.
Clark missed only three greens and salvaged a bogey from a shot into the water on the par-4 third hole. He didn’t drop another shot.
He narrowly missed an 18-foot eagle attempt on the par-5 16th, hit a tough lag from 45 feet on the par-3 17th for a tap-in par and finished with birdie.
“I knew it was going to be really challenging. And although 5 under looks like a fantastic score, I wasn’t necessarily trying to shoot that number, it kind of just happened. I was really just trying to keep it in front of me. Any time I got out of position, hit it back short of the green, leave myself into the wind, easy chips.
“I really didn’t have that much stress, which was really nice. That makes it for an easier round when it’s really tough.”
It was plenty tough for Xander Schauffele, who returned from two months off to heal an intercostal strain and slight cartilage tear in his right ribs. His health was good. The rust was evident. The score was a 77.
“Got my (butt) kicked,” Schauffele said. “Yeah, it’s a tough place to come back to, not going to lie. Palm Springs would have been nice, something like that. I knew I was going to come in on short notice to what is sort of like a major championship setup around the greens.”
Schauffele has the longest active cut streak at 57 tournaments, which now is in danger going into Friday. He was tied for 52nd, and only the top 50 and ties advance to the weekend in this player-hosted signature event.
But then, it was like that for everyone.
“I feel like I hit the ball really well and had very few birdie chances,” Ludvig Aberg said after he battled to a 72.
The scoring average was 74.6, and every hole played over par except for the par 5s.
“The fairways are quite narrow and when you miss them you’re in that thick rough, and you lose all control of your golf ball from there and you’re just hoping for a good lie to get it up somewhere near the green,” McIlroy said.
Bradley was bogey-free until he missed the 15th green to the left and then hit what looked to be a good chip until it kept rolling some 6 feet by the pin. Every green was treated with care.
“Anything under par any day around this place is good, but on a day like today, it’s one of the better rounds I’ve played all year,” Bradley said.
“I think that this is the hardest course we play all year,” he said. “I used to think it was Torrey (Pines). I think it’s here now. You’ve really got to play well to shoot under par. Sprinkle in some conditions like this, it’s really tough.”
