Arnold Palmer Invitational roundup: Justin Thomas returns, Scottie Scheffler addresses struggles, Collin Morikawa focuses on feel

Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge is ready to host the third Signature Event of the 2026 season. The stars are on display, including a returning Justin Thomas, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and seven-time PGA TOUR winner Collin Morikawa.

Hear what they had to say ahead of their tee times in Orlando:

Thomas on teeing it up post-surgery

Justin Thomas has a tee time again on the PGA TOUR. It comes after a prolonged period away since he underwent surgery in November to address a disc issue that caused what he described as “nagging hip pain” for several months.

As he steps onto the tee Thursday for his afternoon tee time at Bay Hill, Thomas understands the situation he’s in, having not played competitive golf for some time.

“I’ve got to be realistic, I haven’t played a tournament in six months,” Thomas said. “… I think the longest I’ve gone not playing a tournament since I started playing tournaments, like when I was 7 or something. I’m going to be rusty in terms of competitiveness.”

The injury that has kept Thomas away from the golf course was almost surprising to him. He told the media at Bay Hill that he had “zero back pain during all of this,” but instead his back would “just feel like a little more tired.”

Now, at 100%, Thomas believes his swing is in as good a spot as it can be to take on Arnie’s place, but the mental side is what he’ll be focusing on most.

“It’s just going to be the concentrating for four and a half, five hours on a very difficult test, four days in a row. … I just have to be nice on myself and give myself a little bit of grace,” Thomas said, whose last stroke-play tournament came at the Procore Championship last September.

When quizzed about how he spent the time away from the course, Thomas was pleased to announce he’d finished Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, “Greenlights,” joking he was “just proud of myself that I actually read the book.”

For Thomas, this week it’ll be a bit more about reading greens rather than New York Times bestsellers.

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Scheffler addresses starting struggles

Scottie Scheffler heads to the Arnold Palmer Invitational with no doubt that he’s the best in the world. Scheffler’s lead in average points over No. 2-ranked Rory McIlroy in the Official World Golf Ranking is almost double that of what McIlroy has accrued. With already one win under his belt for the year, it’s just a matter of how many.

But as Scheffler takes on Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, one of the PGA TOUR’s toughest tests, there is one question lingering about the world No. 1’s play: How will he handle the opening round?

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Scheffler, despite winning in his season debut at The American Express. For the 29-year-old and his lofty standards, he’s had some inconsistent starts to tournaments in the infancy stage of the new season. In his last three events, he’s yet to break par in the first round, at times, sitting last on the leaderboard.

Despite all the talk, Scheffler knows it’s just that.

“I mean, last year on TOUR I led the TOUR in first-round, second-round, third-round and fourth-round scoring, so I’m not too concerned over a very small sample size,” Scheffler said. “… I’ve always been a guy that’s been really good at staying in the present, doing what I need to do in order to go out and play well. And so at 16 rounds, I’ve had 13 that have been really solid and three that haven’t been as good.

“So I’m still batting at a pretty nice percentage. And so if I wanted to dig deep into it I could completely change how I approach tournaments, but I don’t think that would be very wise.”

At Bay Hill, it might not be the easiest spot to turn things around, though, ranking the fifth toughest on TOUR last season. But if there’s one person to do it, it’s probably Scheffler.

Collin Morikawa returned to the winner’s circle at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am off the back of a significant putter switch. The flastick he ended up winning with wasn’t even his, it was borrowed from his good friend Kurt Kitayama.

In the face of all that, and a good finish the following week at The Genesis Invitational, Morikawa was still on-site early week at Bay Hill, testing different putters on the iconic green in front of Arnold Palmer’s lodge.

“I’m the worst,” Morikawa jokingly said Wednesday when asked about the situation.

Yet, there is method to the madness.

With the change in course conditions, travelling from slower and clumpy Poa annua greens on the West Coast to the fiery, baked-out surfaces that many expect to see come Sunday afternoon in Orlando, Morikawa is focused on his speed.

“I do a lot of testing based on feel,” Morikawa said. “… So I brought it up to James (Holley), who has fitted nearly all of us in our Spiders, and I was like, ‘Look, we’re going to be going on a lot faster greens, they’re going to look a lot faster, they’re going to play faster, they’re going to be baked.’ There’s a certain ball speed I like off the face.”

By trying a few different inserts, Morikawa was able to find the correct speed off the face in an “instant.”

The return to Bay Hill also brings Morikawa back to one of his toughest losses and the feeling of failing to convert a 54-hole lead in 2025.

“I don’t know if you really get over any of your losses,” Morikawa said when asked about letting it slip the previous year. “I think whenever you show up at a certain event, you think back at a lot of great shots and then you think back at some shots that you kind of let slip away.”

But the present Morikawa at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is different from the one 365 days ago, with a better focus on his body, golf swing and overall demeanor, thanks to the help from a two-time major winner Mark O’Meara.

“Mark O’Meara offered me a lot of great advice, and he says there’s a lot of ups and there’s a lot of downs, you just have to be able to just kind of mellow those out and enjoy the process, enjoy the ride,” said Morikawa. “And it’s easy to say enjoy, but enjoy is not really how it’s all through and through, right? It’s a grind. But you have to be present in that grind.

“I think I’ve done a decent job of doing that. But trust me, it’s never fun.”