ORLANDO, Fla. – The color progression on Bay Hill’s trademark umbrella logo goes red, yellow, white, green. As for the putting surfaces around Arnie’s Place for its annual PGA Tour stop, try green, yellow, brown, purple.
“They’re getting brown,” Collin Morikawa said Friday afternoon, “and they’re going to be very, very brown, if not purple, by Sunday.”
In a way, Justin Thomas was glad he’d ejected early with rounds of 79-79 and over six shots dropped with the putter.
“There is zero chance that they are going to be alive Sunday…,” Thomas said. “That is one good thing about now playing here this weekend because it is going to suck.”
The red-hot Daniel Berger has found a way to 13 under through two days of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, five strokes clear of the field, but even Berger, third on the week in strokes gained putting, called the greens borderline.
The 72-player signature event field has been cut after 36 holes at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. Here’s how to watch third round coverage of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“When you put the putter down, there’s no friction,” Berger said. “The putter just wants to slide. … It feels like a U.S. Open.”
Finally, playing in the third-to-last twosome off Friday, Scottie Scheffler didn’t hold back.
“They’re already dead,” Scheffler told the Associated Press. “I’m not sure how much deader they can get. Like 15 is completely dead.”
The world No. 1 hit an approach on the par-4 15th that he thought he flagged, maybe a few feet from the hole. But when he arrived at the green, he discovered that his ball had bounded like a skydiver landing on a trampoline into the back bunker – and even worse, into a plugged lie.
Scheffler would drain a 30-footer to save his par there, one of two putts that he converted on the day from outside of 30 feet. He also made a 38-footer for birdie on the par-4 fifth. But other than that, his 15-foot par conversion at the par-4 ninth was the only other putt he hooped from outside of 5 feet.
Scheffler saves par on 9 after over-powering bunker shot
Scottie Scheffler was visibly upset with his third shot on the ninth hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He responded with a brilliant par-save putt to close out the front 9.
Scheffler’s day ended with a missed 10-footer for par at the par-4 18th, a whiff that ignited a frustrated Scheffler, who plucked the ball from the cup after his tap-in bogey and immediately chucked it halfway across the lake, then was noticeably demonstrative as cameras remained on him while Russell Henley lined up his final putt. Scheffler took a few extra minutes to cool down in the scoring trailer, then emerged with a smile to answer a few questions.
“You can always hit it softer,” Scheffler said of his par attempt at the last. “I was surprised the ball picked up speed as it was rolling. There’s no friction. When the ball starts rolling, you’re at the mercy of the wind and the bumps.”
And yet, Scheffler didn’t putt horribly, ranking No. 30 in the field in strokes gained through two rounds. He also shot under par for the second straight day, following Thursday’s 2-under 70 with a second-round 71.
Perhaps fueling some of that fire was the fact that Scheffler, at 3 under, is nine shots back – and on a layout that isn’t going to get any easier.
“It’s been like this before,” Scheffler said. “Typically here, if you go late Friday, they’re pretty much already dead. It’s not anything unusual. It’s a good test. It’s hard. There are certain holes that get a little silly because the run-ups are soft and the greens are so firm. But it’s like that every year. This year is actually less windy.
“If we had crazy wind, they probably would have had to stop.”
Instead, they’ll charge on, be it on brown or even purple.