Time for The King’s event.
The PGA Tour’s second stop of the Florida Swing heads to Orlando for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge—a signature event and one of the Tour’s marquee tournaments, which began in 1967 (Palmer’s name has graced the event since 2007).
The 72-player field will vie for part of a $20 million purse, with the winner collecting $4 million. As one of three legacy tournaments (along with the Tiger Woods-hosted Genesis Invitational and Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament), there will be a cut: the low 50 players and ties plus everyone within 10 shots of the lead.
From its field, course, history, tee times and how to watch, here’s what you need to know for the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The field: Pure star power
Once again, the Arnold Palmer Invitational will be full of star power.
Forty-two of the top 50 players in the world, including 19 of the top 20, are in the field, with the only omission being No. 18 Patrick Reed (not eligible).
And sixty of the players in the field have won an event on Tour.
There are also five past champions teeing it up: Jason Day (2016), Rory McIlroy (2018), Scottie Scheffler (2022, 2024), Kurt Kitayama (2023) and Russell Henley (2025). Scheffler, the world No. 1, is one of eight multiple-time champions of the event.
Plus, seven players who placed top 10 in last week’s Cognizant Classic, including champion Nico Echavarria and runner-ups Taylor Moore, Shane Lowry and Austin Smotherman.
Sponsor exemptions are Jordan Spieth, Max Greyserman, Billy Horschel and Chris Kirk. Daniel Bennett is the Arnold Palmer Cup Exemption.
Justin Thomas and Sungjae Im will make their season debuts, both having suffered injuries in the offseason.
A tough test at Bay Hill
After a pair of weekend 76s at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rory McIlroy admitted, “I feel punch drunk.”
Bay Hill is always one of the Tour’s tougher tests—and March conditions can make it even more arduous. Last year, Henley won at 11 under, and in 2022 and ‘23, the winner was in single digits.
A year ago, the 7,466-yard par-72, which was redesigned by Palmer in 2009, was the Tour’s eighth hardest course, yielding a scoring average of 72.55.
Its hardest hole is the 467-yard par-4 15th, which was the 50th toughest hole on Tour last year (out of 882), playing 0.260 strokes over par. Its least difficult hole, meanwhile, was the 511-yard, par-5 16th, playing .663 strokes under par, making it the 14th easiest hole on Tour.
Bay Hill is the third-longest course the Tour will have played this season, and has the third-most bunkers (84). Its green sizes average 7,500 square feet, with 31 acres of fairway, 100 acres of rough and water in play on nine holes.
History: King of the King’s tournament
Tiger Woods has won at Arnie’s Place a record eight times.
His last two came back-to-back in 2012 and 2013, both completing one of the many iterations of a Woods comeback.
Heading into the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods had not won an official Tour event since the 2009 BMW Championship—two months before his sex scandal broke on Thanksgiving after crashing into a fire hydrant just miles from Bay Hill.
Two weeks before he was set to tee it up at Arnie’s place in 2012, Woods was taken off the course at Doral during the final round with tightness in his left Achilles tendon. He missed three months in 2011 with the same injury.
🏆 2000
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 7, 2019
🏆 2001
🏆 2002
🏆 2003
🏆 2008
🏆 2009
🏆 2012
🏆 2013@TigerWoods loves Bay Hill.#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/pRPpZAUF72
However, a crisis was averted and Woods dominated at Bay Hill, shooting 13-under 275 to beat Graeme McDowell by five strokes.
It was his first Tour win in 923 days.
“I’ve gotten better, and that’s the main thing,” Woods said afterward. “I’ve been close for a number of tournaments now. And it was just a matter of staying the course and staying patient, keep working on fine-tuning what we’re doing. And here we are.”
A year later, Woods successfully defended his API title and returned to No. 1 in the world for the first time since October 2010, the longest stretch of his career. It was also the 11th time Woods claimed the throne of world No. 1, tied with Greg Norman for the most since the ranking began in 1986. That feat remains 13 years later.
How to watch (all times ET)
- Thursday-Friday: 2–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
- Saturday-Sunday: 12:30–2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); 2:30–6 p.m. (NBC)
ESPN+ will also have coverage during each round.
First- and second-round tee times
Tee times for the first and second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard pic.twitter.com/vzkCVh3KZk
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 3, 2026
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arnold Palmer Invitational Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch.
