The Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill is one of the most iconic events of the PGA Tour season. Last week it lived up to the billing once again, when Akshay Bhatia beat Daniel Berger in a playoff. The week also included a special opportunity for our show.
For the 2026 edition, I was invited to play in the Pro-Am on the Wednesday before the tournament.
On Tuesday night, all of the Pro-Am competitors get together for finger foods, and they are assigned who they will be playing with on Wednesday. But the player selection isn’t random or first-come first-serve. They have something much more fun in place to set up the teams.
It’s a draft.
Out of the 50+ groups of amateurs, each one is selected by random draw and has 30 seconds to select their pro partner for Wednesday morning. If you don’t pick in your allotted time, you go to the back of the line.
Luckily for me, my number 16 was selected fairly early on, and I opted for a 7:10 a.m. tee time at Bay Hill alongside Viktor Hovland.
Hovland was just a fantastic pro-am partner. He brought good vibes, smooth golf swings and conversation with us amateurs like they were playing a muni round for fun.
When the round was over, everybody got a chance to relax before the Pro-Am Gala that night. At a bar in Orlando, the winners of the Pro-Am were announced, and it was all capped off by a private performance from country artist Darius Rucker.
To hear what it’s like to play with a PGA Tour pro, and find out how my group placed in the tournament, watch this week’s episode of the Dan Evans Show. And catch up with all of our past episodes at our home on SI Golf.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What It’s Like to Tee Off Alongside Viktor Hovland.
