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 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The field
There won’t be a lack of star power at Bay Hill.
The world’s top eight players and 45 of the top 50 will be teeing it up, with Xander Schauffele making his first start since the season-opening Sentry after a rib injury.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is looking to successfully defend his title and add a third API win to his resume (he won in 2022). He is one of three past champions in the field, along with Rory McIlroy (2018) and Jason Day (2016).
Auburn University sophomore Jackson Koivun received the Arnold Palmer Cup Exemption with a vote from his peers at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, which earned him a spot in the field.
The four sponsor exemptions are Rafael Campos, Mackenzie Hughes, Min Woo Lee and Justin Rose. Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Gary Woodland, who all did not qualify for this event, were surprisingly not granted exemptions.
API is the first of four Tour events (the Memorial Tournament, RBC Canadian Open and Genesis Scottish Open) that are part of The Open Qualifying Series, with one spot up for grabs into the 2025 British Open. The top player, not already exempt, who makes the cut will earn an exemption into the year’s final major.
Bay Hill typically provides thrilling finishes. In the last 25 years, the tournament has been decided by one stroke 13 times. However, there hasn’t been a playoff since Tim Herron defeated Tom Lehman in 1999.
Maybe that drought will end this year.
The course
After a pair of weekend 76s at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rory McIlroy said “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, Scheffler won at 15 under, but the previous two years were in the single digits (9 under in 2023 and 5 under in ‘22).
“There’s water on several (nine) holes,” Schauffele said in 2024, “and when the wind picks up a little bit it gets a bit intimidating out there.”
In 2024, the 7,466-yard par-72, which was redesigned by Palmer in 2009, was the Tour’s 10th hardest course, yielding a scoring average of 72.331 (+0.331).
Its hardest hole is the 480-yard par-4 9th, which was the 26th toughest hole on Tour last year, playing 0.177 strokes over par. The par-4 15th isn’t far behind, as it was the 34th Tour’s hardest hole in 2024, and the par-4 8th was No. 38.
This year, the layout will be a little different. The par-3 17th has long featured a beach-like bunker in the front of the green that teetered into the water. However, there is now rough where the sand was. There’s still no shortage of bunkers at Bay Hill, with 84 sand traps.
Some big changes on 17 at Bay Hill.
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) March 3, 2025
Bye bye, beach. pic.twitter.com/OOQlgAx7pe
History: The 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.
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 12 years later.
How to watch (all times ET)
- Thursday: 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
- Friday: 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
- Saturday: 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30-6 p.m. (NBC)
- Sunday: 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30-6 p.m. (NBC)
ESPN+ will also have featured coverage each day, starting at 7:30 a.m. in Rounds 1 and 2 and 8 a.m. on the weekend, with all four days ending at 6 p.m.
Round 1 and 2 tee times
Pairings and starting times for the first and second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard pic.twitter.com/9g0vaoNFPI
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 4, 2025
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arnold Palmer Invitational Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch.
