By TERRY LYONS
Note: The Weather Report for today calls for 90% chance of RAIN and 62-degrees with winds in the 15 (maybe 20) mph range. Sunday weather report is for partly cloudy skies with temps a chilly Florida 59-degrees. The final round will face 10% chance of rain and winds 18 mph.
PGA Tour Brunch on Arnold Palmer Invitational (R-3)
First-round co-leader Corey Conners moved into sole possession of the lead following his 3-under (69). Connors (66)-(69) is nine under but only a stroke ahead of Martin Laird (69)-(67).
Laird was the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational champion and he currently leads the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (+8.576). He won his fourth Tour title earlier this season at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, but missed the cut in his three starts prior to “The Arnie.”
International PGA Tour players have won the five previous Arnold Palmer Invitationals. If Canada’s Corey Conners or Scotland’s Martin Laird (or maybe Norway’s Viktor Hovland or Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy) were to win, they’d become the sixth consecutive international winner of the event. In fact, of the top 10 players on the leaderboard, seven are from outside the United States.
A sign of McIlroy’s game? He needed only 10 putts on the first nine holes yesterday, one shy of his career-best total (2016 THE PLAYERS Championship/R2). McIlroy followed with 16 putts on the back nine here at Bay Hill.
In R-1, defending champion Tyrrell Hatton recorded a 5-over (77), his highest score on Tour since the 2020 U.S. Open (78) in (R2). Hatton fought back mightily in R-2 and carded a five-under (67) to make the cut as he stands even.
Tee Times: Today, they’ll be going off in pairs, except for Pat Perez who tees-off at 7:30am ET and plays by his lonesome. The leaders will tee-off at 1:45pm ET).
Full list of Tee Times: (link)
Notables missing the cut (+2) include: Former tournament champion Francisco Molinari (2019) was (+8), Patrick Reed (+3), Billy Horschel (+5), 2014 and 2015 tournament winner Matt Every (+8).
Leaderboard After Round Two:
Corey Conners 66-69—135 (-9)
Martin Laird 69-67—136 (-8)
Viktor Hovland 69-68—137 (-7)
Rory McIlroy 66-71—137 (-7)
Lanto Griffin 69-68—137 (-7)
Bryson DeChambeau 67-71—138 (-6)
Full Leaderboard - (link)
KEY INFO: The ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL
PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $9,300,000/$1,674,000
DEFENDING Champion: Tyrrell Hatton (2020 Leaderboard link)
PAST RESULTS: (link)
PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)
FEDEx CUP Winner Share for points: 550
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @APinv
TV COVERAGE: Saturday, March 6: 12:30pm to 2:30pm (ET) on Golf Channel and 2:30pm to 6:00pm (ET) on NBC. Sunday, March 7: 12:30pm to 2:30pm (ET) on Golf Channel and 2:30pm to 6:00pm (ET) on NBC.
STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups today (8:00am-2:30pm ET) and Sunday (8:00am-2:30pm ET), PGA Tour Live will stream Featured Holes on today (3:00pm to 6:00pm ET) and Sunday from 2:30pm to 6:00pm (ET).
PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7: (1:00pm to 6:00pm (ET)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.
TOURNAMENT SITE (link)
March Madness Discount Offering for PGA Tour Brunch Subscription:
What They’re Saying:
Corey Connors Leads After 36 Holes (CTV Canada)
Connors Holds Slim Lead (ESPN/AP)
Viktor Hovland Says Golf Game Helped by Playing Poker (MSN/Golf Digest)
Will Zalatoris’ Letter from Arnold Palmer (Golf Digest)
#SportsBiz and Golf Industry News
Tiger Unconscious When Found by Accident Witness (ESPN)
PGA Tour 2K21 (TheXBoxHub)
Prepping for The Players (Florida Times Union)
On This Day in Golf History:
March 6, 1972 - Jack Nicklaus won the 1972 Doral Eastern Open in Miami and with it a first prize check of $30,000 to put The Golden Bear ahead of Arnold Palmer on the all-time PGA Tour money list. Nicklaus won his 40th PGA Tour title with a final round (70) to defeat Lee Trevino and Bob Rosburg by two strokes. The day before, Nicklaus shot a (64) on The Blue Monster. (Courtesy of Randy Walker), Author of On This Day in Golf History, available via Amazon.com and by clicking HERE
