At Arnie's place, the test is already brutal, and only getting harder

ORLANDO, Fla. – Will Zalatoris made his way out of scoring at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, walked over to a covered media area where a few cameras awaited, and playfully staggered up the one step up he had to make to get there.

Zalatoris had just shot 5-under 67 – bogey-free – to climb to within a shot of the 36-hole lead, but you’d have thought the young man just wrestled for four-plus hours with a mad gator.

“Golf. Course. Hard,” Zalatoris said, his voice breaking in a caveman-like rhythm.

“Me want nap.”

He was not alone. As beautiful as she looks, Arnold Palmer’s beloved Bay Hill Club & Lodge can become a Little House of Horrors, even for the best golfers in the world. Friday was difficult, but it also was just a warm-up act. The golf course, as planned, is expected to get a little meaner each day, especially with no rain forecast for the weekend. Narrow fairways, lush, thick rough, greens getting firmer by the hour, tricky winds ...

Just wait until the weekend rolls around!

“We really noticed that back nine, it’s firming up,” said Nick Taylor, who shot 1-under 71, a quality score. “It’s getting crispy.”

Six players shared the lead at 7-under 137, the most with a hand on the lead through 36 holes at a PGA TOUR stop since the 2011 Valero Texas Open. In NASCAR parlance, Bay Hill's overall difficulty to score has the best golfers in the world racing four-wide, trying their best to avoid crashing.

This year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational is a Signature Event on the PGA TOUR, with a starting field of 69 and a small cut – only 11 players will not be around for the weekend, though there were some big names who fell. Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects through two days of play wasn’t that Bay Hill was ornery, and stingy, and that pars were like finding little bars of gold, but it was a few of the names settling in at the top.

Remove Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 champion, from the mix and there are some names in the lead who, sure, have won their share of events, but who Bay Hill has spent years marching to the woodshed.

Fine players all among the pace-setting six-pack who lead through 36 holes – of the six, all but Russell Henley are major champions – but some of them, well, given their history at Bay Hill, might view rounds at Arnie’s Place, traditionally, about as fun as a tax audit.

Take Wyndham Clark, for instance. He played his way into a new TOUR stratosphere, winning three times in the past year, including the U.S. Open. But taking on Bay Hill hardly was his favorite school subject. Friday, he shot 6-under 66 – the day’s low round – needing only 23 putts. He remembers shooting 82-80 to finish off his first trip to the Arnold Palmer Invitational just four years and, as he slammed the trunk to the courtesy car, not really caring if he ever saw the place again.

At Bay Hill this week, it seems good traits to have would be modest expectations and a very short memory.

“Last year I played it and, honestly, I mean, to be honest, I really didn't have high expectations going into last year,” Clark said. “I hit it really good and found myself kind of in the top 20 and I said, ‘Okay, our game's progressed where I feel like I can play here.’

"So, I kind of carried the same mentality into this week, and, honestly, for me, making the cut and to be where I'm at is a win on a course that maybe traditionally hasn't been my favorite.”

Hideki Matsuyama, who won the last time he teed it up (The Genesis Invitational) is making his 10th visit to Bay Hill, but owns just one previous top 10. A tie for sixth is his best showing. On Friday, he made a miraculous birdie on the par-4 third – his tee shot had hung up on a steep grassy bank, and he nearly holed his second despite standing in water – to go with four other birdies, shooting an adventurous 70 that pushed him to 7-under.

In his previous 26 rounds at Bay Hill, Matsuyama has shot a lower score on only three occasions. It was almost time to pop the bubbly.

Likewise, Brian Harman, the 2023 Open champion, doesn’t have a very good track record around Bay Hill, where on Friday, the scoring average was 72.261. Harman briefly took the lead with a birdie at the rugged par-3 17th, getting to 8-under, then gave a shot back at 18, still managing to shoot 68. His was one of 12 rounds in the 60s on a day when four players shot 80 or worse.

With Harman, what would explain the sudden surge in Bay Hill form for a man who had missed as many cuts (five) as he had made at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 10 previous visits? It wasn’t current form at the venue. His last three starts at Bay Hill all had been short weeks: MC, MC, MC.

Winning a major has given Harman a nice boost in confidence, sure. Plus, he has the putter going nicely. He credits that and his improved play on Bay Hill’s testing set of par-3 holes to explain why he he would share the lead heading to Saturday. Harman birdied three of the four par 3s on Friday.

“Well, this place has not piqued my interest over the years, it's whipped me pretty good,” Harman said. “But it's a place where ... if you take on some spots on the tee, you can have some short clubs in. That's just been my plan this week, try to take on what I can, and try to use what little advantage I have.”

Bay Hill is tough and growing tougher. As conditions grow more challenging, you can likely expect there will be a few crashes and pile-ups on the weekend. At Arnie’s Place, you just have to grin and bear it. There is a pile of $20 million in cash awaiting the limited field, and better to take any impending punishment with a smile on one's face.

Lowry and second-year player Ludvig Åberg came to agreement during their round Friday that the Florida Swing (Cognizant Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational, THE PLAYERS and Valspar Championship) will be the most demanding and difficult stretch of golf they will face all year. So much for cool brews and gently waving palms this spring break.

“I’m not going to say I’m going to enjoy the next 36 holes,” Lowry, the first-round leader, said after getting to the clubhouse in 71, “but I’m going to embrace it.”

Might as well. Zalatoris said it best: Golf course hard. And over the next two days at Bay Hill, expected to get a whole bunch harder.