ORLANDO, Fla. – Xander Schauffele was quick to admit Bay Hill wasn’t the ideal place to return from a long absence.

Thursday showed why.

In his first competitive round since stepping away from the PGA TOUR with a rib injury six weeks ago, Schauffele shot 5-over 77 to open the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

“Got my (butt) kicked,” Schauffele said afterward, smiling. “It's a tough place to come back to, not going to lie. Palm Springs would have been nice, something like that, that would have been a little bit easier, miss a couple, get away with it.”

Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge is perennially one of the toughest stops on TOUR. After a blustery 3-under 69, first-round leader Keegan Bradley declared Bay Hill is in a class of its own: the hardest golf course on TOUR. It’s not a friendly handshake opener – far from it.

Schauffele’s return this week is his first start since The Sentry in January, and his competitive rust was apparent. Schauffele bogeyed his first hole, needing two attempts to get out of a greenside bunker. He found the water hazard with his second shot on the par-5 sixth hole which led to another bogey. Then he three-putted from 8 feet on the eighth hole. He made five straight bogeys from Nos. 6 to 10 to drop to 6-over.

“(I’m) a bit of a masochist, I guess,” Schauffele said. “I knew I was going to come in on short notice to what is sort of like a major championship setup around the greens, and with the greens being crusty, I really felt it there more than anything else.”

Schauffele entered the week with nearly zero reps. He had played all of 27 holes before heading to Bay Hill — nine holes at a par-3 course with Justin Thomas, and one regulation 18-hole course. Schauffele played another 27 holes combined on Tuesday and Wednesday, the first time he had played in back-to-back days since his return, before he teed it up for Thursday’s first round.

Earlier this week, Schauffele revealed more details surrounding the injury, which doctors officially deemed an “intercostal strain, with a small tear in the cartilage.” Schauffele described it as a “perfect storm.” He began to feel discomfort in his chest in December while his trainer was out of the country, but he didn’t pay much attention to it, continuing to train and practice in preparation for The Sentry.

Schauffele thought it would get better with treatment. It didn’t. After a middling week at Kapalua and struggling his way through the inaugural TGL match the following week, Schauffele decided to step away to address the issue.

The world No. 3 was forced to watch from the sidelines during the TOUR’s West Coast Swing, including two stops at Schauffele’s hometown Torrey Pines.

“That sucked for me,” he said, but he knew it was in his best long-term interest.

So despite how Schauffele played Thursday, his health was his main focus.

“Great,” Schauffele responded to how his body held up.

For now, that’s what counts.