The examination historically at Bay Hill is of a course that gives and takes, as Séamus Power – back refreshed after a one-week break from tour play – discovered in an opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational where an opening round of level-par 72 featured three birdies and three bogeys.
That his final act of the round was to tap in for a bogey on the ninth, his finishing hole, but one that traditionally plays as the toughest on the course, probably left a little sour taste for Power after battling his way under par on the closing stretch.
Power, currently fourth in the FedEx Cup standings after a strong start to the wraparound season which included a win in the Bermuda Championship last October and continued with a string of top-15 to top-25s this year, started on the 10th and picked up an early birdie on the 13th where he sank a 15-footer.
However, he gave that shot back to the course when he found a greenside bunker on his tee shot to the par-three 17th and failed to sink a 12-footer to save par. He then came up short of the green on his tee shot to the par-three second, pitched to 10 feet and missed the putt to fall to one over on the card.
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Power got momentum, though, with a birdie on the par-five fourth where he was in a greenside bunker in two and splashed out to three feet. He added a further birdie on the par-three seventh where he hit his tee shot to 10 feet and holed the putt. That closing bogey on the ninth brought him back to level par and five strokes adrift of clubhouse co-leaders Chris Kirk, winner of the Honda Classic on Sunday which ended an eight-year drought since his last tour win, and Cameron Young, who opened with 67s.
Americans Scottie Scheffler, the world number two, Jordan Spieth and Adam Schenk, along with England’s Aaron Rai, were a shot back after opening rounds of 68.
Kirk’s win in the Honda was his first since he captured the Colonial in 2015 and the five-time tour winner has talked honestly about his battle with alcohol addiction and of his battle back to playing, contending and winning on the PGA Tour.
The 37-year-old continued his strong form from the Honda with another impressive showing in the first round at Bay Hill. Although he opened with a bogey on the 10th hole and book ended his scorecard with another bogey on the ninth, he managed seven birdies in between those dropped shots.
Kirk had risen to a 5.30am alarm call and admitted to feeling “a bit like a zombie”, only to showcase his skills when it mattered. “[You] can’t really take away from the excitement that I have playing this event every year, the personal relationship I had with Mr Palmer, and I just have always loved this golf tournament. He was a big influence and somebody that I really looked up to, and so this tournament is something [special].”
Scheffler, the defending champion, described the course as “very challenging, there’s no easy holes ... I feel like it’s a place where I can just try and hang in there. That’s what I did last year. I didn’t play amazing for four days.
“One of the guys I played a practice round with this week asked me what I did well last year and I told him, ‘I survived’. That’s really what it felt like. This place is brutal and it’s only going to get harder as the week goes on.”
