Daniel Berger remains on course for a wire-to-wire victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, but the five-stroke advantage he enjoyed at the halfway mark was cut to two before play was halted for darkness.
With the golf course playing firm and fast over the opening two rounds, afternoon thunderstorms forced a 90-minute delay on Saturday and it will be a slightly different test that 50 of the 52 players who made the cut will face on Sunday.
The two that are missing are Shane Lowry’s final-group playing partner from last week, Austin Smotherman, and Rory McIlroy. The world number two was in the gym in the morning he felt a twinge in his back, and though he attempted to hit balls on the range when he arrived at the golf course, the issue worsened and, with added spasms, elected to withdraw.
The world number two was nine shots back at the start of the day, but Berger, who had made 14 birdies over the first two rounds, found the red figures drying up, even after the firm turf dampened in the 90-minute delay.
He made just two in the 15-and-a-half holes he’d covered, but bogeyed two as well to remain on 13-under, with Akshay Bhatia drawing to within two having played his 16 holes in three-under.
The reason Bhatia has completed one hole more is that the 24-year-old elected to tap in his short birdie putt on the par-5 16th after splashing out from the greenside bunker, while Berger, who had around 35 feet for eagle, decided to wait until better morning light to take his putt.
The trio of Sepp Straka, Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa share third place at nine-under, and Young feels that his chances of winning will depend on what Berger does as much as what he himself does.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “I don’t know what Daniel is going to do, I don’t know where I’m going to finish the day. But any time you get a golf course this difficult, and this many good players within a couple shots of each other … any one of them could take a really difficult golf course and make it look easy.”
The New Yorker went to Arnold Palmer’s alma-mater, Wake Forest, and a victory in the King’s tournament would be extra special.
“I looked up at his statue going to practice every day at school,” Young said. “He had a tremendous influence on golf in general, and at Wake Forest. So yeah, it definitely is a very, very clear meaning in my head of what this tournament represents and what he represents.
“It would be a huge honour to even have a chance, honestly.”
World number one Scottie Scheffler continued to struggle on approach play, and bogeyed four of the first seven holes but then caught fire on the back, reeling off four consecutive birdies from the 11th before adding another on 16. But he found the water on the last and signed off with a double bogey to shoot level-par and remain 10 back.
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