The fourth and final stop of the annual Florida swing starts Thursday morning at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The tournament, which some consider to be the best non-major event of the year, lost a lot of juice on Tuesday when defending champ Tiger Woods announced he was withdrawing due to persistent back problems. The venue, imprimatur of Palmer, and the field still make this an above-average tournament, but the eight-time champion at Bay Hill and No. 1 player in the world has been a large part of this event’s identity over the past 15 years.
Arnold Palmer Invitational 2014: Tee times, pairings for Thursday’s round
Tiger Woods will not defend his title at Bay Hill, so Adam Scott takes over as the headliner and will play with an opportunity to take the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career when he tees off Thursday with Justin Rose and Patrick Reed.
With Woods gone, the top player in the field is reigning Masters champ Adam Scott. The Aussie has a chance to take over that No. 1 ranking in the world this week, and he’ll open Thursday alongside Patrick Reed and Justin Rose at 8:23 a.m. ET. They will be the marquee group through the first two days, Scott prepping for a defense at Augusta in just over 20 days and Reed in the headlines thanks to the recent WGC win and his controversial (by golf standards) comments afterwards. The tee time preceding Scott features Bubba Watson, his good friend Rickie Fowler, and Brandt Snedeker, three guys gunning for USA Ryder Cup spots this fall. All the fans out on the course in the AM will be following this two-group cluster.
In the afternoon, Golf Channel’s coverage will likely focus on the group of Henrik Stenson, Keegan Bradley, and Orlando local Ian Poulter. Stenson is the highest rated player in the field after Scott, but he has not played well this season following his ridiculous Euro and USA postseason double titles at the end of 2013. Following Stenson-Bradley-Poulter will be Graeme McDowell, Harris English, and … Brice Garnett? Yep, Brice Garnett fills the enormous hole where Tiger Woods once slotted on the tee sheet. The alternate seems to be taking his new and unexpected place in one of the marquee groups pretty well.
@TigerWoods sry to hear the back is still giving u problems. Hope it gets well before Augusta. Thx for the spot and opportunity in @APinv
— Brice Garnett (@BriceGarnett) March 18, 2014 McDowell has played well here in the past, and with Tiger out of it, he should be one of the favorites coming down the stretch on Sunday. Golf Channel is scheduled to come on the air at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, so those are the two groups that will get a lot of the camera time. Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan are a couple other guys in the afternoon draw who should be featured.
Here’s the full tee sheet for Thursday’s first round (all times ET):
Morning wave off No. 1:
| Tee Time | Players | ||
| 7:35 a.m. | Sean O'Hair | Jason Bohn | Chris Stroud |
| 7:47 a.m. | Pat Perez | Peter Hanson | Justin Hicks |
| 7:59 a.m. | Dicky Pride | David Lingmerth | Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano |
| 8:11 a.m. | Scott Stallings | Ryan Moore | Kevin Na |
| 8:23 a.m. | John Senden | Russell Henley | Charles Howell III |
| 8:35 a.m. | Sang-Moon Bae | D.A. Points | Lee Westwood |
| 8:47 a.m. | Billy Horschel | Lucas Glover | Jhonattan Vegas |
| 8:59 a.m. | Ken Duke | Derek Ernst | Scott Brown |
| 9:11 a.m. | Paul Casey | Paul Goydos | William McGirt |
| 9:23 a.m. | Robert Gamez | Tim Wilkinson | Matthew Fitzpatrick |
Morning wave off No. 10:
| Tee Time | Players | ||
| 7:35 a.m. | Lee Janzen | Briny Baird | Seung-Yul Noh |
| 7:47 a.m. | Chad Campbell | Brendon Todd | Russell Knox |
| 7:59 a.m. | Daniel Chopra | Brian Stuard | Luke Guthrie |
| 8:11 a.m. | Bubba Watson | Brandt Snedeker | Rickie Fowler |
| 8:23 a.m. | Patrick Reed | Adam Scott | Justin Rose |
| 8:35 a.m. | Bryce Molder | K.J. Choi | Davis Love III |
| 8:47 a.m. | J.J. Henry | Darren Clarke | Vijay Singh |
| 8:59 a.m. | Trevor Immelman | Greg Owen | Morgan Hoffmann |
| 9:11 a.m. | David Duval | Nicholas Thompson | Cameron Tringale |
| 9:23 a.m. | Jim Renner | Billy Hurley III | Nathan T. Smith |
Afternoon wave off No. 1:
| Tee Time | Players | ||
| 12:20 p.m. | J.B. Holmes | David Lynn | Greg Chalmers |
| 12:32 p.m. | Aaron Baddeley | Kevin Chappell | Brian Harman |
| 12:44 p.m. | Brendan Steele | Jeff Overton | Ryo Ishikawa |
| 12:56 p.m. | Henrik Stenson | Ian Poulter | Keegan Bradley |
| 1:08 p.m. | Harris English | Brice Garnett | Graeme McDowell |
| 1:20 p.m. | Charlie Beljan | Marc Leishman | Rory Sabbatini |
| 1:32 p.m. | Martin Laird | Brian Gay | Retief Goosen |
| 1:44 p.m. | Will MacKenzie | Rod Pampling | Matt Jones |
| 1:56 p.m. | Jamie Donaldson | Jason Kokrak | Michael Putnam |
| 2:08 p.m. | Francesco Molinari | Hudson Swafford | Rod Perry |
Afternoon wave off No. 10:
| Tee Time | Players | ||
| 12:20 p.m. | Camilo Villegas | Padraig Harrington | Erik Compton |
| 12:32 p.m. | Freddie Jacobson | Tim Herron | Matt Every |
| 12:44 p.m. | Robert Garrigus | Daniel Summerhays | Nicolas Colsaerts |
| 12:56 p.m. | Chesson Hadley | Zach Johnson | George McNeill |
| 1:08 p.m. | Chris Kirk | Gary Woodland | Hunter Mahan |
| 1:20 p.m. | Boo Weekley | Stuart Appleby | Stewart Cink |
| 1:32 p.m. | Woody Austin | John Merrick | Angel Cabrera |
| 1:44 p.m. | David Hearn | Chad Collins | Brian Davis |
| 1:56 p.m. | Danny Lee | Ben Martin | Sam Saunders |
| 2:08 p.m. | Tyrone Van Aswegen | Brooks Koepka | Zachary Olsen |
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