Tiger Woods is giving Brandt Snedeker a break this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Arnold Palmer Invitational 2018: Tiger Woods’ tee time, plus full pairings for Thursday
Woods draws Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama for the opening rounds at Arnie’s Place.
After struggling to a 7-over 78 in Sunday’s final round at Innisbrook as Woods’ playing partner for the 13th time on the PGA Tour and fifth this season, Snedeker gets a welcome respite from the frenzy of Tiger-mania for at least two rounds this week at Arnie’s Place. Sneds, instead, will enjoy the peace and quiet of playing in back of The Needle and watching the traveling circus fold its tent and move on ahead of his group.
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Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Not so fortunate are Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama, who will accompany Woods and thousands of his closets friends as they navigate Bay Hill on Thursday and Friday. Woods, fresh off his T2 finish at the Valspar Championship, has an 8:23 a.m. ET date with Day and Matsuyama on the 10th tee for round one; they’ll start from No. 1 at 1:08 p.m. on Friday.
Snedeker, Graeme McDowell, and Zach Johnson will follow the marquee from a safe distance on Thursday and Friday, starting at 8:35 a.m. and 1:20 p.m., respectively.
Snedeker, after posting a 67 on Saturday, claimed “it’s fun to hear the crowd going crazy again … I was able to feed off a lot of energy today.” Then came that 78 while in the company of Woods on Sunday.
We’re guessing, after playing himself out of the WGC-Match Play and the Masters with his T31 finish in Tampa, that he completed the finale crossing his fingers that the golf gods — and API tourney organizers — would place him anywhere but beside the eight-time winner of this week’s event.
Rory McIlroy, another headliner who has probably seen enough of Woods for a while, must be pleased with his tee time since he will, once again, start his quest for his first win anywhere since the 2016 Tour Championship on the opposite side of the draw. McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Marc Leishman will start on the first tee at 1:08 p.m. on Thursday and No. 10 at 8:23 a.m. on Friday.
Here’s the full tee sheet for Thursday’s opening round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational:
Off No. 1 tee:
- 7:35 a.m.: Nick Taylor, Beau Hossler, Satoshi Kodaira
- 7:47 a.m.: Hunter Mahan, Sung Kang, Sam Saunders
- 7:59 a.m.: Kevin Streelman, John Huh, Whee Kim
- 8:11 a.m.: Ted Potter, Jr., Kyle Stanley, Padraig Harrington
- 8:23 a.m.: Mackenzie Hughes, Jimmy Walker, William McGirt
- 8:35 a.m.: Patton Kizzire, Kevin Kisner, Brian Gay
- 8:47 a.m.: Grayson Murray, Brian Stuard, Vaughn Taylor
- 8:59 a.m.: Ryan Moore, Charley Hoffman, Shane Lowry
- 9:11 a.m.: Chesson Hadley, Martin Laird, Sean O’Hair
- 9:23 a.m.: Jason Kokrak, Anirban Lahiri, Tom Hoge
- 12:20 p.m.: Keegan Bradley, Francesco Molinari, Kevin Tway
- 12:32 p.m.: Kevin Na, Martin Piller, Yuta Ikeda
- 12:44 p.m.: Camilo Villegas, Louis Oosthuizen, Jamie Lovemark
- 12:56 p.m.: Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood
- 1:08 p.m.: Marc Leishman, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy
- 1:20 p.m.: Charl Schwartzel, Emiliano Grillo, Ernie Els
- 1:32 p.m.: Austin Cook, Hudson Swafford, Danny Willett
- 1:44 p.m.: Brian Harman, Davis Love III, Tyrrell Hatton
- 1:56 p.m.: Scott Brown, Bud Cauley, Peter Uihlein
- 2:08 p.m.: Aaron Wise, Sam Horsfield, Doc Redman
Off No. 10 tee:
- 7:35 a.m.: Robert Gamez, Brandon Harkins, Matthew Fitzpatrick
- 7:47 a.m.: Danny Lee, Alex Cejka, Tyrone Van Aswegen
- 7:59 a.m.: Scott Piercy, Ian Poulter, Haotong Li
- 8:11 a.m.: Bubba Watson, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed
- 8:23 a.m.: Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Tiger Woods
- 8:35 a.m.: Brandt Snedeker, Graeme McDowell, Zach Johnson
- 8:47 a.m.: Ryan Armour, Si Woo Kim, Cameron Smith
- 8:59 a.m.: Russell Knox, Billy Hurley III, Alex Noren
- 9:11 a.m.: Ben Martin, Patrick Rodgers, Byeong Hun An
- 9:23 a.m.: Donny Lee, Curtis Luck, A.J. McInerney
- 12:20 p.m.: Paul Goydos, C.T. Pan, Kiradech Aphibarnrat
- 12:32 p.m.: Robert Streb, Scott Stallings, Tim Herron
- 12:44 p.m.: Harris English, Stuart Appleby, Ollie Schniederjans
- 12:56 p.m.: James Hahn, Smylie Kaufman, Chris Kirk
- 1:08 p.m.: D.A. Points, Matt Every, Charles Howell III
- 1:20 p.m.: Bryson DeChambeau, Luke Donald, Vijay Singh
- 1:32 p.m.: Billy Horschel, Cody Gribble, Sangmoon Bae
- 1:44 p.m.: Kevin Chappell, David Lingmerth, Stewart Cink
- 1:56 p.m.: J.B. Holmes, Lucas Glover, Luke List
- 2:08 p.m.: Talor Gooch, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa
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