Bay Hill showed its teeth on Thursday, transforming Arnie’s Place into a formidable U.S. Open venue. Fifty-four players in this 72-man field signed for over par scores, with three carding 80 or worse. Among those who shot 80 or higher were Max Homa and Cameron Young, the latter of whom rifled his opening tee shot out of bounds. Homa, meanwhile, has struggled for almost 10 months now, a far cry from the top-10 player he was a year ago.
But a player who did not succumb to the gusty and difficult challenges was Wyndham Clark. Clark fired a splendid 5-under 67 and now holds the lead by two over Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Corey Conners. His caddy, John Ellis, fell ill, and could not carry his bag, but that did not stop the 2023 U.S. Open champion. Instead, Clark turned in a terrific scorecard, one with six birdies and only one bogey — an impressive round on a day where the field made 275 bogies and 54 doubles or worse.
Other notables on the front page of the leaderboard include Rory McIlroy and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who sit at 2-under and 1-under, respectively.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Round 2 Tee Times (All Times ET):
- 7:40 a.m. — Isaiah Salinda, Jackson Koivun
- 7:50 a.m. — Maverick McNealy, Mackenzie Hughes
- 8:00 a.m. — Nick Taylor, Sam Stevens
- 8:10 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Brian Harman
- 8:20 a.m. — Thomas Detry, Adam Scott
- 8:30 a.m. — Robert MacIntyre, Matt Fitzpatrick
- 8:40 a.m. — Denny McCarthy, Max Greyserman
- 8:50 a.m. — Stephan Jaeger, Corey Conners
- 9:05 a.m. — Nick Dunlap, Will Zalatoris
- 9:15 a.m. — Chris Kirk, Christian Bezuidenhout
- 9:25 a.m. — Sepp Straka, Tony Finau
- 9:35 a.m. — Russell Henley, Tom Hoge
- 9:45 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry
- 9:55 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas
- 10:05 a.m. — Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns
- 10:20 a.m. — Joe Highsmith, Patrick Cantlay
- 10:30 a.m. — Justin Rose, Patrick Rodgers
- 10:40 a.m. — Harris English, Rafael Campos
- 10:50 a.m. — Brian Campbell, Jacob Bridgeman
- 11:00 a.m. — Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee
- 11:10 a.m. — J.J. Spaun, Aldrich Potgieter
- 11:20 a.m. — Aaron Rai, Sungjae Im
- 11:35 a.m. — Max Homa, Adam Hadwin
- 11:45 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Sahith Theegala
- 11:55 a.m. — Billy Horschel, Jason Day
- 12:05 p.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young
- 12:15 p.m. — Akshay Bhatia, Mattieu Pavon
- 12:25 p.m. — Davis Thompson, Eric Cole
- 12:35 p.m. — Austin Eckroat, Byeong Hun An
- 12:50 p.m. — Cam Davis, Si Woo Kim
- 1:00 p.m. — Ludvig Aberg, Scottie Scheffler
- 1:10 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland
- 1:20 p.m. — Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa
- 1:30 p.m. — Andrew Novak, Max McGreevy
- 1:40 p.m. — Daniel Berger, Ben Griffin
- 1:50 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Michael Kim
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.