Arnold Palmer Invitational: Rory and Matt Every atop the leaderboard.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – MARCH 05: Matt Every of the United States reacts after his birdie on the eighth green during the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 05, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

The first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational is in the books. Unlike last week at the Honda Classic, plenty of people were able to go low during round one.

Thankfully, players were able to score a little easier this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as compared to last week at the Honda Classic. While last week was a nice change, it was comforting to see the Pros out there finding a good amount of birdies.

We will start off with the leader of the first round, Matt Every. Things are going much better for him this week at the Arnold Palmer as compared to last week at the Honda. He infamously carded an 11 there. Today was much different, about as different as you can get. He shot a clean scorecard today, carding seven birdies to take the solo lead with a -7 65. A large part of his scoring came from the fact that he was on fire on approach shots today, hitting 83.3% of the greens.

There is a man right on his tail that you may have heard of. Rory McIlroy’s round of 66 was a bit more exciting than Every’s, as Rory had five birdies, with one eagle and one bogey. Rory sits all alone in 2nd place at -6.

More from Pro Golf Now

Talor Gooch and Scottie Scheffler sit behind Rory, each having shot 67. Scheffler did it in a manner similar to Every, as he finished with five birdies and no other marks.

Sam Burns looked like he was going to be sitting there at -7 with Every, and that he would be all alone at the top of the leaderboard. Rory and Every played later in the day, while Burns was one of the earlier players off in the opening round, and was cruising through his first 16 holes. He had made seven birdies with no other marks. It unraveled a bit down the stretch as he finished with a bogey on 17 and a double on 18.

All eyes were on Rickie Fowler today, as he had a line of Arnold Palmer inspired gear that was released heading into the tournament, which is something that he has done for a few years now. Sporting his Arnold Palmer gear, Fowler came out and played fairly well and safe, with just two birdies and a bogey en route to an opening round 71.

There is one person that we definitely need to talk about, and it is someone that you likely have not heard of. We covered how Brandon Matthews got into the tournament, and it’s worth checking out once again.

The good news is that he had 15 pars today. The bad news is that on the other three holes he made bogeys, and now sits at +3. The cut is likely going to be around even or +1, so he is going to have some work to do come Friday.

Next. The World Handicap System – A Review. dark

Round two starts early Friday morning, as is expected during a Florida event. Scottie Scheffler and Brian Gay will go off the first tee at 6:45 AM Eastern, while Harris English, Doc Redman, and Sam Saunders will go off the 10th. If you’re interested in the leaders, Rory goes off at 12:44 PM off the 1st tee, while Every goes off the 1st as well, albeit 4.5 hours earlier at 8:17 AM Eastern.

Home/Golf News