Arnold Palmer Invitational: Scoring goes and hides during Round Three

Arnold Palmer: Max Homa only player under par in round three

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – MARCH 05: Max Homa of the United States plays his shot from the 12th tee 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 Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

Scoring was at a premium during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In fact, only one player shot under par.

If you sat down Saturday to watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational and expected to see some low scores, then you were sorely mistaken.

There were just as many major winners who shot over 80, as there were players to shoot under par in today’s third round. Brooks Koepka was one of five players who couldn’t break 80, as his 81 was one of the worst rounds he has had in quite some time.

On the other side, Max Homa was the only player in the entire field to shoot under par. He carded a -2 70, and had a chance to make it much better as well. He would double bogey the 18th hole. Even with that, after being the only player to score well today he finds himself at +1 and in a T-16th place.

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It wasn’t just that players couldn’t shoot under par. It was that so many of them were a few strokes away, or more, from even being at even par for the day. Take one of the day two leaders, Sung Kang.

He shot +6 today, carding a 78. He now finds himself five shots back, and with a lot of work to do at a tournament where there have only been five rounds of 67 or better. What makes it sting even more for Kang is that he was at -8 at two different points today, and even made the turn at -7, which is where he started. The back nine was a completely different story, as he would make not one but two triple bogeys, coming on the 11th and 18th holes.

The 18th hole has been breaking the will of players all week long and is rating as the toughest hole on the course so far. Not only are players averaging +0.377, but there have been seven “others” on the hole, one of which belonged to Kang.

Things were so rough today, that Bryson DeChambeau shot even and jumped 23 spots in the rankings. He is even for the tournament and is in a T-9th place. There are a couple of players tied with him, Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler, who shot +3 in the third round and still jumped four spots!

Patrick Reed had one of the largest falls today, likely making a fair amount of viewers happy. Reed entered the day at -4, and finished the day at +4, falling 29 spots. The only players who fell further were Hideki Matsuyama and Jimmy Walker. Both started at -2, shot 78, and are now at +6.

Second round leader Tyrrell Hatton was able to pull together enough to stay at the top of the leaderboard. He was one of 14 players to shoot 73 or better and was one of the five who shot that number of 73, good for +1 on the day. Not at -6 for the tournament, he has a two-shot lead over Marc Leishman and Rory McIlroy. Hatton came through at the end of the day, birdieing the 16th and 18th holes.

If not for the 6th hole, Rickie Fowler would be up there near the top of the leaderboard as well. Instead, he carded the worst score of his professional career by shooting a nine at the par-five 6th hole, finishing +5 for the day. He is at +2 for the tournament and is in a T-23rd place.

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Round four tee times will start at 8:00 AM Eastern time. Homa’s impressive round three means he tees off towards the end, at 12:30 PM Eastern. The leaders, Tyrrell Hatton and Marc Leishman, will tee off at 1:40 PM Eastern.

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