2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational: Top 10 power rankings at Bay Hill

Bay Hill is another course Rory McIlroy has tamed in his career. While he only has one win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2018, he’s never finished worse than T-27th in nine starts and has six top-10s and a T-11th.

Last year, McIlroy carded 67-68-72-72 to nearly pull out the win in major championship-like conditions, settling for T-2nd. He was just a shot back of Kurt Kitayama.

McIlroy was eighth in the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (3.396) and 12th in SG: Off-the-Tee (3.61).

“It's one of these places where there's a lot of holes where everyone just hits it in the same spots off the tee,” McIlroy was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2021, “but then when you can give yourself an advantage by taking driver and getting it up there, tee shots like 3, tee shots like 6, where some of the shorter guys are having to go up the sliver of fairway up the right when longer guys don't have to really worry about that.”

McIlroy is coming off a T-21st finish last week at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. It was his second straight top-25. That would be a nice stat for mere mortals, but it’s likely leaving him wanting more.

He does have a win in 2024 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour.

McIlroy is driving the ball incredibly well this season, which is imperative around Bay Hill. He’s first in SG: Off-the-Tee (1.279) and first in total driving, which combines his ranking of fourth in driving distance (314.3 yards) and driving accuracy (68.18%).