Arnold Palmer Invitational

Arnold Palmer Invitational
Tournament information
LocationBay Hill, Florida
Established1966
Course(s)Bay Hill Club and Lodge
Par72
Length7,466 yards (6,827 m)
Tour(s)PGA Tour
FormatStroke play
Prize fundUS$20,000,000
Month playedMarch
Tournament record score
Aggregate264 Payne Stewart (1987)
To par−23 Buddy Allin (1973)
Current champion
United States Scottie Scheffler
Location map
Bay Hill is located in the United States
Bay Hill
Bay Hill
Location in the United States
Bay Hill is located in Florida
Bay Hill
Bay Hill
Location in Florida

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida.

The event was founded in 1979 as a successor to the Florida Citrus Open Invitational, which debuted in 1966 and was played at Rio Pinar Country Club, east of Orlando, through 1978. Arnold Palmer won the Florida Citrus Open in 1971.

Since 1979, the tournament title has had several different names, most of them including "Bay Hill," but has played under the Palmer name since 2007. On March 21, 2012, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and MasterCard Worldwide announced an extension to MasterCard's "Presented by" sponsorship until the 2016 tournament.[1][2]

In June 2014, the PGA Tour approved a resolution to grant the winner a three-year exemption, one more than regular Tour events and on par with winners of the World Golf Championships, The Tour Championship, and the Memorial Tournament.[3]

The winner receives a red cardigan sweater in memory of Arnold Palmer, a tradition that began with the 2017 tournament after Palmer's death in 2016.[4]

In 2019, the event was added to the Open Qualifying Series, giving up to three non-exempt players entry into The Open Championship.[5]

  1. ^ "MasterCard Extends Presenting Sponsorship of Arnold Palmer Invitational". MasterCard.com (Press release). March 21, 2012. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  2. ^ "MasterCard Extends Sponsorship". ArnoldPalmerInvitational.com. March 21, 2012. Archived from the original on April 7, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  3. ^ "Boost to Arnie and Jack tourneys". ESPN. Associated Press. June 3, 2014.
  4. ^ Auclair, T.J. "Red cardigan sweater for Arnold Palmer Invitational winner revealed". PGA of America. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  5. ^ "The Open Qualifying Series for 2019 launches with four new events". theopen.com. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2018.