Palmer memories abound at Bay Hill
Sam Saunders stepped onto the first tee at Bay Hill and flashed a quick thumbs-up to the crowd, the trademark gesture of his grandfather. For the next four hours, memories of Arnold Palmer were all around him Thursday in Orlando.
Nothing hit him harder, though, than his walk to the 16th tee. Parked next to the tee was Palmer’s cart — that’s where his grandfather loved to watch the action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational — and Saunders grew emotional.
“I started thinking about all the years that I’ve played in the tournament, and I just started thinking about him driving around in the cart and watching me,” Saunders said. “And just to see it sitting there empty ... yeah, that’s hard. I think we all feel that. I had my emotional moment, looked at it, and then got my head where it needed to be to play the next hole.”
And then he finished like Palmer, taking on tough shots. They just didn’t work out the way he wanted — he shot 74 — though that sometimes was the case for the King, too.
The first Arnold Palmer Invitational without the beloved tournament host began with Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Matt Fitzpatrick of England shooting 5-under-par 67s to share the lead on a Bay Hill course that looked better than ever.
They were one shot clear of former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, Paul Casey and Charley Hoffman. Defending champion Jason Day was among those at 2 under.
The week is a celebration of Palmer, who died Sept. 25, and for the tournament he brought to Bay Hill in 1979. LPGA Tour: Stacy Lewis seemed in position to make a run at the second 59 in LPGA Tour history before settling for an 8-under 64 and a share of the first-round lead at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup in Phoenix.
Lewis was 9 under through 11 holes, parred the next six and closed with a bogey. Ariya Jutanugarn, In Gee Chun, Katie Burnett and Sandra Changkija joined Lewis atop the leaderboard at Desert Ridge. Colleges: Stanford senior Maverick McNealy and Cal sophomore Collin Morikawa were named to the U.S. Palmer Cup team. The annual Ryder Cupstyle competition, matching top U.S. college players against their European counterparts, will be held June 9-11 in Atlanta.