Arnold Palmer Invitational
Orlando, Florida
Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge - Par 72 - 7,466 yards
Field - 72 entrants
Purse - $20M
The Preview
Golf contests were absent from Yahoo's DFS lobby last week for what became quite a weak field at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches after several early WDs, but we're back in action this week for the PGA Tour's third Signature Event of the 2026 season. Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club hosts a limited but stacked contingent of 72 qualifiers and exemptions, with a 36-hole cut that'll chop us down to the low 50 and ties, as well as those within 10 shots of the leader after two rounds.
One of the more difficult venues on Tour that tests players throughout the bag, Bay Hill doesn't always reward driving distance as much as its nearly 7,500 scorecard yardage might indicate. In addition to a few forced layups, thick rough surrounds these fairways, placing a greater emphasis on accuracy off the tee as long irons often find the hands of those who take their medicine. Each of the four par-3s measure at least 199 yards, which is another reason nearly 50 percent of approach shots figure to come from 175-plus yards out this week. It'll be warm and somewhat breezy in Orlando, albeit relatively tame weather conditions compared to past editions that produced single-digit under-par winners.
Recent Champions
2025 - Russell Henley
2024 - Scottie Scheffler
2023 - Kurt Kitayama
2022 - Scottie Scheffler
2021 - Bryson DeChambeau
2020 - Tyrrell Hatton
2019 - Francesco Molinari
2018 - Rory McIlroy
2017 - Marc Leishman
2016 - Jason Day
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Total Driving
Proximity: 200-plus yards
Bogey Avoidance
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Rory McIlroy - $45
Pacing the PGA Tour in bogey avoidance through his first two starts of the year, McIlroy also ranks No. 1 among this field in Par-5: BoB Percentage, second in both SG: Approach and rough proximity, and fourth in scrambling this season. He's an API past champion (2018) with top-6 finishes in five of 11 career appearances here.
Scottie Scheffler - $45
Scheffler's iron play has underwhelmed in 2026, but among this Signature Event field, he's still No. 1 in each of SG: Off-the-Tee, GIR percentage, birdie average and par-4 scoring through 16 rounds. He's already emerged victorious twice at Bay Hill in 2022 and 2024, and he's never placed outside the top-15 here. Not only does the soft pricing make it feasible to stack McIlroy/Scheffler on Yahoo, it's actually quite easy. Meanwhile, it's barely even physically possible on other DFS platforms.
Collin Morikawa - $41
Morikawa followed up his win at Pebble Beach with a T7 at The Genesis Invitational, improving to third in SG: Ballstriking this season in the process. Last year at Bay Hill, Morikawa found himself on top of the leaderboard after 54 holes before ultimately falling one shot shy of eventual champion Russell Henley, but Morikawa still led the tournament in driving accuracy, par-4 scoring and SG: Tee-to-Green.
Glue Guys
Matt Fitzpatrick - $30
The run of questionable pricing tactics begins here with Fitzpatrick, who figures to be popular in almost any format this week with five top-15s here in the last seven years. His current ball-striking form might be the best of his career, and he's steamed all the way up to 22-1 in the outright betting market as of Wednesday morning. At just a $30 salary, expect Fitzy to be one of the higher-owned clicks.
Cameron Young - $29
Alternatively, Young figures to fly a bit more under the radar, especially being squeezed between Fitzpatrick and Si Woo Kim in salary. Young posted a pedestrian T22-T41-T55 stretch from the Farmers Insurance Open through the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he rebounded with a T7 in the West Coast Swing finale at Riviera where he ranked top-10 among the Genesis Invitational field in both SG: OTT and SG: APP. He's now back on bermuda greens, which have statistically been his best putting surface over the past 18 months.
Si Woo Kim - $28
Kim has cooled off since a red-hot start to the 2026 campaign saw him finish T11-T6-T2-T3 from the Sony Open through the WM Phoenix Open, but his stellar iron play and driving accuracy remain. He's still second to none in each of SG: T2G, SG: APP and overall proximity through 21 measured rounds this season, though the putter has kept him out of the winner's circle. However, he doesn't need to land atop the podium to return value at just $29, especially given his ball-striking upside.
Bargain Bin
Jake Knapp - $22
Knapp has placed T11 or better in each of his first five starts to commence the season, notably ranking No. 1 in SG: Short Game (combination of SG: P and SG: ARG) and ninth in overall proximity from 200-plus yards. This $22 salary is completely out of whack given his current form, so expect Knapp to be a common chalk piece utilized in stars-and-scrubs builds.
Adam Scott - $22
Scott has risen to seventh in SG: Ballstriking through his first 13 measured rounds of the year, culminating with a fourth-place effort in his most recent outing at The Genesis Invitational where he gained 4.63 strokes with the putter, making it his best SG: Putting performance since the 2024 TOUR Championship. I doubt he reaches Knapp's ownership level in most contests, but Scott should be a somewhat popular building block.
Rickie Fowler - $20
Yahoo did a better job this week of pricing fewer "free squares" at the $20 salary minimum, though Fowler is one of the better values down here at the bottom of the board. He's riding a streak of six consecutive top-30s that dates back to last August's FedEx St. Jude Championship, and he ranks third among this field in putting from inside 10 feet, fourth in overall proximity, ninth in SG: Putting and 20th in total driving this season.
Looking for the best golf picks on Yahoo? Find the top Yahoo PGA DFS picks and value plays for every tournament from RotoWire golf expert Bryce Danielson.
