ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Chris Kirk is coming off an emotional win nearly eight years in the making. He carried that momentum to seven birdies at Bay Hill and a 5-under 67 for a share of the early lead Thursday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Cameron Young also had a 67 in morning conditions that might be as easy as Bay Hill gets all week. They were one shot ahead of a group that included defending champion Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth.
Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy were among those playing in the afternoon.
Kirk won the Honda Classic in a playoff just four days ago, a monumental win for the 37-year-old from Georgia who stepped away from the PGA Tour to seek help for alcoholism and depression.
It has been nonstop ever since — the Seminole Pro-Member on Monday, the drive north to Orlando and golf at Isleworth with longtime friend Charlie Culberson of the Tampa Bay Rays, the pro-am Wednesday and then one of the toughest tests on the Florida swing.
He was up to the task with a round that started and ended with a bogey and featured seven birdies in between.
“I’ve definitely been busy, and so 5:30 came early this morning and felt strange a little bit, like, ‘OK, we’re really doing this all over again.’ So felt a little bit out of in the very beginning, but then settled in and played some solid golf,” Kirk said.
It helped to hole a pair of 30-foot birdie putts, but otherwise he looked as though he didn’t want to wait another eight years for his next win.
Young is waiting for his first, and it’s hard to imagine this kind of talent waiting much longer. He had two close calls in the majors last year, including a 31 on the back nine of St. Andrews to finish one back at the British Open.
Young has a connection to Bay Hill. His father, David, recently retired as the longtime head pro at Sleepy Hollow in New York, and they occasionally spent weeks during the winter in Orlando at nearby Orange Tree. Young played Bay Hill every so often as a teenager.
“The golf course in tournament shape is a different animal when the rough gets like this and the green gets firms,” Young said.
That’s not to suggest he had his way with Bay Hill when it wasn’t set up for the PGA Tour.
“It’s not easy as it is,” he said. “And I wasn’t quite as good then.”
Bay Hill is bracing for the worst over the next few days, with the wind expected to be strong on a course that already is fast and firm. Even in the pro-am Wednesday, players were having a tough time finding pitch marks on the green.
“We’ll see what happens on these greens,” Scheffler said. “It better not blow too hard or they may need to slow them down or something. I really don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Scheffler knows what to expect and likes it that way. He recalled his rookie year at Bay Hill when he was tied for 13th going into the weekend, shot 75-75 and only moved down two spots on the leaderboard. Only four players finished under par that year.
“So it’s definitely a challenging place, but like I said earlier, just try and get the ball in play and go from there,” he said.
The ninth hole was particularly tough, playing at 492 yards into the wind, with fairways mown toward the tee so balls lose some of the roll into the grain of the grass.
Of the leading six players from the morning round, all made bogey on No. 9. Young was asked what was going on, and the straight shooter from New York didn’t waste words.
“It’s 500 yards into the wind with the narrow fairway and 4 1/2-inch rough,” he said. “It’s just a really hard hole. It’s not complicated.”
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