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Justin Thomas on rehab post-surgery, expectations for return at Bay Hill<\/p>\n
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Written by Alistair Cameron<\/p>\n
Arnold Palmer\u2019s Bay Hill Club & Lodge is ready to host the third Signature Event of the 2026 season. The stars are on display, including a returning Justin Thomas, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and seven-time PGA TOUR winner Collin Morikawa.<\/p>\n
Hear what they had to say ahead of their tee times in Orlando:<\/p>\n
Thomas on teeing it up post-surgery<\/p>\n
Justin Thomas has a tee time again on the PGA TOUR. It comes after a prolonged period away since he underwent surgery in November to address a disc issue that caused what he described as \u201cnagging hip pain\u201d for several months. <\/p>\n
As he steps onto the tee Thursday for his afternoon tee time at Bay Hill, Thomas understands the situation he\u2019s in, having not played competitive golf for some time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to be realistic, I haven’t played a tournament in six months,\u201d Thomas said. \u201c… I think the longest I’ve gone not playing a tournament since I started playing tournaments, like when I was 7 or something. I\u2019m going to be rusty in terms of competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury that has kept Thomas away from the golf course was almost surprising to him. He told the media at Bay Hill that he had \u201czero back pain during all of this,\u201d but instead his back would \u201cjust feel like a little more tired.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now, at 100%, Thomas believes his swing is in as good a spot as it can be to take on Arnie\u2019s place, but the mental side is what he\u2019ll be focusing on most. <\/p>\n
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Justin Thomas on rehab post-surgery, expectations for return at Bay Hill<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just going to be the concentrating for four and a half, five hours on a very difficult test, four days in a row. \u2026 I just have to be nice on myself and give myself a little bit of grace,\u201d Thomas said, whose last stroke-play tournament came at the Procore Championship last September.<\/p>\n
When quizzed about how he spent the time away from the course, Thomas was pleased to announce he\u2019d finished Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, “Greenlights,” joking he was \u201cjust proud of myself that I actually read the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Thomas, this week it\u2019ll be a bit more about reading greens rather than New York Times bestsellers.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Paul Hodowanic\u2019s Signature Scroll<\/a> newsletter for more on Thomas\u2019 recovery and trends he\u2019s seen from recent players who have undergone similar procedures.<\/p>\n Scheffler addresses starting struggles<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler heads to the Arnold Palmer Invitational with no doubt that he\u2019s the best in the world. Scheffler\u2019s lead in average points over No. 2-ranked Rory McIlroy in the Official World Golf Ranking is almost double that of what McIlroy has accrued. With already one win under his belt for the year, it\u2019s just a matter of how many. <\/p>\n But as Scheffler takes on Arnold Palmer\u2019s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, one of the PGA TOUR\u2019s toughest tests, there is one question lingering about the world No. 1’s play: How will he handle the opening round? <\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t all been plain sailing for Scheffler, despite winning in his season debut at The American Express. For the 29-year-old and his lofty standards, he\u2019s had some inconsistent starts to tournaments in the infancy stage of the new season. In his last three events, he\u2019s yet to break par in the first round, at times, sitting last on the leaderboard. <\/p>\n Despite all the talk, Scheffler knows it\u2019s just that.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, last year on TOUR I led the TOUR in first-round, second-round, third-round and fourth-round scoring, so I’m not too concerned over a very small sample size,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201c… I’ve always been a guy that’s been really good at staying in the present, doing what I need to do in order to go out and play well. And so at 16 rounds, I’ve had 13 that have been really solid and three that haven’t been as good.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I’m still batting at a pretty nice percentage. And so if I wanted to dig deep into it I could completely change how I approach tournaments, but I don’t think that would be very wise.\u201d<\/p>\n At Bay Hill, it might not be the easiest spot to turn things around, though, ranking the fifth toughest on TOUR last season. But if there\u2019s one person to do it, it\u2019s probably Scheffler. <\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler on his experiences, nerves from hosting Masters Champions Dinner<\/p>\n Collin Morikawa returned to the winner\u2019s circle at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am off the back of a significant putter switch. The flastick he ended up winning with wasn\u2019t even his, it was borrowed from his good friend Kurt Kitayama.<\/p>\n In the face of all that, and a good finish the following week at The Genesis Invitational, Morikawa was still on-site early week at Bay Hill, testing different putters on the iconic green in front of Arnold Palmer\u2019s lodge. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the worst,\u201d Morikawa jokingly said Wednesday when asked about the situation. <\/p>\n Collin Morikawa on refreshed positive mindset <\/p>\n Yet, there is method to the madness. <\/p>\n With the change in course conditions, travelling from slower and clumpy Poa annua greens on the West Coast to the fiery, baked-out surfaces that many expect to see come Sunday afternoon in Orlando, Morikawa is focused on his speed. <\/p>\n \u201cI do a lot of testing based on feel,\u201d Morikawa said. \u201c… So I brought it up to James (Holley), who has fitted nearly all of us in our Spiders, and I was like, ‘Look, we’re going to be going on a lot faster greens, they’re going to look a lot faster, they’re going to play faster, they’re going to be baked.’ There’s a certain ball speed I like off the face.\u201d<\/p>\n By trying a few different inserts, Morikawa was able to find the correct speed off the face in an \u201cinstant.\u201d<\/p>\n The return to Bay Hill also brings Morikawa back to one of his toughest losses and the feeling of failing to convert a 54-hole lead in 2025. <\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know if you really get over any of your losses,\u201d Morikawa said when asked about letting it slip the previous year. \u201cI think whenever you show up at a certain event, you think back at a lot of great shots and then you think back at some shots that you kind of let slip away.\u201d<\/p>\n But the present Morikawa at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is different from the one 365 days ago, with a better focus on his body, golf swing and overall demeanor, thanks to the help from a two-time major winner Mark O’Meara.<\/p>\n \u201cMark O’Meara offered me a lot of great advice, and he says there’s a lot of ups and there’s a lot of downs, you just have to be able to just kind of mellow those out and enjoy the process, enjoy the ride,\u201d said Morikawa. \u201cAnd it’s easy to say enjoy, but enjoy is not really how it’s all through and through, right? It’s a grind. But you have to be present in that grind.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I’ve done a decent job of doing that. But trust me, it’s never fun.\u201d<\/p>\n *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-11jnzpa>img,.css-11jnzpa>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-11jnzpa::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}]]> Mar 2, 2026<\/p>\n The First Look: Signature storylines abound at Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>The First Look<\/a> Presented by<\/p>\n![\"Scottie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772682549_973_image.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"8H AGO 6 Min Read Latest *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Justin Thomas on rehab post-surgery, expectations for return at Bay Hill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-515156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}