On Thursday at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, it was Daniel Berger and then everyone else. The 32-year-old was pristine in his opening refrain at the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational, signing for a 9-under 63 to command a three-stroke lead over Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg after the first round.

Berger’s 63 is the lowest round at Bay Hill in over a decade with Adam Scott previously shooting a 62 in 2014. The mark set by Berger is the second-lowest round of his PGA Tour career, his best coming as a 62 at the 2016 Travelers Championship.

“I’ve been playing well. It’s like one shot here, one shot there that kind of doesn’t go your way,” Berger said. “And even last week I played pretty well and just didn’t quite score the way I wanted to. Really, it’s just freeing it up and enjoying it. Coming out here and just doing what you love to do and not thinking about the results and just sticking to the process that you know works for yourself.”

Making Berger’s performance even more impressive is that he revealed that he broke his finger playing in last summer’s BMW Championship. An injury that could take as long as a year to heal fully, he mentioned that he has good days and bad days with it. Thursday was clearly one of those good days.

Berger made nine pars and nine birdies for his 63, with his longest putt coming from just 12 feet. More of the same will be needed if he is to cash in on his first victory in over five years after suffering through tons of injuries throughout that time.

Directly in his rearview mirror is Morikawa, who admitted he still has last year’s tournament on his mind. Morikawa was unable to convert a back-nine lead into a triumph in Orlando 12 months ago. He is well on his way to positioning himself for a similar type of run over the weekend, as is Åberg, who put together the low round of the afternoon when conditions freshened. 

Meanwhile, other notables on the leaderboard include Cameron Young, who signed for a 66, Xander Schauffele, who was one worse without a bogey, and Chris Gotterup, who impressed with a 69 to sneak inside the top 10 along with Rickie Fowler.

Scottie Scheffler silenced his first-round critics with a round of 70, two strokes better than Rory McIlroy’s 72 in the late wave.

“It’s going to be an incredibly difficult and challenging week,” Berger said. “You can already see … the greens are like white. So a little bit of wind, a little bit less moisture, and it’s just going to be like a U.S. Open. I think when you come to Bay Hill to play this event, you know what you’re getting, and so it doesn’t shock me. You’re ready for it.”

Leader

1. Daniel Berger (-9): Golf is not easy around Bay Hill, but Berger did not care on Thursday. The former top-20 player in the world made birdie on half of his holes with all of them coming from inside 12 feet. Making all of those 50-50 putts around the 8-foot range and giving himself plenty of opportunities, he blitzed the field for one of the best rounds of his career and one of the best ever at Bay Hill.

“If I had to compare, it would probably be the 2018 U.S. Open. I shot, I don’t know, 3-, 4-under at Shinnecock on Saturday and went from 60th to tied for the lead,” Berger said in reference to the best rounds of his career. “So it has that U.S. Open kind of feel to it. I think the course is just going to get tougher as the week goes on. 

“The greens are going to get firmer. As you can see on 18, there’s a little bit of reception when you’re hitting a wedge in there, and I just, I don’t think that’s going to last. So, yeah, just hit it in the fairway and try to make as many putts as you can.”

Contenders

T2. Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Åberg (-6)
T4. Cameron Young, Jhonattan Vegas (-5)
T6. Ryan Fox, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott (-4)
T9. Billy Horschel, Min Woo Lee, Corey Conners, Harris English, Keith Mitchell, Bud Cauley, Kurt Kitayama, Chris Gotterup, Rickie Fowler (-3)

The two-time major champion looks refreshed and renewed after winning the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Finding his stride with the iron play — where he ranked second behind only Berger in Round 1 — Morikawa is strutting with a confidence that has not been seen since the early 2020s.

In addition to his patented iron play, Morikawa seems to have found an answer on the greens. He ranked top 10 in that category on Thursday thanks to makes from 40 feet, 21 feet, 39 feet, 16 feet and 29 feet. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that is a winning recipe.

“I’m never going to forget how I played last year,” Morikawa said. “You don’t want to forget about it. Like I still played solid. But you want to close out events. You don’t dwell on it. You learn from it, you move on, you live from it and that’s the biggest thing is, how do I take a lot of the good shots I had from last year — and this is a course, coming into last year, like I said yesterday, I think I had two missed cuts in a row. 

“So you go into it saying, ‘OK, maybe there is a way I can come out here and figure out the golf course and then plot my way around. It’s just nice to be able to continue that. Today I felt like I was kind of back and forth. Playing good golf, made some bogeys made some mistakes and to have that finish is a nice way to go into the next few days and say okay, how many days can we continue the good golf.”

Scheffler’s start

Another opening round in the 70s! The sky is falling. Oh, no! Not so fast my friends. Scheffler’s first-round 70 was almost two strokes better than the field average and puts the world No. 1 in prime position to contend for his third red cardigan in the last five years over the next 54 holes. There will be no 10-stroke deficit to overcome this week.

Scheffler deployed a new driver on Thursday and utilized it effectively, gaining nearly a stroke on the field with that club in particular. Just about average on the greens, Scheffler saw his irons lag behind a bit more than usual. He connected on only 10 greens in regulation — a mark most assume will improve despite how firm the golf course is playing.

“I think being satisfied is always a bit of a stretch in golf,” Scheffler said. “No, I feel like I did some really good things. I felt like I made a couple mistakes that I shouldn’t have, but overall I did some really good stuff out there. Anything under par on this golf course is a decent score.”

2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational updated odds, picks

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Daniel Berger: 5-1Scottie Scheffler: 6-1Collin Morikawa: 7-1Ludvig Åberg: 15/2Cameron Young: 11-1Xander Schauffele: 13-1Adam Scott: 25-1

Åberg is the only player listed above who played in the afternoon wave that was nearly two strokes more difficult. He should face calmer conditions Friday morning as will Fowler at 35-1, who was among my selections before the tournament. He is driving the ball as well as ever, putting with confidence and kept the mistakes off the scorecard on Thursday. More of the same should position him for a weekend run.