A major championship test has produced a major championship leaderboard through the first round of the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational. On a day when the scoring average at Bay Hill Club & Lodge was roughly 74.50, it was last year's runner-up Wyndham Clark who seized control of the tournament with an opening 5-under 67 to command a two-stroke lead over Shane Lowry and Keegan Bradley, among others.
"I don't know if I figured it out. I definitely feel a little more comfortable on it," Clark said of Bay Hill. "I don't know, I just think there's a lot of water, there's a lot of trouble out here, and I think I've just gotten more comfortable with some of those tee shots.
Maybe a little more conservative on some holes, maybe a little more aggressive on others. "Then just I think thinking my way around the course better. I think in the past sometimes I would get out of position and I would try to make up for it and then I make a big number," he said.
"I've just kind of learned to maybe put it back in play and just maybe make your par or bogey and not try to get those big numbers. So that's maybe been it. It's nice to put some good numbers on this golf course and, you know, if anything it's really good momentum for the rest of the week.
" Clark was the beneficiary of calmer -- albeit still difficult -- conditions Thursday afternoon as the scoring average among the later wave proved to be about 1.50 strokes lower than those who teed off in the morning. Clark raced to the top of the lea.