Jason Day will sleep on lead at Arnold Palmer Invitational
ORLANDO — Troy Merritt and Kevin Chappell crashed the top-10 party in Saturday’s weather-challenged third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Jason Day, however, is still in control at Arnie’s Bash at Bay Hill.
When the day broke with sunshine, the anchor group of world No. 3 Day, No. 7 Henrik Stenson and No. 8 Justin Rose had everyone’s attention. That and a huge storm cell that was on the horizon and forced tee times to be pushed up into the early morning.
The cell and the final group kept their distance as the noon hour approached. And then the rain came, temperatures dropped, winds picked up and changed directions and weather suits were put on, taken off, put on …
But Merritt, who won his lone PGA Tour title last year in the Quicken Loans National but has seven missed cuts in 10 starts this season, and Chappell, who is searching for his first Tour title, each shot the lowest rounds of the day, a 5-under-par 67 that put each squarely in contention at drenched Bay Hill.
Day, who started the day with a two-shot lead, maintained it with a 70 to move to 15 under and has led after each round.
“It was a tough old day,” Day said. “ … I'm just glad I'm in. I'm tired after today but we got one more day to go. I felt like I stayed pretty patient out there and gave myself good opportunities coming in and I think if I can stay patient again tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. But I feel really good about the game.”
Stenson stayed within two with a 70 of his own, joined in second place by Merritt and Chappell at 13 under. Rose fell into a tie for fifth, four shots back, with a 71. He’s joined there by Derek Fathauer (69).
Merritt didn’t feel like his game was great earlier in the week, and he certainly wasn’t confident after missing seven of 10 cuts. Then again, he’d missed quite a few cuts before last year’s win – his first in 96 Tour starts.
“It's pretty much my MO. All my good finishes the last few years have come off of 5, 6, 7 missed cuts in a row,” Merritt said. “I really haven't been playing that poorly. … I've actually played fairly solid. I’ve just had some weird stretches where I just can't get off the bogey train and obviously that's not very good out here. Not good anywhere. … But the putter showed up and that's always a good thing for me.”
Chappell said he felt good coming into the week, especially after playing solo in the final round of the Valspar Championship last week. Well, almost solo; he did put Snapchat to use during the round.
“I only have like 10 followers, but it was fun,” he said. “It was hilarious. We were having fun with it. I started noticing shots coming out of the gun the right way and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is kind of fun.’”
And then he got sick Thursday.
“My son and wife came out from the West Coast and he had a bug, and now my wife and I both have it and he's great,” Chappell said with a laugh.
He hopes he won’t be under the weather come Sunday’s fourth round. But he relishes being under the gun to try and win his first title.
“It's something I thought about thousands and thousands of times, and I could see myself doing it,” he said. “It's just a matter of going out and doing it and I can't think of a better place to get my first win, at the castle that Mr. Palmer built and in front of a world-class field.”
He’ll have to get by Day, who said he never could gather any momentum during the round, the result of the weather. Especially the heavy air, which was throwing off his power. For instance, he hits his stock 4-iron 220 yards; on Saturday he hit it 200. But as he has preached this week, he kept his composure and remained patient. As is his custom, on every tee and every approach, he closed his eyes and visualized the shot he was about to hit. It also gives him time to slow things down.
And for the third night in a row, he’ll sleep on the lead.
“It's a different pressure when you're six back or when you just made the cut. It's totally different pressure rather than, you know, if you've had the lead for the last three days,” said Day, who has often talked to Tiger Woods about the burden of sleeping on the lead. “It's great pressure to have because it only makes you stronger as a player, the more times you put yourself there. ...
“It’s a good, uncomfortable feeling that I've always talked about that I always want in my career because I know that if I've got that, I have a comfortable feeling that I'm doing it right and usually I'm around the lead. We’ve got one more day, and it's going to be a very patient day out there depending on the weather. But I'm trying to get some good rest and recovery tonight. … It's going to be tough to win tomorrow. I’ve got to stay in my own world and just focus on myself and if I hit bad shots, forget about them, move on and try to keep pressing forward."