Berger handles the ‘U.S. Open in spring’ by building 5-shot lead at Bay Hill

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Daniel Berger loves playing in Florida in March. For most everyone else Friday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bay Hill made it feel like a spring preview of the U.S. Open.

Berger was on his game again in the most demanding conditions, leaning on a steady diet of fairways and greens and feeling just as good about his lag putts as he did the five birdies he made in a round of 4-under 68 that gave him a five-shot lead.

“You’ve just got to stay patient and take what the course gives you,” Berger said. “And when you have an opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage because there’s not many of them out there.”

Berger was at 13-under 131.

Akshay Bhatia posted the low round of a balmy afternoon with a 66 to get within five of the lead. Ludvig Aberg (71), Collin Morikawa (71) and Sahith Theegala (67) were another shot back.

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., was the top Canadian and is in a five-way tie for 24th at 1 under. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is in an 11-way tie for 29th at even par. And Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., is in a five-way tie for 48th at 1 over.

Staying patient was a challenge.

“It felt like Sunday afternoon greens, but it’s only Friday,” Harris English said after a hard-earned 72. “I might have fixed three ball marks today because you can’t find them. It’s the U.S. Open in spring.”

Morikawa came up with a colour chart for the greens, which already were yellow by Wednesday.

“They’re getting brown and they’re going to be very, very brown — if not purple — by Sunday, and that’s just part of this week,” he said. “Yeah, that’s the colour scale we tend to see.”

Ben Griffin was one inside the cut line of 2-over 146 when he faced a 30-foot par putt on the 18th. He ran that nearly 15 feet by the hole, missed it and was cleaning out his locker.

Scottie Scheffler was stunned when his bunker shot on the 15th rolled out by the hole and never stopped rolling until it went off the green 30 feet away. He chipped that in for par. But on the 18th, his 30-foot birdie putt that he barely touched raced some 10 feet by for a bogey and a 71, leaving him 10 shots behind.

He turned and slung his golf ball into the water to vent, and after signing his card was asked how much tougher it would be on the weekend.

“They’re already dead. I’m not sure how much deader they can get. Like 15 is completely dead,” he said. “When it hit the green, I thought I hit it to three feet. And then it bounced crazy forward. I don’t know how that happened.”

He turned to his caddie, Ted Scott, and said, “How did that ball bounce forward?”

“Same way the ball bounced backward on 9,” Scott replied.

“It’s been like this before,” Scheffler said. “Typically here if you go late Friday, they’re pretty much already dead. It’s not anything unusual. It’s a good test. It’s hard.”

This is what Bay Hill has become in recent years. The cut at 2-over 146 actually was lower than it has been the previous two years when the Arnold Palmer Invitational became an elevated event.

Xander Schauffele finished with two straight bogeys to ruin an otherwise solid round of 71. Rory McIlroy played in the morning and had only one bogey in his round of 68 to move up the leaderboard, only for Berger to match his score. McIlroy was nine shots back.

“If we don’t get any rain the next couple days — which it looks like we won’t — it’s going to be really difficult,” McIlroy said. “It’s difficult even if you hit the ball in the fairway. You’re hitting good iron shots to 35, 30 feet all the time, and then you’re not going to make a lot of those.”

All of that makes the task of catching Berger a little more daunting.

He opened with a 25-foot birdie putt, and his three birdies on the back nine where in the six-foot range. But he was rarely under much stress on the long putts that he lagged reasonably close, no small task on greens with so little grass.

Berger is among those who has not earned a Masters invitation, so this could be a big week. A win gets him in. Even a runner-up finish would get him in through the world ranking.

In front of him are 36 holes on a course that doesn’t allow anyone to get too comfortable.

“It’s a place where you can’t really force it, you can’t really try to make things happen. It’s just going to happen,” Aberg said.

It happened to Justin Thomas, who is competing for the first time since the Ryder Cup in September because of surgery on his lower back. This was not an easy re-entry. The two-time PGA champion opened with a 79 and followed with another 79.

“I’m trying as hard as I can to give myself a little bit of grace of how long I haven’t played and how difficult this sport can be,” Thomas said. “But at the same time, I expect more out of myself. I don’t think there’s any situation where I feel like I should shoot 14-over par for two days.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press