PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Jon Rahm felt like every shot would be good and most of them were Saturday as he posted an 8-under 64 and built a one-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood in The Players Championship.

Five shots behind going into the third round, Rahm shot 30 on the back nine at the TPC Sawgrass and surged into the lead when McIlroy and Fleetwood couldn’t keep pace. His only bogey was on the sixth hole, and even that landed next to the pin until running over the back.

“Didn’t miss many shots out there,” Rahm said. “Really, really confident with my irons. Every time I stepped up, I felt like I was going to hit a good shot.”

There were too many to single out for the 24-year-old Spaniard, who was at 15-under 201.

McIlroy and Fleetwood struggled from the start and both eventually recovered, McIlroy sooner than Fleetwood.

McIlroy muffed a chip and had to scramble for bogey on the opening hole, hit a chip over the green on the par-5 second hole and turned potential birdie into bogey, and that was as bad as it got. He still was under par at the turn by running off three birdies, including a 4-iron to a foot on the hardest par 3 on the course at No. 8.

But after a two-putt birdie on the par-5 11th, McIlroy’s chances dried up. Even on the par-5 16th, he tried a low runner out of the pine trees and it came out so hot that it ran through the green and into the water.

Even so, he was bogey-free over the last 16 holes and shot 70. And he can at least avoid questions about winning from the final group, something McIlroy hasn’t done in his last nine occasions dating to the start of 2018.

“I just need to hit fairways and greens. If I can do that, and take the opportunities I give myself, hopefully I can turn tomorrow into the best Sunday of the year so far,” McIlroy said.

Fleetwood missed a 30-inch putt on the opening hole and took double bogey, and he fell three shots behind through seven holes. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 8 after McIlroy tapped in for his birdie, and then picked up four birdies where they were available for his 70.

“It was just a grind,” he said. “I’m glad I showed the strength mentally more than anything. Under par is always a good score around here no matter how you play.”

Jason Day had a 68 and was three shots behind.

Tiger Woods was five shots better on the par-3 17th – a quadruple bogey on Friday, a 2-foot birdie putt on Saturday – but still started so slowly that even a late run of birdies was only good for a 72. He was 12 shots behind in his last stroke-play event before the Masters.

Five players were within five shots of Rahm, the deficit the Spaniard made up on Saturday. That group included Brandt Snedeker (65) and Keegan Bradley (68), and Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who played the par 5s at even and still shot a 69.

Rahm, who already has six worldwide victories in just short of three years as a pro, was still lagging behind when he made the turn, and then quickly moved to the top. After a short birdie on the 10th, he hit 4-iron from 243 yards to 3 feet on a front left pin at the par-5 11th for an eagle. He hit the right shot on the par-3 13th, with the pin below a ridge near the water, into 3 feet for another birdie.

By the end of the day, his 64 was about as high as it could have been. He two-putted from just inside 15 feet for a birdie on the 16th, and he had another birdie chance from about that range on the 18th that would have tied the course record.

No matter. He was in the lead, facing a Sunday pairing with Fleetwood as he goes for the most important win of his young career.

It figures to be a mental test as much as anything he does with his irons.

The Players Stadium Course can take as quickly as it gives, and the forecast was for much stronger wind – compared with very little on Saturday – and cooler weather. Rahm is fiery, and his emotions at times can get in his way.

He has worked hard to control his temper and still let his passion carry him to great shots.

“It was a year of personal growth rather than golf game,” Rahm said. “It’s been a work in progress of many years to get to this point, and it’s hard to do when you’re playing highly competitive golf. … This is what I called earlier a midterm of hopefully a very good final project.”

Canadian Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., notched a 4-under 68 to move to 6 under for the tournament, good for a share of 24th heading into Sunday’s finale. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is one behind Conners at 5 under.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The easy way out was to go low under a tree 20 feet in front of Rory McIlroy.

He was looking up.

Coming off a 10-foot eagle and a 20-foot birdie that tied him for the lead Friday in The Players Championship, McIlroy risked wasting that great finish with a bold shot. His caddie, Harry Diamond, tried to talk him out of it. McIlroy instead opened the face of a pitching wedge and sent it straight up in the air, letting the right-to-left wind carry it onto the green 15 feet away.

“I stepped over it a couple times like, ‘No, I think I can do this,”’ McIlroy said. “I just opened up a wedge as much as I could and just took a swipe at it, and the ball sort of came out the way I thought.”

He got his par for a 7-under 65 and was tied Tommy Fleetwood, who had a better start than McIlroy finished. Fleetwood opened birdie-eagle-birdie on his way to a 67, giving him a share of the 36-hole lead for the second straight week.

They were at 12-under 132, three shots clear of anyone else.

And they were nine shots ahead of Tiger Woods, who played solid golf except for one hole – the wrong hole. Woods put two balls into the water on the notorious par-3 17th, leading to a quadruple bogey that wiped out a good start and forced him to settle for a 71.

Given the nature of this golf course – and a forecast for a different wind – the fun might just be starting.

And that’s as far as McIlroy was willing to look.

“Winning is a byproduct of doing all the right things, and I feel like if I can continue to do those things well, hopefully I do end up with the trophy on Sunday,” he said. “But there’s a lot of golf to play before that.”

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., both are 10 shots off the lead at 2 under. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford missed the cut at 7 over.

The biggest surprise from the group three shots off the lead might be the 48-year-old Jim Furyk, mainly because he didn’t think he would be at Sawgrass. After devoting two years as Ryder Cup captain, his world ranking plunged 194 spots to No. 231. But a great finish at the start of the Florida swing to tie for ninth moved him high enough in the FedEx Cup to get into the strongest field in golf at the last minute.

And then he delivered his best score in 80 rounds over 25 years, a 64 that put him in the group at 9-under 135.

“I thought this was an off week,” Furyk said. “It’s a nice gift, an opportunity.”

Ian Poulter, who resurrected his PGA Tour career with a runner-up finish at The Players two years ago, had a 66 and was three shots behind, along with Abraham Ancer of Mexico (66) and Brian Harman (69).

Dustin Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player, also had an eagle-birdie-par finish for a 68. He was in the group five shots behind.

McIlroy hasn’t won since Bay Hill a year ago, though he has had his chances for more. The Arnold Palmer Invitational last week was the ninth time in his last 30 tournaments dating to the start of 2018 that he played in the final group without winning.

But he has been patient. He says his attitude has been good all year, and it can be tested severely on the Players Stadium Course. There is no sense of panic or a need to start pressing if he gets into that position again.

“I just need to keep seeing red numbers,” McIlroy said. “I don’t need a win. I’m not putting myself under pressure to … again, winning is a byproduct of doing all the things that I’m doing well. … If I focus on winning, what goes into that?”

After a sluggish start – even par through seven holes – McIlroy ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn, and then he poured it on with a 4-iron to 10 feet on the par-5 16th for eagle, and a wedge to the back shelf on the island green for a 20-foot birdie putt.

That was followed by his great escape, so good that McIlroy smiled as he watched a replay of the shot on the large video board as he walked to the green. His 15-foot birdie putt stopped just short of the hole.

McIlroy said he told NBC Sports analyst Roger Maltbie that “playing with Phil the last two days maybe inspired me to play a shot like that.” That would be Phil Mickelson, who didn’t play very inspired, at all. Mickelson had another 74 and missed the cut at The Players for the sixth time in the last seven years.

Fleetwood knows a thing or two about fast starts. Last month in Mexico, he started eagle-eagle.

This felt just as good, perhaps because of his standing in the tournament. Fleetwood, who shared the 18-hole lead, was two behind when he teed off and back in the lead after just two holes. He made a 12-foot birdie on No. 1, holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 second and then made a 25-footer on No. 3.

“I had a great range session warming up, and all you want to do then is make sure you try and take that out onto the course, which was very different,” Fleetwood said. “I had the absolute dream start. … Today was a little bit more up and down, but it’s going to be. There was a lot of good stuff, and I just feel really happy with it.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – March or May, there is no shortage of excitement at The Players Championship.

Tiger Woods made only one par on the back nine Thursday, revving up the crowd with five birdies, only to slow his charge with three mistakes.

Emiliano Grillo hit the pin on the island-green 17th and the ball nearly bounced into the water. One group later, Ryan Moore heard the “clink” of ball hitting pin on the fly and heard only cheers for the ninth hole-in-one on the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.

Harris English had an albatross 2. Kiradech Aphibarnrat had an 84.

There were 23 eagles. Fifty players had a double bogey or worse.

When the day ended, Keegan Bradley and Tommy Fleetwood went different routes to reach the same score and share the lead at 7-under 65.

Bradley got off to a fast start and had three putts for eagle, making one of them. Fleetwood had a big finish with three straight birdie putts of 15 feet or longer.

“If you like golf, you should like this golf course, really,” Fleetwood said. “It’s just about as fair as you’re going to get a test. If you hit it well like I did today, you’re going to have chances and you can shoot a score, and people are shooting scores. But you can also get it the other way, as soon as you start struggling and start going the other way, it can easily go against you. It’s an amazing course for that.”

The three Canadians are well back. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., shot even-par 72, and Abbotsford, B.C., players Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin carded 73 and 76, respectively.

Woods hit a shot off a spectator’s ankle on the first hole, clipped a tree off the tee on the second hole, managed to get through the front nine, and then thought he might be able to take advantage late in the afternoon as the wind began to die.

He did, and then he didn’t.

A birdie was followed by a ball in the water on the par-5 11th for a bogey. Two birdies were followed by a shot in the rough-covered mounds. Two more birdies were followed by a missed par putt from 4 feet. It added to a 70, the 17th time in 18 starts at The Players he failed to break 70. The exception was 2013, when he last won.

“I felt like I could have got something in the 60s today and got off to not actually the best of starts today,” Woods said. “I hit some bad shots early, rectified that, made a few adjustments, and then went about my business. And then the back nine, there’s nine holes on the back nine, made one par. So that was interesting.”

The move from May after 11 years to its traditional March spot on the calendar brought green, softer conditions and more wind than usual, though it was out of the typical May direction. With the rye overseed making the moderate rough more predictable, players took aim.

Fleetwood had only one birdie on the slightly easier back nine, and finished with birdie putts from 15 feet, 30 feet and 18 feet.

“You get on a run like 7, 8, 9, and it feels great after that,” Fleetwood said. “Just one of them would feel like a great round, so three of them … I’ll take it.”

Byeong Hun An and Brian Harman were at 66, while Rory McIlroy also played bogey-free for a 67. He was in a group with Moore, who used a 54-degree wedge for his ace on the 17th.

“The group right before me, we were walking up 16 … I think it was Grillo hit the pin about 2 inches above the cup and almost went back in the water,” Moore said. “I heard mine clink and I was just waiting to go see where the ball went. And then no ball showed up.”

Also at 67 was Vaughn Taylor, who must love the move back to March. Taylor is among 23 players who have competed on the Stadium Players Course in both months. He tied for eighth the last time it was in March in 2006. In the eight times he played in May, he never made the cut.

Bradley, who a week ago shared the 36-hole lead with Fleetwood at Bay Hill, has only one top 10 in his eight trips to the TPC Sawgrass.

“Early in my career, I felt so uncomfortable on this course. I really didn’t play well here,” Bradley said. “It didn’t really enjoy … it just wasn’t a good fit for me. And then this year, I really enjoy the different conditions that we’re playing in. I like the rough better, and I think it’s a great time of year to play here.”

McIlroy was among those who approved of the calendar change. This was only the third time in 10 starts at The Players he broke 70 in the first round.

“I think the course over the last 10 years … it hasn’t lent itself to aggressive play,” McIlroy said. “It’s sort of position and irons of the tee and really trying to plot your way around the golf course. I hit drivers on holes today that I would never have hit driver the last few years.

“I don’t know if the course is easier or not,” he said. “We’ll see what the stroke average is at the end of the day. But because I think it’s playing longer, it’ll play longer for most of the guys, and I think it should all even out. But I definitely like the golf course the way it is in March.”

ORLANDO, Fla. – British Open champion Francesco Molinari delivered another big moment on the 18th green at Bay Hill, without wearing a red shirt and leaving the flag stick in the cup. His 45-foot birdie putt capped off an 8-under 64 to come from five shots behind Sunday and win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Molinari watched the birdie putt kiss off the pin and into the cup, and the normally reserved Italian raised his fist and hammered it down in celebration, knowing that would make him hard to beat.

He started so far back that Molinari finished nearly two hours before the round ended. It gave him a two-shot lead at 12-under 276, and no one got closer than two shots the rest of the way.

“To do it here at Arnie’s place, knowing my wife and kids are watching from home, it’s very special,” Molinari said.

He won for the fourth time in the last nine months, and in his first start since signing a new equipment deal.

Tiger Woods, who missed this week with a sore neck, has delivered so many birdie putts over the year on the 18th, usually to win and with Palmer on the side of the green waiting to congratulate him. Molinari’s was longer than anything Woods ever made, from a slightly different angle. But he knew the history from so many highlights.

“It’s a pretty iconic putt,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’m the first guy to make it with the flag in, though, so that’s the real difference.”

The new Rules of Golf allow the flag to be left in for putts in the green, and most players leave it there on long putts.

“Obviously, you’re trying to lag it close to the hole and it came out on a great line and maybe a little firmer than I wanted, but the line was just right and incredible to see it going in,” he said. “I’ve seen so many putts on TV like that and to do it yourself it’s really amazing.”

Matt Fitzpatrick managed only two birdies in his round of 1-under 71 and made a 3-foot par putt to finish alone in second. Rory McIlroy started the final round one shot behind and never got anything going. He had two birdies, two bogeys and a 72 to tie for sixth.

Perhaps it was only fitting that the claret jug was at Bay Hill, which served as part of the Open Qualifying Series. Sung Kang also had a big putt on the 18th hole, this one from 12 feet for par that sewed up the third and final spot offered for the British Open at Royal Portrush this summer.

The other two spots went to Sungjae Im, the 20-year-old South Korean who closed with a 68 and tied for third; and Honda Classic winner Keith Mitchell, who made eight birdies in his final round of 66 to tie for sixth.

Tommy Fleetwood, who shared the 36-hole lead at Bay Hill, recovered from a 76 that knocked him out of contention by closing with a 68 to join Im at 9-under 279 along with Rafa Cabrera Bello (69).

Roger Sloan (71) of Merrit, B.C., was the top Canadian at 4 under while Adam Hadwin (73) of Abbotsford, B.C., was 2 under.

“I was just trying to hit good shots, give myself chances,” Molinari said. “I knew it was not going to be easy. The course was firm and fast yesterday and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy for the guys in the lead, so I thought there was an outside chance. And yeah, just started making putts, one of my best putting rounds ever.”

It was another disappointment for McIlroy, who has played in the final group in three of his five PGA Tour events, and for the ninth time without winning dating to the start of 2018. He rallied from two back to win at Bay Hill a year ago.

This time, he was in good position just one shot behind Fitzpatrick. But after a 25-foot birdie putt on the third hole to briefly tie for the lead, McIlroy played the next 12 holes with two bogeys and 10 pars.

Fitzpatrick didn’t have much going, either. He regained the lead with a birdie on No. 4, un aware of all the action on the other side of the course.

Molinari tied for the lead with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, took the lead with a two-putt birdie on the 16th and then set the target with his big birdie on the 18th. It turned out to be too much for anyone to catch him.

No one got closer than one shot to him the rest of the day.

Molinari has four victories worldwide in his last 17 starts over the last nine months, and the Italian pointed to the first of those victories for sparking his turnaround. He played in the final round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth tied with McIlroy, closed with a 68 and won by two.

“It’s hard to point a finger at one thing,” Molinari said. “I think obviously confidence has to do a lot with it. When I won last year, playing with Rory in the last few groups, it wasn’t easy at all. So from there I started building my confidence and just saying I could get it done.”

And he did.

Molinari closed with a 62 to blow away the field in the Quicken Loans National. He played bogey-free on the final day at Carnoustie for his first major. He became the first European to win all five matches at the Ryder Cup. And he delivered a charge that was most appropriate on Palmer’s home course.

“I got everything out of it,” he said.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Rory McIlroy seems to have everything going his way at Bay Hill except for recent history.

With three birdies over the last four holes, McIlroy had a 6-under 66 on Saturday that left him one shot behind Matt Fitzpatrick and in the final group of a PGA Tour event for the third time in five starts this year, and the ninth time dating to the start of 2018.

That’s a sign of consistently good play.

There’s also some frustration from not having won from the final group since the Irish Open in 2016.

And by the look of Bay Hill in the warm, late afternoon – greens that looked yellow, fairways feeling tighter in such firm conditions – it won’t be any easier.

“Just what I needed,” McIlroy said. “I did everything I needed to do today to get myself back in the golf tournament, and excited to have another chance tomorrow.”

Fitzpatrick managed to avoid bogeys on a Bay Hill course so firm he could barely find any pitch marks on the greens Saturday. It led to a 5-under 67 and a one-shot lead as he goes for his first PGA Tour title.

He was at 9-under 207, which spoke to the difficulty of a fast, fiery course that would have made Arnie proud. It was the highest 54-hole score to lead at Bay Hill since Ben Crenshaw was at 210 in 1993.

That would have surprised no one who had to play it, especially late in the warm afternoon.

Fitzpatrick wasn’t aware that Keegan Bradley and Tommy Fleetwood, the co-leaders after 36 holes, had quickly gone in reverse. But it didn’t take him long to figure it out. He hit a sand wedge from 115 yards to just inside 10 feet, and he couldn’t even find where the ball landed.

“So when you see that, you know it’s going to be in for tough, fiery greens,” Fitzpatrick said. “But the condition of the greens is fantastic and they have been all week, so I think that that’s what make it’s so great. You can still hit to 30 feet, 40 feet and just have a perfectly great putt, just because they’re so good.”

McIlroy started quickly and was just hanging around until his big finish. He hit pitching wedge that settled a foot away for a tap-in on the 15th, hit a pitch over the bunker from right of the green on the par-5 16th for a 4-foot birdie, and then finished with another pitching wedge to 10 feet for one last birdie.

Those birdies were big. The pars weren’t bad, either.

“I felt for part of the round today that I was hanging on,” McIlroy said. “You hit it up to 25, 30 feet, you take your two-putts, you move on and know you’re not going to lose any ground on the field.”

That finished put him where he wanted – the final group.

McIlroy also was in the final group at Kapalua to start the year, three shots behind Gary Woodland. He was in the final group in Mexico City two weeks ago, four shots behind Dustin Johnson. This presents a better opportunity against Fitzpatrick, a five-time winner on the European Tour over the last four years.

But there are plenty of others still in the mix.

Fitzpatrick looked at the electronic leaderboard next to him and figured every name had a chance.

Fifteen players were within five shots of the lead.

“There’s water around here, the greens are firm, the rough’s thick,” Fitzpatrick said. “Today someone was saying it’s a bit like a U.S. Open, which I could totally see. It only takes a couple of water balls from the top five guys, a few dropped shots early and all of a sudden you sort of are not looking like you’re in a great position.”

The list included Fleetwood, who made a 6-foot putt on the 18th hole for his first birdie of the day and a 76. He also was five back.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., fired a 68 to sit at 3 under and tied for 23rd along with fellow Canadian Roger Sloan (74) of Merrit, B.C.

Bradley didn’t have a par until the sixth hole, and only one of those was a birdie. He missed the fairway on No. 1 (bogey), hit into a bunker on No. 2 (bogey), three-putted for bogey on No. 3 and had another bogey from the bunker on No. 5.

He rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 75, and while that big fist pump seemed out of place for someone who endured such a tough day, he had reason to cheer. After all that, Bradley was just three shots behind.

Aaron Baddeley and Matt Wallace each had a 69, while Kevin Kisner had a 70. They were at 7-under 209, still very much in the game.

“The golf course is playing brutal, and just nowhere to get it close to the pin,” Kisner said. “Greens are firm, hitting a lot of long irons, and it’s a true test.”

McIlroy sees some similarities to his victory last year at Bay Hill. He started slowly and began to hit his stride, playing a little bit better each day. He also went to one of the Disney parks after finishing early Friday, just like last year when he was at Magic Kingdom and rode Space Mountain.

This year’s ride?

“Tower of Terror,” he said, and that might be appropriate if the conditions at Bay Hill stay this way.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Bay Hill provided a few dramatic turnarounds, good news for Henrik Stenson, not so much for Phil Mickelson.

Through it all, Tommy Fleetwood and Keegan Bradley kept a steady march of solid golf Friday and wound up tied for the lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, four shots clear of anyone else going into the weekend on a course that has been tough all week.

Fleetwood used two new clubs to produce two eagles, which carried him to a 6-under 66. Bradley, with the renewed confidence of a player who last year ended six years without a PGA Tour victory, made all but one of his six birdies on the par 4s and had a 68.

They were at 9-under 135, the highest score to lead Bay Hill through 36 holes since 2013.

Tiger Woods wound up winning that year, which won’t be the case. Woods is home nursing a sore neck. That also was the last time Mickelson was at Bay Hill, and this trip lasted only two days.

Mickelson hit a pair of horrific drives – one out-of-bound, another into water he couldn’t see off the tee at No. 8 – that led to double bogeys. With only one birdie on his card, Mickelson was 10 shots worse than his opening round and posted a 78. He missed the cut by one shot.

“It’s a penalizing course if you don’t hit very good shots, and I hit some terrible shots today,” Mickelson said. “That’s probably the score I deserved.”

On the other side was Stenson, who opened with a 77 and then headed to the range with swing coach Pete Cowen. The former British Open champion responded with a 66, an 11-shot improvement, that left him eight shots behind, though still a tee time Saturday.

“A couple of hockey sticks yesterday and a 66 today. That was a nice turnaround,” Stenson said. “It seemed like I was hitting it good yesterday, didn’t quite feel like I was in the same groove this morning in the warmup, and yeah, I still have to fight a little bit out there.”

Even with a four-shot advantage, Fleetwood and Bradley have to be concerned with more than themselves in the final group. Bradley would know from experience. He was eight shots behind going into the weekend in 2014 and was the runner-up by one shot, mainly courtesy of Adam Scott’s troubled weekend.

Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., British Open champion Francesco Molinari, Honda Classic winner Keith Mitchel and Billy Horschel led a pack of players at 5-under 139. The group another shot back included Masters champions Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson, and Eddie Pepperell, who is playing a regular PGA Tour event for the first time and got caught with his pants up.

Actually, Pepperell did that himself. He was all too proud to roll up his pant legs and show off his new socks, which have an image of Jack Nicklaus making his birdie putt at Augusta National the year he won his sixth Masters.

“Best round of the year, and probably a decade for me,” Pepperell said.

Never mind that this is the tournament named after Jack’s rival. But it seemed to work.

Fleetwood, a three-time winner on the European Tour, is ready to take the next step by winning in America, and he looked up to the task. Without an equipment contract ever since Nike got out of the club business, the Englishman is free to mix-and-match.

He had five brands of equipment in his bag, and two new ones stood one.

One is a Srixon 4-iron, which he hammered from 224 yards over the corner of the lake to 18 feet on the par-5 sixth for eagle.

The other was a Ping 7-wood that he took possession of on Tuesday, hit two shots and was sold on it. That replaced his 5-wood, the last Nike club he had. Fleetwood was 275 yards to the hole on the par-5 12th, and no sooner was the ball in the air that caddie Ian Finnis said, “Good shot.”

Finnish never says such a thing until the ball actually returns to Earth, but he had a hunch on this one, and he was right. The ball landed just right and rolled out to 6 feet behind the flag on the upper right shelf of the green.

“I couldn’t have got a wedge as close as I actually hit it to that back right pin,” Fleetwood said.

He made that eagle putt, too.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy made a little headway with a 70, leaving him seven shots behind.

“The golf course is hard,” said McIlroy, who won last year at 18-under 270, “Two under is in the top 20. Last year it got firm on the weekend. But the weekend conditions came early – cold weather at the start of the week, and it’s dry. It’s probably more of a test off the tee than the last few weeks. If I hit fairways on the weekend, I’ll feel like I’ve got a good chance.”

Adam Hadwin (75) of Abbotsford, B.C., is well back at 1 over and Corey Conners (78) of Listowel, Ont., missed the cut.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Rafa Cabrera Bello had a Bay Hill debut to remember with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot lead while playing with Arnold Palmer’s grandson.

The entertainment, as usual, came from Phil Mickelson.

Back at the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time in six years, Mickelson capped off a wild round by nearly holing his approach from the 18th fairway for his seventh birdie on a round that will be remembered more for the shot Lefty tried to play right-handed .

“It didn’t turn out the best,” Mickelson said after rallying for a 68.

Thanks to the new Rules of Golf, it could have been worse.

Mickelson, who won at Bay Hill in 1997, was cruising along until his tee shot on the 10th hole went well to the left and settled under a mesh fence that was out-of-bounds, with just enough of the ball inside the stakes that he could try to play it.

Of course, he did.

Standing on the other side of the fence, his best play was to invert a 9-iron and try to smash it right-handed through the mesh netting.

“I was able to get clear – I thought – clean contact on it from a right-handed shot perspective,” he said. “I thought I hit it pretty good.”

He looked up toward the green and was surprised to see the ball a few feet in front of him. By hitting the mesh fence, it rolled up and snagged the ball, which eventually spit out of the fence and this time landed out-of-bounds.

The old rule would have meant hitting his next shot from the same spot under the fence. The new rule for a stroke-and-distance penalty allowed him to move it one club length away. Mickelson was able to get that one to the front of the green, and he two-putted from 30 feet to salvage a double bogey.

“That definitely helped,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t want to play that shot again.”

He didn’t think the first shot was all that difficult, but he at least rallied with three birdies that left him three shots out of the lead.

“I’ve made a lot of doubles in my day,” Mickelson said. “It’s one more, it doesn’t even hurt.”

Keegan Bradley played bogey-free for a 67 in the morning, as did Cabrera Bello. Mickelson was in the group at 68 along with Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson, Patrick Rodgers and Billy Horschel.

British Open champion Francesco Molinari made one of two aces on the day – the other belonged to D.A. Points – and was among those at 69.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy opened with a 72.

Cabrera Bello opened with four birdies in six holes in the morning chill, and he put together another run of birdies on the front nine that included consecutive putts from the 30-foot range. The rest of the Spaniard’s putts were from 6 feet or closer.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” Cabrera Bello said. “I know how nice and tough the course is and I think it’s a course with many, many daunting shots. So I feel the more you play it, probably the better. So I wasn’t really having much high expectations as opposed to just getting out there and playing my golf.”

Saunders had a 73 and was along for the ride with Cabrera Bello, who capped off his round with a 10-foot par putt.

“Playing with Sam is always a pleasure, not because he’s the grandson of Arnie but because of how nice of a guy he is,” Cabrera Bello said. “Obviously, playing at Bay Hill with him I know how special this event is for all of us, I can only imagine how special it is for him.”

Cabrera Bello is No. 34 in the world, winless since the Scottish Open in 2017.

Canadians Roger Sloan and Adam Hadwin were five shots off the lead in a tie for 14th place while Corey Conners was six shots back.

McDowell was among the first tournament ambassadors after Palmer died as a longtime supporter at Bay Hill. This could be a big week for him in other ways. The British Open returns to Northern Ireland this summer for the first time since 1951, and Bay Hill for the first time is part of the Open Qualifying Series. The top three players not already exempt from the top 10 at Bay Hill will get into Royal Portrush.

“I only found that out on Tuesday, to be honest with you,” McDowell said. “But, listen, I’m focusing really on the big picture right now. I’m kind of the opinion that good golf will take care of the things that I want to take care of. And it’s hard enough going out there trying to get your golf ball around 18 holes here at this great golf course and just trying to stay in the moment.”

Justin Rose, who has a chance to return to No. 1 in the world this week, opened with a 71.

Jason Day, the last player to win at Bay Hill before Palmer died in 2016, withdrew after six holes because of a back injury. Day was coming off a three-week break.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Sungjae Im was in the first group to tee off on the first hole Friday at The Honda Classic. He’ll be in the final group Saturday.

Im, the 20-year-old South Korean rookie who around this time last year was winning the first Web.com Tour start of his career, shot a 6-under 64 in the second round at PGA National. He shared the 36-hole lead at 6-under 134 with Keith Mitchell (66).

It could be considered a surprise final pairing: Combined, Im and Mitchell have zero PGA Tour wins.

“It’s just nice to kind of feel like you’re in contention and playing well,” Mitchell said. “You’re out there actually trying to make birdies instead of trying to salvage and trying to make a cut … trying to make a birdie and force it. Today we were just out there trying to hit good shots.”

Mitchell had five birdies and bogey Friday; Im had seven birdies and a bogey to match the low round of the week so far. First-round leader Jhonattan Vegas shot a 64 on Thursday, and Canadian Adam Svensson had one Friday.

Im got through the second round on only 25 putts. He was the leading money-winner on the Web.com Tour last year, was atop the money list for the entire season and played his way into two majors.

“I was hitting the ball really well today, so all my putts were under 10 feet,” said Im, who had a 6:45 a.m. tee time. He’ll be able to sleep in much later Saturday, with his tee time scheduled for 1:35 p.m.

Even though the Honda is played in an area of South Florida where a number of PGA Tour players live – including Tiger Woods – the field includes only three of the top 20 players in the most recent world rankings.

Im grew up watching Woods, staying up until the middle of the night in many cases to see him play on television.

“Just watching him makes me nervous,” Im said.

He’s got a 36-hole lead to be nervous about now.

Lucas Glover (69) was third at 5 under. Svensson, of Surrey, B.C., and Brooks Koepka were among those in a group at 4 under, and 42 players were within five shots of the lead.

“Can’t be too upset with 1 under around here, to be honest,” said Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion who has three straight rounds in the 60s at PGA National going back to his final-round 66 last year. “Wind picked up a little towards the end. I didn’t hit it great, but got myself into the thing.”

Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., (71) is 3-under, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., (66) is 2-under while Rogers Sloan of Merritt, B.C., (71) and Drew Nesbitt (71) of Shanty Bay, Ont., just made the cutline at 2-over.

Justin Thomas also is still in the thing, though the defending champion has a lot of work to do if he’s going to go back-to-back.

Thomas, playing with a sore right wrist after a wayward swing against a tree Thursday, had an eagle, a double-bogey and a triple-bogey on his way to an eventful 74. He got in right on the 36-hole cut line, 2 over.

“Hopefully, I’ll at least have a chance where I can make something up this weekend,” Thomas said.

Vegas reached 7 under briefly, then finished in a group tied for 13th at 3 under after shooting a 73.

Gary Woodland extended his streak of consecutive made cuts to 21 with an eventful birdie on the par-5 18th. He went over the green with his second shot, ran his third well past the hole and coolly rolled in a 15-footer for birdie to get to 2 over. Woodland hasn’t missed a cut since at The Players Championship last May.

In all, 83 players made the cut for Saturday, which means a second cut to top-70-and-ties will happen before Sunday’s final round. With an odd number of players, there’s 41 twosomes and Drew Nesbitt goes off by himself at 7:15 a.m. …

Oh ? Canada ??.

A shirtless @DrewNezbitt made a par today at the @TheHondaClassic…pic.twitter.com/iZftSiBVSk

— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) March 2, 2019

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Canada’s Ben Silverman was tied for second after the morning wave during the first round of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic.

The native of Thornhill, Ont., shot a 4-under 66 to put him two shots back of two-time RBC Canadian Open champion Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela.

The 31-year-old Silverman, who got into the tournament early this week as an alternate, was tied with Americans Zach Johnson and Lucas Glover and Ernie Els of South Africa.

“Me and my caddie have a great strategy for this week for kind of moving forward,” Silverman told reporters.

“We’ve picked a style of swing that is comfortable for me, and we just move my targets for wind, and I think that helped hit more fairways, and when I missed greens, I was missing because we had a better club in hand and I had a slightly easier up-and-down where I could bump it into a low spot. I was never short-sided.”

Silverman, who started on hole No. 10, bogeyed his first hole before reeling off four birdies on his front nine. He had two birdies and a bogey on his final nine holes.

A Florida Atlantic University product, Silverman has been living in the state for 13 years.

“It’s really comfortable. It’s like a second home. I’ve been here since ’06, and I’m 31, so it’s almost half my life I’ve been down here really, so I’m used to the weather, I’m used to the Bermuda (grass), the style of course, and I’ve played this course a ton of times – mini-tour events plus Q-school.”

Silverman, who secured his PGA Tour card for the second year in a row at the final event of the Web.com Tour season last year, has made the cut in five of eight events on the top circuit this year. But his best finish is just a tie for 39th.

“I’m slowly getting more comfortable out here,” he said. “I know the courses now, so I’m working more on my game in the practice area and less on practice rounds, and I think it’s going to pay off moving forward.”

Monday qualifier Drew Nesbitt of Shanty Bay, Ont., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., each shot 1-over 71, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had 72 and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., carded a 76.

Vegas made six birdies and no bogeys to tkae the early lead.

“Hit my irons the best I’ve hit them all year and I’ve always liked this golf course,” Vegas said. “It’s kind of one of those courses that I think suits me. You have to hit the ball well and you have to get around really well. And then I made a few putts.”

Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia were in a large group at 67, and defending champion Justin Thomas shot 68 after an eventful day that saw him play the last eight holes without a 9-iron after it bent when he hit it against a tree.

“To feel like I gave quite a few back today and shoot 2-under par on this golf course, it’s great,” Thomas said.

Also at 68 was Sam Saunders, the grandson of golf legend Arnold Palmer. Saunders birdied all three holes in the famed “Bear Trap” stretch at PGA National, the run of holes 15 through 17 where a par 4 is sandwiched by a pair of par 3s that can be treacherous even without much wind.

Vegas made 12 bogeys last year at the Honda, along with three doubles and a triple, wound up beating only one of the 74 finishers and wrapped up the week with a final-round 78. He sprayed irons everywhere, missed half of the fairways, more than half of the greens.

But Thursday, he was dialed in – missing only three of 14 fairways and three of the 18 greens, needing only 29 putts to get through the day.

“I felt like I was in control pretty much all day long,” Vegas said.

The 34-year-old Venezuelan has three PGA Tour victories, winning the 2011 Bob Hope Classic and the RBC Canadian Open in 2016 and 2017.

Vegas took advantage on a day to make noise at PGA National, where the wind was down. And that’s not typical.

Forecasters correctly said breezes would be relatively light all day and should stay that way until perhaps the weekend, though Johnson – whose weather apps said breezes were going to be no more than 3 or 4 mph – was among those who felt the wind was still a factor and fluctuated more than expected.

“We had a stretch there on the front nine where it was a lot more than that,” Johnson said. “The ball curving with the wind, depending on the direction, easily 10 to 15 to 20 yards. And then we made the turn and it started to be more consistent, not as gusty. … It was not Honda wind. I don’t think we’re going to get Honda wind until Sunday.”

Els had no complaints.

Els has won more than 70 tournaments worldwide, 19 of them on the PGA Tour – the last of those coming in 2012 at the British Open. Getting a 20th on tour, he said, has been a goal for some time.

“Secretly on tour among the players, you know when you win No. 20 you get some benefits,” Els said. “It’s late in my career, but I’ll take any win now.”

Thomas sizzled at the start with three birdies in his first four holes, and made the turn at 4-under.

That’s when his day got eventful.

His drive ended up behind a tree on the 10th, and he figured that his 9-iron would snap on the follow-through of his approach shot. It merely bent instead, and the jolt of the impact meant Thomas was going to be spending some time Thursday night with an icepack on his wrist. He doesn’t believe it’ll impact him Friday.

“Just more of a shock than anything,” Thomas said.

Thomas then found his way into and out of trouble on the Bear Trap – making double-bogey, then having a par putt slide past the hole on 16, and making birdie on 17. He then birdied the last as well.

Garcia also finished strong, with three birdies in his last four holes.

“It’s a great round, at the end of the day,” Garcia said.

DIVOTS: Fowler went into the water twice and wound up making a triple-bogey on the par-4 sixth, his nemesis hole at PGA National. In his last four rounds at the Honda, he’s 7 over on that hole. … Alex Cejka was disqualified for using an improper greens-reading device, officials said. He withdrew from last year’s tournament and missed the cut in 2017. … Cody Gribble had an interesting day – making quadruple bogey on No. 6, triple bogey on the par-4 11th, and then eagle on the par-5 18th. He shot a 77.

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Martin Trainer won the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a 5-under 67 at windy Coco Beach Golf and Country Club for a three-stroke victory over four players.

Making his 11th PGA Tour start, Trainer birdied four of the last 10 holes to finish at 15-under 273.

“It’s obviously incredible,” Trainer said. “I never thought that I would be able to win on the PGA Tour. I managed do it today and that’s just incredible.”

The 27-year-old former University of Southern California won twice last year on the Web.com Tour and finished fourth on the money list to earn a spot on the big tour.

“There comes a certain point where the pressure is like maxed out in your brain and you just do whatever you can to make contact and hit putts forward,” Trainer said. “At the end I had no idea if my putts were going to go like four 4 by or 4 feet short. You just have no feel, the pressure is just overwhelming you.”

Trainer earned $540,000 along with a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and an exemption to the PGA Championship, but didn’t get an invitation to the Masters in the event played opposite the World Golf Championships’ Mexico Championship.

“I never had the luxury of making a plan, I was just trying to play as many events as I could,” Trainer said. “So now I guess that will be a little different, I’ll be able to pick and choose where I want to go and have a little more flexibility with my schedule. It’s just such a great feeling to be able to have that. I’m just trying to let it sink in.”

Third-round leader Aaron Baddeley shot a 72 to tie for second with Daniel Berger (66), Roger Sloan (67) and Johnson Wagner (69). At No. 72, Berger was the highest ranked player in the field.

“I’m just working on the things that I mentioned earlier, and I’m just happy that I was able to execute some shots out there coming down the stretch,” said Sloan. “And I’m looking forward to next week.  I haven’t played the Honda.  I’m really looking forward to playing there, PGA National.  So, we’re just going to keep on doing what we do.”