The second round of the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational gets underway on Friday at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida.
Daniel Berger leads the Arnold Palmer Invitational after the first round at nine-under par. He holds a three-stroke lead over the rest of the field, but the tournament remains wide open with three days remaining.
Here are my picks for the Arnold Palmer Invitational Round 2 best bets for Friday.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Round 2 Odds, Best Bets
Jordan Spieth Top 20 (+210 at DraftKings)
Jordan Spieth completed an even-par opening round and enters Friday T33. At +210, he is worth backing to climb the leaderboard over the remainder of the tournament.
Bay Hill’s difficulty forces players to create scoring opportunities around the greens. On the PGA Tour, Spieth ranks in the 84th percentile in strokes gained: around the green.
It is therefore not surprising that he has finished tied for fourth here in two of his past three appearances.
Patrick Cantlay Top 20 (+134 at DraftKings)
Another golfer worth targeting in this market is Patrick Cantlay. He opened with a 1-under-par 71 and enters Friday T26.
Like Spieth, Cantlay is a strong short-game player and has gained true strokes around the green in each of his past four tournaments. He finished inside the top 20 in two of those four events.
Course length is also a significant factor at Bay Hill. Last season, 20.4% of approach shots came from the 175-200-yard range, nearly 4% higher than any other 25-yard grouping.
Entering this week, Cantlay ranks nearly 4% above the PGA Tour average in birdie-or-better percentage on approach shots from 175-200 yards. Given those metrics, it is not surprising that he finished T4 alongside Spieth here in 2023.
