Berger Eyes an Eagle to Start Championship Sunday Strong

ORLANDO, Fla. (March 7, 2026) – A mix of birdies and bogeys from Akshay Bhatia on the front nine kept him in the mix during Saturday’s third round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard today. As play was suspended due to darkness at 6:30 p.m., the two-time PGA TOUR winner is within striking distance of clubhouse-leader Daniel Berger.

As the sun set on Friday, Berger and Bhatia are sitting in first and second place, respectively. Berger opted to stop his round facing an eagle opportunity on his third shot on the par-5, 541-yard 16th hole, while Bhatia chose to finish the hole, sinking a two-foot, three-inch putt for his sixth birdie of the round so far.

Inclement weather caused a 67-minute delay in the afternoon and led to the suspension of play for the third round. Four players will finish their third rounds on Sunday morning, including Berger, Bhatia, Ludvig Aberg, and Sahith Theegala.

Sepp Straka started his round at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge Saturday afternoon tied for 15th position, 10 strokes behind Berger, but seven birdies later the Austrian is tied with Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa in third, at 9-under-par after three rounds.

“When I first got out there, didn’t really feel quite as good on the range warming up again. It didn’t feel quite as sharp, I would say, as it did the first nine or 10 holes,” Straka said, even though those holes had him sitting at four-under-par before making the turn.

While Straka was hot on the front nine, it was Young who caught fire on the back-nine sinking five birdies and finding himself four strokes off the lead with cautious optimism.

“Anything can happen. I don’t know what Daniel’s going to do, I don’t know where I’m going to finish the day, so it’s really hard to give you a good answer (on how the tournament will play out),” Young said. “Any time you get a golf course this difficult, and this many good players within a couple shots of each other, after Daniel, there’s a ton of guys I think between 7- and 9-(under).

“There’s so many good players, any one of them could take a really difficult golf course and make it look easy,” Young added. “I wouldn’t expect a ton of low scores tomorrow, but I would expect there to be a couple out of that pack (to go low).”

“Out here you can’t really push the issue,” explained Straka “You got to just play golf. If you’re playing well, you probably can give yourself a chance. If you’re not, then you won’t.”

The golf course won’t be the only factor the four players who need to finish their third rounds will face on Sunday as they’ll be greeted by a significant wait to start their final round.

“Just need to keep doing what I’m doing. It’s fun to be in the hunt… I mean this is my workday, and so just very blessed to be in this position,” Bhatia mentioned after closing out his 16th hole. “(Sunday is) going to be a mental challenge. It’s going to be nice to come out, play a couple holes, and then go back, eat breakfast and then go through my routine… it’s very odd when you’re teeing off late, and I have only done it a handful of times, so, yeah, just happy that I got done with 16, and try and hit some good shots coming down 17 and 18 (tomorrow).

The third round will resume at 8 a.m. local time on Sunday and final round coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on GOLF Channel, followed immediately on NBC from 2:30 – 6 p.m. ET.