A Sunday marathon awaits the leaders. It’ll be very different for the chasers

ORLANDO — For a whole lot of us, golf is an evening sport. This web site is owned by an organization referred to as 8AM GOLF and that is a stunning picture proper there, on the first tee at 8 in the morn, birds singing, espresso kicking in, all that promise forward. But what about the different aspect of the day, particularly now with the further hour of nightfall mild? What about dusk golf? My press-tent pal Bill Fields has a brand new e-book referred to as A Quick Nine Before Dark. Exactly.

When play resumed Saturday afternoon after an hour-long rain delay, right here in the third spherical of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay HillCollin Morikawa and his caddie, Mark Urbanek, discovered themselves doing a little math. When they made the flip, they realized they’d two hours of daylight left, if that, on a tough course that does not lend itself to fast play. The excellent news was that Morikawa’s taking part in associate was Rickie Fowlerconsidered one of the quickest gamers on Tour. They had been the final group to get in, to complete their third spherical.

Morikawa is at 9 below par, with Cam Young and Sepp Straka. They have performed 54 holes on this Signature occasion and can all be in a position to sleep on Sunday morning. The two gamers forward of them, Akshay Bhatia (11 below) and Daniel Berger (13 below) will be on the course at 8 am Sunday, when play resumes. Sunday will be a protracted day’s journey into night time for these two. Less so for the different chasers.

Morikawto was requested if he appreciated taking part in nightfall golf, notably as a child.

“I think those days, when you were out there for a long time, you got a lot out of it,” he mentioned. “Not just practicing, but having fun. You’re probably out there with some buddies, screwing around, getting in a couple more chips, a couple more putts, just to get it out of the system.”

Turns out, that is good observe for contending in PGA Tour occasions, too.

Fowler and Morikawa holed out on 18 round 6:35 pm, then walked by way of a darkish tunnel below a grandstand. They crossed a street on their option to scoring and ended their workday, or almost did. All that was left was to signal autographs, which Morikawa did at hyper-speed. Fowler signed at a languid tempo, chatting up children, posing for snaps, all in a fashion that will have made Arnold Palmer proud. Morikawa had borrowed a Sharpie from Fowler and when he was finished with it he returned it to its authentic place, in Fowler’s again left pocket. They bid one another good night time, in a fashion of talking.

Later, hesitate.

Yeah.

Something like that. The children had been nonetheless calling for Rickie by identify.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your feedback at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.