ORLANDO, Fla. – A signature Sunday is set at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, with Daniel Berger holding a two-shot lead over Akshay Bhatia with three holes left to finish in his third round, after heavy rain suspended play for over an hour Saturday.

To get you prepared for an early start at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, here are five things to know before the final round:

Berger's back to his best

At times, it has looked like Daniel Berger has been playing a different golf course. The easy-going Floridian is right at home at Bay Hill and has rarely put a foot wrong at one of the TOUR’s toughest venues. When he has, he hasn’t compounded the errors, only making three bogeys all week.

Berger, who will start Sunday with a 33-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th, has been somewhat plagued by injuries during his professional career. Two major setbacks have seen him miss much of the last four seasons on the PGA TOUR. At last year’s BMW Championship, a freak shot saw Berger break his right ring finger.

“The finger that I broke and where I broke it actually ended up being more of a pain in the butt than I thought it was going to be,” he said Thursday. “I thought it would be just like four, five weeks and it turned out to be three months.”

Before the finger injury, Berger spent almost 18 months away from the game dealing with lower back problems, which sidelined him for the whole of 2023. At the time, he was 19th in the world, part of a record-setting U.S. Ryder Cup Team just months earlier and was coming off his most consistent season on TOUR.

Now he’s returning to full health, the four-time PGA TOUR winner is returning to the Berger of old, eyeing the biggest victory of his career.

Can Bhatia make a big-time breakthrough?

How big could Bhatia’s late birdie-spree on Saturday night turn out to be?

The two-time TOUR winner elected to attempt his up-and-down for birdie after the horn had blown to shrink Berger’s lead to just two. He did so in the darkness and changed his mindset heading into Sunday.

“Birdieing those two holes obviously is great. Fifteen is a bonus. Sixteen is kind of a must, with Daniel having 25 feet there,” Bhatia said Saturday evening. “So again, yeah, just need to keep doing what I'm doing. It's fun to be in the hunt. I told Joe (Greiner), it's like just what an amazing job we have, just to be able to, I mean, this is my workday, and so just very blessed to be in this position.”

Bhatia has travelled a different path from most of his peers his age. He bypassed college, electing to find his way on mini tours, slowly working his way onto the Korn Ferry Tour and then the PGA TOUR. He earned his first victory in 2023 at the Barracuda Championship and then collected his second quickly after in a playoff at the Valero Texas Open the following year.

Now, at just 23 years old, Bhatia is positioned to make a run at a Signature Event breakthrough and the biggest of what is shaping up to be a long career.

Scheffler lurked, then Bay Hill bit back … again

Ever heard the old golf saying “a tale of two nines”? Well, if you hadn’t, Scottie Scheffler certainly lived it on Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, before Bay Hill’s finishing hole all but ended his hopes for the second day in a row.

Scheffler was visibly frustrated finishing his second round with a three-putt bogey and tossing his ball into the lake lining the right side of Bay Hill’s closer. His fate continued into Saturday, opening the third round at 3 over par before making the turn.

After a much-needed break thanks to Mother Nature, Scheffler showed signs of his usual self, carding five birdies in six holes on the back nine, giving himself a glimmer of hope heading into the closing stretch.

A poor drive on the 18th found Scheffler in the thickest of rough to the right side of the fairway and a daunting approach over water to find the green. Even as the world’s best player, Scheffler was unable to muscle his wedge shot far enough to make the carry, with his ball again finding a watery grave.

Scheffler’s certainly had Sunday comebacks, most notably at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he started the final round five shots behind before winning, but at 10 shots back, this one may be out of the question.

Has Saturday’s shower shaped Sunday at Bay Hill?

Just as the third round was heating up, the weather had other ideas. A small but heavy rain cell made its way north over Bay Hill, dumping almost a quarter of an inch of water in about a 15-minute period on the grounds of Arnie’s place. But how will Saturday’s showers shape the way Bay Hill will play come Sunday afternoon?

If there were examples of how differently the course played on Saturday after the rain, look no further than Cameron Young, who rattled off four birdies in a row after the restart to move himself firmly into contention at Arnie’s place.

“So it kind of went from, you know, what we know Bay Hill for on the weekend to just, you know, a notch below that,” said Young on the difficulty of greens.

Hitting the fairways will still be a premium as well, with the added moisture making the rough play its thickest all week. But, as the day goes on Sunday, expect the greens to return to their similar slickness.

“The greens were definitely a little slower, a little more receptive,” Sepp Straka said after a third-round 66 also has him four shots behind Berger's lead. “(They) started to dry out a little bit towards the end of the day. I mean, there's no moisture in there, so I think that's going to run right through and they will be nice and firm tomorrow again.”

When will we see McIlroy again?

Rory McIlroy withdrew prior to his third-round tee time at the Arnold Palmer, after feeling a small twinge in his back during a morning gym session.

McIlroy was seen on-site at Bay Hill, ahead of his tee time, attempting to warm up on the range, but things worsened for the Northern Irishman, who developed muscle spasms in his lower back.

The question now is, will McIlroy be fit enough to defend THE PLAYERS next week? It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been unable to defend one of his bigger victories on TOUR. McIlroy missed out on The Open Championship in 2015 at “The Home of Golf” after rupturing a ligament in his left ankle while playing soccer before his scheduled title defence at St. Andrews.

No word yet from the world No. 2, but he's still slated to tee it up next week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.