Arnold Palmer still stands unwaveringly tall despite the unsteady landscape in the sport he popularized.

The 13-foot, 1,400-pound bronze statue at Bay Hill depicting the late, great Palmer finishing one of his mighty golf swings epitomizes the power and prestige his tournament — The Arnold Palmer Invitational — still has on the PGA Tour.

The Arnie has not only survived; it has thrived in recent years in the face of seismic shifts in and around the tournament and the sport as a whole. Like Arnie himself, who emerged from blue-collar roots to become this privileged sport’s biggest and most beloved star, his tournament has battled the odds in its own right.

“It’s pretty wild to think that [Palmer’s] last win came in 1973,” golfer Xander Schauffele says, “and we’re 51 years removed from that and it still feels like he’s not just here with us, but everybody supports him and talks about him. He’s still the talk of the town.”

Back in the day, the success of The Arnie — like most PGA Tour stops — seemed to be predicated on Tiger Woods’ playing in the tournament. Because Tiger and Arnie lived in Orlando, Tiger felt obligated to play in the tournament and he won it a record eight times.

He was the annual draw as fans flooded the course to watch Tiger stalking his prey through the whispering pines and the moss-shrouded oaks of Bay Hill. When Tiger played every year at The Arnie, it was sort of like when Shaq played for the Magic. His mere presence added an unmatched marquee value the tournament never had before and hasn’t had since.

But with Tiger’s well-publicized health issues and his move to South Florida, he last played at Bay Hill six years ago and has only played here twice in the last 11 years.

Still, even in Tiger’s absence, Arnold Palmer still stands tall.

While other tournaments have ebbed and flowed, The Arnie has been the model of stability even during the most volatile time in professional golf history. The advent of filthy-rich, Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the loss of some of the Tour’s top players to the breakaway circuit has certainly cast a shadow on the future of pro golf.

But guess what? Even though two of the last four tournament champions, Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton, have defected to LIV, the Arnie’s field and financial stability are better than ever.

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