Arnold Palmer Invitational 2012 Leaderboard: Tiger Woods and More Stars to Watch

One day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational is in the books with Jason Dufner and Charlie Wi leading the way. Even though both players are fully capable of remaining in contention all weekend, they aren't going to drive television ratings. They don't have star power.

Let's take a look at some fan favorites in the field and break down their chances at Bay Hill. For a complete look at the tournament leaderboard, visit the official PGA Tour website.

Tiger Woods

Woods showed no ill-effects while carding a three-under opening round following an injury scare at the Cadillac Championship a couple weeks ago. Injuries have derailed his amazing run atop the game, so another setback would have been crushing.

It doesn't take a golf expert to see Woods is getting close to becoming a weekly contender once again. Every facet of his game has been great in any given round, but now he must work on putting it all together consistently instead of in spurts.

Winning Palmer's tournament would give the game's most popular star a boatload of momentum heading into the Masters in two weeks. Capturing more majors remains his ultimate goal.

Anthony Kim

Things haven't been going well for Kim, who was widely viewed as one of the game's rising stars at the beginning of last season. Since he missed the Masters cut, he's finished in the top 10 just once while getting cut 14 times, including five of his first six events this year.

He finally illustrated some progress in Round 1, finishing at three-under par after holding the lead for a while. His biggest problem had been driving accuracy, which was hovering right around 50 percent, but he was able to hit 79 percent of fairways on Thursday to spark a turnaround.

Golf needs as many young stars as possible to make sure the future of the sport is as successful as the Woods Era. Hopefully Kim continues to improve at Bay Hill.

Sergio Garcia

If you're looking for a potential Masters sleeper, Garcia is your guy. The Spanish sensation is still searching for his first major, and it was starting to look like he'd never get one. He's been enjoying a resurgence, though, which pushes him back into the conversation.

Most of Garcia's issues, especially on the major stages, have been more mental than physical. His ability to go shot-for-shot with Woods or Phil Mickelson was never questioned, but doing it on Sunday in a marquee tournament has been a problem.

The good news for Garcia is the pressure has faded away. Nobody really expects him to make a Masters charge so if he can finish strong at Bay Hill, he might finally be ready to capture a green jacket.