ORLANDO, Fla. — Bay Hill Club and Lodge comes alive this week with the 41^st edition of the Arnold Palmer Invitational taking over the course.  While there will be new interactive exhibits to honor the legend this year, there is one woman who you need to know, tournament director Marci Doyle:

She doesn’t claim to have a great short game.

But Marci Doyle’s been around the game of golf for 25 years and knows Bay Hill like the back of her hand.

For the last 5 years, she’s led the way in delivering one of the best sporting events to fans in Central Florida-- The Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“This is one of the biggest pieces of his legacy that we are going to insure lives on in perpetuity,” Doyle explained. “So to us this is about making it bigger and better every year and that was one of Mr. Palmers quotes was ‘we can do better.’”

Marci lives by that standard as she first met Mr. Palmer nine years ago and instantly created a connection.

“He was always about others and how can I help others and the amazing things he did in his lifetime and yet he was always about you and how he could help you,” Doyle explained.

She tries to emulate that mantra around her office at Bay Hill every day.

“She walks the walk, talks the talk –she shows that in her character and her personality and just that she makes you feel welcomed just like Mr. Palmer did,” Laura Conner said of her boss Doyle.

Maybe Arnold Palmer saw those same qualities in Marci back in 2014,  when he named her the API tournament director, making her the first female tournament director in PGA tour history

“I would say Arnold Palmer was a little ahead of his time,” Doyle said.

And not just with Doyle, see Palmer was the first millionaire in professional golf. He’s credited with inspiring a generation of golfers, helping to start the golf channel and has a drink named after him.

“He was just always one step ahead of a lot of folks around him,” Doyle added.

Marci has become one of the most influential women in Central Florida and looks forward to helping those next in line just like Mr. Palmer helped her.

“She’s a great mentor and she’s been kinda lockstep with me since the beginning of my career and is always willing to step in and go that extra mile and push me too which is key,” Conner said of her guidance.

“It is about lifting them up not pushing them down,” Doyle said. “We women have to support each other.”

Marci took an opportunity given by Mr. Palmer and nourished it to become the heartbeat of the iconic event…one that that her and her team is so proud to put together every year.

“I will tell you it’s that moment on 18 on Sunday when we are standing there and you look around and you realize that hopefully people have taken a little bit of Arnold Palmer and the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Bay Hill away with them with that week and seeing that winner on 18 and it’s kind of the curtain drops and you feel like hopefully Arnold Palmer is looking down and smiling and is pleased.”