The PGA TOUR moves down the east coast of Florida this week to the Honda Classic PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. The par-70 Champion course is the home of the Bear Trap, a three-hole stretch on the back nine named after the course redesigner, Jack Nicklaus. The layout has been the site of the tournament since 2007 and is generally one of the toughest tests on TOUR.
After four weeks of elevated FedEx Cup points and fields full of top-ranked players, the Honda finds itself without any players ranked in the top 14 of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Most of the top players are taking a breather before next week’s WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas.
Last year’s winner was Sungjae Im, who shot a final-round 66 to finish the tournament at 6-under-par 274, one shot clear of Mackenzie Hughes. Third-round leader Tommy Fleetwood could manage no better than a 1-over-par 71 to finish in third place.
Daniel Berger, the highest-ranked player in the field at 15th in the OWGR, is the futures betting line favorite at +1100.
Betting Lines for the Honda
Daniel Berger, the highest-ranked player in the field at 15th in the OWGR, is the futures betting line favorite at +1100. The four-time PGA Tour winner won earlier this season at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Next at +1300 odds is the defending champion, Im, who also won the Rookie of the Year in 2020.
In third place in the futures is Joaquin Niemann at +2000, with Lee Westwood next at +2200. Westwood has finished a close second the last two weeks, to Justin Thomas in the Players Championship and Bryson DeChambeau a week earlier at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Irishman Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open Championship winner, is tied with the 2016 Honda Classic champion Adam Scott at +2400.
Favorite Picks at PGA National
Either Westwood will finally close the deal after two close calls, or fatigue will set in and he’ll miss the cut. The difficult course and generally breezy conditions set up well for one of the premier ball strikers on TOUR. Westwood is playing without the tightness that seemed to limit him throughout his career.
The two-time PGA TOUR winner has won an additional 42 times throughout the world, so he’s familiar with what it takes to win golf tournaments. He was 2-over-par for his round through eight holes on Sunday but fought back to shoot an even-par 72.
Adam Scott at +2400 only has one top 10 finish in the 2021 season, but he also hasn’t missed any cuts. The 40-year-old Australian has won 14 times on the PGA TOUR, the last one coming in the 2020 Genesis Invitational. He plays well on tough golf courses that place a premium on hitting fairways and was the winner of the 2016 Honda Classic.
Despite a final-round 79 in last week’s PLAYERS Championship that dropped Chris Kirk into a tie for 48th, the four-time TOUR winner has been playing well since the beginning of the calendar year. He has two top 10s, a second-place tie at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a tie for eighth two weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He has odds of +3700 to pick up his first win since the 2015 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
