The PGA Tour’s “Florida Swing” kicks off with the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens beginning Thursday.
The 144-player field does not include a top-10 player but does feature 12 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Field Level Media’s golf experts provide key tournament notes, odds and best bets.
HONDA CLASSIC
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Feb. 24-27
Course: PGA National, Champion (Par 70, 7,125 yards)
Purse: $9M (Winner: $1.44M)
Defending Champion: Matt Jones
FedEx Cup Leader: Hideki Matsuyama
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (NBC)
PGA Tour Live: Four live feeds per day on ESPN+
Social Media: @TheHondaClassic (Twitter)
NOTES
–The Champion course at PGA National was designed by Tom Fazio and re-worked by Jack Nicklaus in 1990 and 2014. It is known for “The Bear Trap,” a three-hole stretch from hole Nos. 15-17 that played a combined 230 over par last year. Among non-major courses on tour over the past seven seasons since the event moved to PGA National, The Bear Trap ranks as the fourth-toughest stretch (+0.638 on average). Russell Knox leads with a 6-under cumulative score on the three-hole gauntlet during that span while Ryan Palmer leads with 17 balls in the water.
–The top 50 players in the OWGR after this week will qualify for The Players Championship.
–Europeans Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Shane Lowry and Danny Willett will make their first PGA Tour starts of 2022. Grayson Murray is making his final start on his medical extension and needs a win this week to secure his full status PGA Tour card for the rest of the season.
–Brooks Koepka’s brother, Chase, is among the sponsors exemptions along with Nicolai Hojgaard, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour.
BEST BETS
–Sungjae Im (+1000 at DraftKings) earned his first PGA Tour victory at the 2020 Honda Classic and finished T8 last year. He ranks fourth in total strokes gained this season.
–Louis Oosthuizen (+1400) is the top-ranked player in the field at No. 13 and has 13 consecutive scores under part on tour this season.
–Daniel Berger (+1600) is coming off a missed cut in his last start after dealing with a back injury. The South Florida resident finished T4 in 2020 and runner-up as a rookie in 2015.
–Brooks Koepka (+1800) finished T2 at the 2019 Honda but has only one top-10 in eight starts this season. He has garnered the most bets (10.8 percent) and money (15.4 percent) at BetMGM, where he is being offered at +2000. That makes Koepka the sportsbook’s biggest liability this week.
–Niemann (+1800) is coming off a wire-to-wire victory last week. No one has gone back-to-back on tour since Patrick Cantlay last season, but Niemann lives less than 15 minutes from PGA National and is very familiar with the course.
–Billy Horschel (+1800) is the second biggest liability at BetMGM as he has been backed by 5.7 percent of the bets and 7.0 percent of the money.
–Cameron Young (+5500) is coming off a T2 last week and won the 2013 Polo Golf Junior Classic at PGA National.
–Fleetwood opened at +2000 at BetMGM but his odds have lengthened to +2500. The Englishman has yet to win a stroke play event within the United States.
–Jones claimed his first PGA Tour victory in seven years last year. His odds opened at +5000 this week but have shortened to +4000.
–Field Level Media