Sal Johnson

Another new venue

Honda Classic

February 27, 2007

By SAL JOHNSON
Publisher, GOLFOBSERVER
E-mail me at: Golfersal@aol.com

Photo: © Stan Badz / Wire Image Despite shooting a final round 72, Luke Donald shot a final round 69 to beat Geoff Ogilvy by two shots last year.

Tournament Stats:

Honda Classic
March 1 - 4, 2007
PGA National Champion Course
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,048
Purse: $5.5 million with $990,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: Luke Donald
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores of 2006 Honda Classic
Box Score of 2006 Honda Classic

Tournament facts:

Tournament Record:
264 (Justin Leonard in 2003)
54-Hole Record:
196 (Davis Love III in 2003)
36-Hole Record:
128 (Dan Pohl in 1989)

Tournament information:

This will be the 35 Honda Classic. The tournament got started in 1972 as the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic and was played at Inverrary Golf & C.C. in Lauderhill, Florida. In 1981 Jackie Gleason was dropped from the tournament and the following year Honda came aboard as the tournament sponsor. After playing at several courses over the course of the last 15 years, the tournament is on the move again, this time to the Champion Course at PGA National, site of the 1987 PGA Championship. In 1976 the Players Championship, which back then moved around to different courses chose Inverrary Golf & C.C. and the Inverrary Classic wasn't played that year.

Course information:

PGA National has a lot of experience holding golf tournaments. It held the 1983 Ryder Cup, the 1987 PGA Championship and was home to 18 Senior PGA Cahmpionships. The course was originally designed by Tom and George Fazio and opened in 1981. In 1990 Jack Nicklaus came in to do some renovations. The course has 107 bunkers on it and 16 of the 18 holes have water on them. The average size of the greens is 6,400 square feet. The most famous part of the course is the "Bear Trap", holes 15, 16 and 17, two par 3s and a par 4 that will bring a lot of drama and excitement to the finish of the tournament.

The Buzz:

The buzz is that after 25 years in which this event has seen six different home the seventh at PGA National could be around for a long time. No longer is this event a poor step child to the event that was always held the week before at Doral, the Honda Classic is the first event on the Florida swing and will gain a lot of respect.

Not only because it's going to be played on a first class course that has held both PGA Tour and Champion Tour majors on it, but the fact that for the first time their is a lot of folks behind this event. With Jack and Barbara Nicklaus becoming a big part of this, the community has come together and shown this event a lot of civic pride, something that has seriously been missed.

This year is only the start, look for the buzz to filter through the rest of the tour members and watch how much this tournament grows in the years to come.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Golfobserver The 15th hole at PGA National, the start of the "Bear Trap"

A typical Florida course with lots of water and sand, look for scores to be a bit high for the first going. This will be the first time players see Bermuda fairways, rough and greens, so it will take some getting use to.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Nissan Open:

Accuracy is going to play the key over distance. The Champions course is lined with tight undulating fairways that is surrounded with water and sand not only along the fairways but in the middle of several of the fairways.

Good putting and scrambling. The greens are very big and have lots of contours so the winner will be a very good lag putter.

Interesting to note that nine of the last 13 winners of the Honda are those that are either born Floridians or now live in Florida. A perfect example was last year's winner, Luke Donald. Even though he was born in Great Britian, spent a good part of his time in Chicago, he has a house just a couple of miles away. Look for that kind of a connection in the winner.

Good bunker player since there are 100-plus bunkers on the course.

Those that play good in wind, just look at 2005 champion Padraig Harrington, don't think there is anybody better qualified after learning to play golf in Ireland. It could be quite windy this time of year and the course is susceptible to winds so look for a good wind player.

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