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Tournament Stats:
Honda ClassicMarch 5 – 8, 2009
PGA National Resort and Spa
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,158
Purse: $5.5 million with $990,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: Ernie Els
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores of 2007 Honda Classic
Box Score of 2007 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)
18-Hole Record:
62 (Jerry Kelly in 2003, Adam Scott in 2003, Tim Herron in 1996, Dan Pohl in 1989 and Hale Irwin in 1979)
18-Hole Record at PGA National, set last year:
64 (Luke Donald in the first round)
Tournament information:
This will be the 37th 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 switched courses again last year, 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:
Lots of things both good and bad. The good, golf has made the front pages of newspapers again with Tiger back, Phil winning and the impressive victory by Geoff Ogilvy at the Accenture Match play. Of course the PGA Tour is suffering setbacks with U.S. Bank withdrawing from Milwaukee, FBR withdrawing from Phoenix and the unknown future of Stanford Financial plus companies like Wachovia stepping away. Still with the economy getting weaker by the day golf is holding it's own. In spending a week in Tucson for the Match Play I saw a lot of folks still very devoted to watching the best players in the world. Attendance was solid and despite NBC ratings being 43% off the mark from Tiger winning last year, Golf Channel saw good numbers in their telecast plus the Golf Channel and PGA Tour saw increase business during the week. The good buzz should continue as the Honda has found a great home after 25 years and seven different homes. With a course that players are now looking forward to playing and a good date, this event is no longer the poor step child to Doral which use to be played the week before. With all of the changes including leading off the Florida swing the Honda Classic has finally gain a lot of respect.
Now total respect will come when Tiger Woods decides to play in this event, since the course is tough and is gaining rave reviews on the PGA Tour and with Woods moving to a new home down the road in Jupiter, the hope of tournament officials is that Woods will give it a try very soon. Next year the event will again be the first Florida Swing event but the Match Play will be played a week earlier and the FBR (or whatever it's called then) will be the last west coast swing event, thus maybe Woods will play in the Honda. Still the good news is that more good players will be playing in the Honda with the change to PGA National.
Oh, talking about Tiger, guess who has won the most events in Florida? Yes Woods does along with Jack Nicklaus at ten followed by Lee Trevino with 6 and Tom Kite and Ray Floyd with 5. Tied with them is John Huston, with Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Mark McCumber, Larry Nelson, Hubert Green, Greg Norman, Gary Koch, Fred Couples and Andy Bean all with four.
As for the field, eight of the world's top 25 players: Sergio Garcia (No. 2), Camilo Villegas (No. 9), Ernie Els (No. 14), Rory McIlroy (No. 16th), Stewart Cink (No. 18th), Justin Rose (No. 21), Miguel Angel Jimenez (No. 24) and Justin Leonard (No. 25) are playing.
Good and bad news on the Luke Donald front, the good news Dr. Andrew Weiland determined that Luke Donald has not damaged the repaired tendon in his wrist and he was free to play this week, bad news he withdrew on Tuesday from Honda, still wait and see for Doral as he will take anti-inflammatory medication. Honda has had a rash of semi-marquee names withdraw, Rick Beem, Charles Hoffman and Chad Campbell.
One happy story this week will be of Erik Compton playing. He is the player that is on his third heart showing us the real meaning of courage and he was given a sponsor exemption this week. Last week was a bit special for him as on February 22nd he became a father for the first time when daughter Petra was born. So just ten months from getting his second heart transplant he will have some new responsibilities.
Here are some things to look for this week:
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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 Honda Classic:
