Can someone please save the Honda Classic?
Someone with a name, someone we all know, someone we can recognize, someone the crowds over there in Palm Beach Gardens can get behind.
Maybe, just maybe Rickie Fowler is up to the task.
It was at this event last year when Fowler held the 36-hole lead, only to collapse over the weekend.
Fowler got off to another good start on Thursday, he just missed a 13-footer for eagle at the 18th and finished the day with a four-under par 66 that got him within two shots of leaders Cody Gribble and Wes Bryan.
Who?
Exactly the point. Grille and Bryan aren’t exactly going to have the area fans excited for the weekend.
Enter Rickie.
Rickie, once a California kid, is now a Jupiter guy.
“I’ve been over here for quite a while now,” said Fowler, who recently bought a $14 million waterfront mansion not far from PGA National.
“It’s a ball-striking golf course, you can’t over-power it too much,” Fowler said of this week’s testy layout. “It’s nice to be back home. I feel like I’ve struggled on the west coast the last few years.”
Fowler didn’t struggle much on Thursday. “When I do miss some greens, the short game’s been pretty good as of late,” he pointed out.
The Honda needs Fowler to light it up the rest of the week. After three inches of rain on Wednesday, the field played lift-clean-and-place rules with no one going really low.
No need to go low — Adam Scott won last year with a nine-under par effort. He opened with a two-under par 68 under sunny skies.
Justin Thomas, one of the other few big names in the field, was disappointing with a 71.
Rickie’s the man the Honda needs.
He’s the guy who can create some buzz.
And with the best players in the world skipping this week’s stop on the PGA Tour, the Honda could sure use some buzz.
2 Comments
beege
its remarkable but the field this year is subpar—i did not see that coming but reality hits sometimes and california took the starch out of some guys with mexico coming up and one other thing this year that is different–i think guys will play bay hill that normally don’t to honor the king and this week became expendable.
Tom Edrington
Mark Cuban says the NFL is getting overexposure, maybe. But the tour plays every week. Travel is a lot easier and guys do have to take a breather. Looking forward to see what Rory can do in Mexico.