Welcome to Florida and the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing.
Despite so many big names living in Palm Beach County, they’re skipping this week’s Honda Classic with the exception of Brooks Koepka, who’s basically the most recognizable name in the field. Brooks and Louis Oosthuizen are the only two players in the field ranked in the world’s top 15.
What you will recognize immediately are the key holes that came from the Jack Nicklaus re-design, appropriately called The Bear Trap. That would be the par three 15th, the par four 16th and that nasty par three 17th.
What was missing at Riviera last week that you’ll see plenty of this week? Water!
The Champions course at PGA National can get downright nasty when the wind blows and although temperatures will be perfect with week with early morning lows in the mid 60s and highs in the low 80s, there will be enough wind, at least for the first two rounds to get everyone’s attention. Should be around 15-15 miles per hour on Thursday, 12-14 on Friday. The weekend winds will diminish a bit but the difficulty remains high.
Matt Jones shot 12-under last year for the win but nine of that 12 came on day one when he shot 61 on the par 70 layout.
He was the only player in double-digits under par. Brandon Hagy finished second at seven-under, Russell Henley, Denny McCarthy and C.T. Pan tied for third at six-under.
In contrast, Joaquin Niemann shot 19-under last week at Riviera which is supposed to be a major-championship-caliber layout.
One player who played in the Honda last year but you won’t see this week is the now notorious Phil Mickelson. No telling when Phil shows his face again after the revelations that he basically was in cahoots with the Saudi League to extort the PGA Tour. Perhaps in two weeks at the Players Championship.
The Honda falls in a disadvantageous spot on the Tour schedule. After all the top 10 and most of the top 20 showed up at the Genesis last week, they’re taking this week off and will most likely play at next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (March 3-6) in preparation for the following week’s Players Championship (March 10-12).
PGA National flyover, click here
Television Schedule:
Thursday: The Golf Channel 2 p.m. (ET) to 6 p.m. (ET).
Friday: The Golf Channel: 2 p.m. (ET) to 6 p.m. (ET).
Saturday: The Golf Channel 1 p.m. (ET) to 3 p.m. (ET); NBC: 3 p.m. (ET) to 6 p.m. (ET)
Sunday: The Golf Channel 1 p.m. (ET) to 3 p.m. (ET); NBC: 3 p.m. (ET) to 6 p.m. (ET)
Bernard Langer Has Hale Irwin In His Sites:
With his victory last week at the Chubb Classic, Bernhard Langer has now notched 43 senior victories, just two short of tying Hale Irwin, three away from passing the all-time wins leader for over-50 golf.
This week Langer heads the field for the Cologuard Classic at Tucson National.
Kevin Sutherland is the defending champion. He shot 15-under last year to beat runnerup Mike Weir by two shots. Steve Stricker and Scott Parel tied for third at 12-under.
6 Comments
briggzee
Bernhard Langer has now notched 43 senior victories and should have an asterisk beside everyone for anchoring his putter which I believe is illegal.
Tom Edrington
He’s watched very closely, he doesn’t anchor the grip — he tucks his left arm into his left side and the grip is about an inch away from his chest……Adam Scott’s the same….if the wind is blowing, it blows your shirt out a bit and it might look like it’s against his chest but it’s not.
briggzee
I stood no more than 30 feet from him at a senior tour event when he was putting and believe me his top hand was anchored into his chest, no mistake about it.
Besides that I don’t believe the tour wants to go after him at all, they simple don’t have the nerve to do it, he’s simply too big a name so he gets away with it, same as Scott.
They should have limited the length of the putter when the rule was changed, that would have looked after it once and for all.
Tom Edrington
There’s been a lot of back-and-forth with those who hold the same observation/opinion as yours; One thing I do know is that if he truly was, it’s the responsibility of playing partners to say something, they are there to protect the field….no one has spoken out and he’s taking money from them if he were indeed anchoring…the great thing about our game is golf is the only sport where players call penalties on themselves; Bernie’s had a good reputation his entire career — only major knock on him is that he is very SLOW!
briggzee
Good point on the money issue, I still believe no one including the players wants to touch him with a 10 foot pole or a 5 foot putter.
Tom Edrington
Well said!