Honda Classic Gets The Schedule Shaft And Three Positive COVID Tests

If you thought the Arnold Palmer Invitational got the schedule-shafting from the PGA Tour, consider the poor Honda Claasic down there in Palm Beach Gardens this week.

Right off the bat, COVID emerged its ugly-virus head with Gary Woodland, Scott Piercy and Doc Redman testing positive.  Ironic that a guy named “Doc” tested positive.

On top of that,  with last week’s Players Championship and next week’s WGC-Match Play money grab, the poor old Honda, one of the longest running sponsors on Tour, gets the knee to the crotch from the Sheriff Of Nottingham’s (aka Tour Commish Jay Monahan) scheduling gremlins.

It’s no surprise that Tour ironman Sungjae Im is on hand.  Has to be, he’s the defending champ and believe it or not, of the 10 events thus far on the 2021 schedule, Sungjae has actually only played in eight.  Must be old age.  Which brings us back to the Champions course at PGA National and it should be quite a challenge this week.  March winds can blow hard on Florida’s east coast and PGA National is only a mile or two from the Atlantic Ocean as the crow flies.

What’s even more surprising is that Lee Westwood, a few weeks from his 48th birthday, is teeing it up again this week after back-to-back runner-up finishes in the past two events — Arnie’s and The Players.  That’s two physically and mentally taxing weeks.  Now there’s a bunch of Tour players living in Palm Beach County and most of the high-profile guys are sitting this one out with the exception of Rickie Fowler, who used to be a big draw here when he was playing well but lately, Rory might not be able to win the weekly game up there at the Jupiter Island Club.

Sorry Rickie.  Everyone’s pulling for you to at least make the cut this week.

No Brooks Koepka either.  His immediate future is still up in the air, including The Masters in three weeks.  No word from Brooks’ camp on the right knee MRI.

Oddsmakers like Daniel Berger this week.  They should, Berger’s been playing well and lives nearby.  Given the difficulty of the course, someone will have to be totally on their game and if the winds get nasty, well, it becomes totally unpredictable.

What is predictable is that there will be fans on site, 10,000 per day as was the case last week at The Players.

Tiger Woods Goes Home, Has New Video Game Deal:

Tiger Woods may be the only guy on the PGA Tour who can make money while recovering from injuries.  Good news that came from Woods yesterday is that he’s finally back home on Jupiter Island.  He tweeted this message to everyone:

“Happy to report that I am back home and continuing my recovery. I am so grateful for the outpouring of support and encouragement that I have received over the past few weeks,” Woods said statement. “Thank you to the incredible surgeons, doctors, nurses and staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. You have all taken such great care of me and I cannot thank you enough. I will be recovering at home and working on getting stronger every day.”

While Tiger is on the mend,  The Great Stiney (aka agent Mark Steinberg) has been busy on the phone.

Tiger’s back in the golf video game business with a new partnership between him and 2k, a major player in the video game arena.  Tiger’s entered into a long-term deal that no doubt has a lot of zeroes attached to it.  Woods’ partnership with 2K includes rights for his name and likeness to appear exclusively in the PGA Tour 2K franchise, in addition to any other golf games published by 2K during the partnership term. The 15-time major champion will serve as an Executive Director and consultant on the games.