The Honda Classic Preview
2020 The Honda Classic
Feb 27 – Mar 1
PGA National Resort & Spa – The Champion Course
Par 70 ~ 7,135 yards | Bermuda Greens
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Defending: Keith Mitchell
The Honda Classic kicks off the four week Florida swing of this year’s PGA Tour events. The Champion Course is one of the hardest non-major courses the players will take on this year. Most notably, the Bear Trap designed by Jack Nicklaus is as tough a stretch as you’ll find on the tour (more below). Keith Mitchell is the defending champion at the Honda Classic finishing at -9. Expect to see this year’s winner in the single digits under par as well.
Big names this week include Brooks Koepka (+1200), Tommy Fleetwood (+1200), and Rickie Fowler (+1400) and Puerto Rico Open winner Viktor Holland (+2800). The field is a little weaker than the last couple tournaments which is due to players preparing for the upcoming Players and Masters events. No Tiger, Rory, JT, or DJ which means we’ll have to dig deep for some of these DFS Lineups. View our bets and DFS picks this week.
PGA National (The Champion Course) Layout
Par 70 ~ 7,135 yards | Bermuda Greens
Par 3s: 217, 226, 179, 175
Par 4s: 365, 464, 395, 479, 427, 421, 508, 450, 438, 388, 465, 434,
Par 5s: 538, 566
The Champion Course will take driver out of players’ hands this week pretty often as accuracy off the tee is huge with water and bunkers all over the place. We will see a lot fewer wedges this week as players will have more shots from the mid iron (150-200yd) range. Hitting greens in regulation will also be a major stat to track this week due to the difficulty of the course and the wind they always comes into play. With missed greens, comes scrambling around the green, and while not an overly important statistic in general, it could help with the decision if one guy avoids bogeys or double bogeys more than others. More than other weeks, having experience at such a tough course over the years is a huge plus.
The Bear Trap (holes 15, 16, 17)
The Bear Trap kicks off with a shorter 179 yard par 3, but hitting over water onto a diagonal green with the wind ripping can make it play well over par. In the words of Jack Nicklaus, “This is a par 3 that can make you swallow twice.”
The par 4, 434 yard 16th is a dogleg right over water onto an elevated green and forces most players to hit iron off the tee.
Finishing off The Bear Trap is another par 3, this time playing 190 yards over water, meaning wind is a major factor again. This is a small green and players will be very happy to leave the hole with a par. See below for a flyover of this stretch of holes.
Past Winners at The Honda Classic
2019 – Keith Mitchell (-9)
2018 – Justin Thomas (-8)
2017 – Rickie Fowler (-12)
2016 – Adam Scott (-9)
2015 – Padraig Harrington (-6)
2014 – Russell Henley (-8)
Winner Odds
Brookes Koepka +1200
Tommy Fleetwood +1200
Rickie Fowler +1400
Gary Woodland +2200
Billy Horschel +2500
Justin Rose +2500
Louis Oosthuizen +2500
Viktor Hovland +2800