The 2021 Honda Classic: PGA Tour Betting Odds
Daniel Berger is favoured on the golf odds.
Most top players are skipping the Honda Classic because it’s sandwiched between two big-money events, last week’s Players Championship outside Jacksonville, Fla., and next week’s WGC-Match Play in Austin, Texas.
The Honda Classic has been around in some form since 1972 with a handful of names, and it has been played at a handful of courses in south Florida but held at PGA National since 2007. That course has one of the toughest three-hole stretches on Tour, Nos. 15-17, known as the “Bear Trap” after the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the course in 1990. Overall, it’s a par 70 at around 7,125 yards.
Because it’s such a challenging course, it usually takes only single digits under par to win. South Korea’s Sungjae Im is the defending champion, getting his first career Tour victory at the Honda Classic a year ago thanks to a final-round 66. He finished at 6-under 274, tying the second-highest winning score since tournament moved to PGA National. It was the first non-major Tour event since 1996 with no players shooting a round of 5 under or better.
Im was the Honda Classic’s 10th international champion in the last 16 seasons and, at 21 years, 11 months and two days then, the event’s youngest-ever winner.
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes was a runner-up by a shot in 2020, which is impressive considering he only made the cut on the number after 36 holes, but Hughes shot 66-66 on the weekend. Alas, he missed a birdie putt on the 18th Sunday that would have forced a playoff.
The Honda Classic Golf Odds
Berger is +1200 with Im at +1400 to repeat. Berger comes off a T9 at the Players Championship and has a fourth and runner-up finish (2015) at this event – he lives in the area. Im was 17th at the Players Championship and had a 51st-place finish in his only other Honda Classic visit.
Joaquin Niemann and Lee Westwood are both +1800 with Adam Scott and Shane Lowry +2500. Niemann is the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup standings in the field. He was T29 on Sunday at the Players and missed the cut here in 2020. Westwood has been runner-up the past two weeks on the PGA Tour and was T4 here last year. Scott won here in 2016 but hasn’t been great his past three Tour events this year. Lowry comes off a T8 at the Players but hasn’t contended in three trips to this tournament.
No Canadian has won here but like Hughes (+8000 this week), Dan Halldorson finished runner-up in 1991. Hughes just missed the cut at the Players. Adam Hadwin (+10000) hasn’t played here since 2016. Nick Taylor (+12500) has played the event once and was 30th two years ago. Roger Sloan (+20000) missed the cut at the 2020 Honda. David Hearn (+40000) was sixth here in 2014 but otherwise hasn’t had success, and Michael Gligic (+40000) missed the cut last year in his tournament debut.
The Honda Classic Golf Predictions
Take Westwood and former champion Rickie Fowler for Top 10s, but the winner at +4000 is big-hitting Gary Woodland. He has three Top 10s here, including an eighth in 2020.