The 2023 Honda Classic: PGA Tour Betting Odds
Sungjae Im is favoured on the golf odds.
Everyone knows by now that players on the LIV Series are not allowed to play PGA Tour events (major championships don’t count) and this is the first time this year that the PGA Tour and LIV (in Mexico) go head-to-head.
The Honda Classic has struggled to draw a strong field in recent years simply with all the travel from the West Coast and with a bigger event up next on Tour in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. With the past two events on the Tour both having elevated purses and the Honda not, it’s a very watered-down field in 2023 even though a lot of pros live in the general area.
The host course is the very challenging PGA National’s Champion Course, a par 70 at 7,125 yards. Jack Nicklaus, who also lives in the area, has redesigned twice over the years. One of the most challenging three-hole stretches on the Tour is PGA National’s Bear Trap, which is Nos. 15-17. That stretch usually plays at least a combined 200 over par in a given tournament. Honda Motors is ending the longest uninterrupted title sponsorship deal for a PGA Tour event following this year’s tournament, but the event will go on. There is some talk it could be moved on the schedule.
The defending champion is Austria’s Sepp Straka – the third straight non-American to win the Honda Classic. He made birdies on three of his last five holes Sunday, played the Bear Trap in 1 under, and shot 4-under 66 overall to become the first Austrian-born player to win on Tour. He finished at 10-under 270, one shot up on Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
Straka hasn’t won since (lost in a playoff last October in Mississippi to Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes) and is +4000 to be the first repeat champion since Nicklaus in 1978. He’s the only repeat winner and one of four players to win the tournament twice overall.
The Honda Classic Golf Odds
For the second year in a row, South Korea’s Sungjae Im is the favourite – he was +1400 entering last year’s even but is +800 this time. He won in 2020 by one stroke and was T8 in 2021 but missed the cut in 2022. Im finished T56 at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday.
Shane Lowry is +1600, with Min Woo Lee and Matt Kuchar both +2200, and Alex Noren, Denny McCarthy and Chris Kirk each +2500. Lowry was runner-up to Sepp Straka last year. Lee debuts here, while Kuchar hasn’t played here in many years and comes off an eighth-place finish at the Genesis. Noren has two Top 5s here but hasn’t won. McCarthy has a best result of T3, and Kirk was T7 last year.
Pierceson Coody, a former No. 1 amateur in the world, is +10000 to win in his first Tour start as a pro. He has won twice in 15 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour since turning pro last June.
No Canadian has won the Honda Classic, but Mackenzie Hughes finished runner-up by a shot in 2020 and Dan Halldorson was a co-runner-up in 1991 to Steve Pate.
Last year, Adam Svensson was the top Canadian at T9, with Nick Taylor T16, Taylor Pendrith T25, Mackenzie Hughes T48 and Roger Sloan T55. Michael Gligic missed the cut. Svensson is the top-ranked golfer from this season’s FedExCup standings who is in the field and is +5400. He won the 2015 Korn Ferry Tour Q-School Finals at PGA National by seven strokes. Pendrith is +4000 with Ben Silverman +25000 and Gligic +10000.
The Honda Classic Golf Predictions
We like Sweden’s Alex Noren at +2500 to get his first PGA Tour win, but he has several victories internationally. Noren has been Top 5 twice at this event.
