The Honda Classic is the third-to-last tournament week ahead of the 2021 Masters Tournament. PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, hosts a relatively weak field following The Players Championship and ahead of next week’s WGC-Match Play. Below, we’ll look for the best value bets in the 2021 Honda Classic odds, with tournament matchups, placings and other PGA Tour picks and predictions.
Justin Thomas jumped to No. 6 in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings with victory at The Players last week. Sungjae Im, No. 26, defends his 2020 title.
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 4:37 p.m. ET.
Tournament matchups
Shane Lowry vs. Adam Scott (-110)
Scott, who won here in 2016, is a slight betting underdog against Lowry in this 72-hole head-to-head matchup. Lowry has never finished better than last year’s T-21 in three appearances at this event but is coming off an eighth-place finish last week while Scott tied for 48th at TPC Sawgrass.
Scott is 20th in the Golfweek rankings to Lowry’s 92nd and has the better history at PGA National. He has gained an average of 1.16 strokes on the field per round over 20 laps of the course. Lowry averages 0.73 strokes gained over 12 rounds.
Martin Kaymer (-135) vs. Matt Wallace
Wallace has played on the PGA Tour each of the last two weeks with a T-18 finish last week following a missed cut in a considerably weaker field at the Puerto Rico Open. Kaymer, a former major winner and world No. 1, hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since the 2020 US Open, but he has four top-10 finishes in his last 10 events on the European Tour.
Wallace missed the cut here in 2020 and Kaymer has a top finish of T-4 in this event in 2017. Take the motivated German, as he needs a victory for an invitation to the Masters.
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Placing bets
Top 5: Doug Ghim (+1000)
Ghim, a former collegiate award winner, played exceptionally well over 54 holes each of the last two weeks only to shoot 81 Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and 78 in the final round of The Players to finish 36th and 29th, respectively.
The experience coupled with the weaker field in attendance this week should allow him to earn his second top-5 finish of 2021.
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Top 10: Richy Werenski (+700)
Werenski missed the cut last week on the heels of a T-4 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was his only top-10 finish in 17 events since winning the Barracuda Championship last summer.
The weakened field will help clear room for Werenski to get back into contention. He tied for 17th last year for his best finish in four appearances.
First-round leader
Joaquin Niemann (+3000)
Niemann has the third-best odds to win this event at +1800. The odds nearly double for him to have the 18-hole lead despite the fact he’s sixth on the PGA Tour, and tops in this field, with a first-round scoring average of 68.82 on the 2020-21 season.
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