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PALM BEACH GARDENS – The Honda Classic will be moving to mid-March next year, a schedule change it hopes solves a two-year stretch of underwhelming fields.
Next year’s Honda will be held on March 18-21 at PGA National, following The Players Championship, and in the spot held by the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor the last three years.
For the last two years, Honda fell in the middle of an impressive five-week stretch that started with Tiger Woods’ Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles, the WCG-Mexico Championship and ended with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and The Players at TPC Sawgrass.
Next year, it will follow Genesis, the WGC event, Bay Hill and The Players. Valspar is moving to late April.
“I have spoken to many players who believe that is a more favorable date for us,” Honda Classic executive director Ken Kennerly said. “While players will continue to play their favorite tournaments, we have been told that might be a better date to get back some of the players that have missed us in the past.”
Honda can thank the calendar for the change. For the next three years, there will be one less week in the PGA Tour schedule before the Masters, forcing one tournament to be moved. With Valspar being pushed back, Honda was able to slide into the week previously occupied by Valspar.
“We know we’re confirmed for 2021,” Kennerly said. “We believe based on the consistency of the PGA Tour we should be in that date for the next three years.”
The Masters will be April 8-11 in 2021.
Honda has been affected as much as any event by the changes in the schedule the last two years – the primary culprit being the Players moving from May back to March. Many of the top players have opted to play Tiger’s tournament and the WGC event, take off Honda week, then play Bay Hill and Players.
Honda had just three of the top-20 players in the world in 2019 and six of the top 20 this year, but just one in the top 10, Jupiter’s Brooks Koepka, who entered No. 3.
The tournament then lost its three biggest names when it comes to star power for the weekend this year when Koepka, Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler missed the cut.
“Any top 10 player in the world would play in any of those five events,” 2019 Honda champion Keith Mitchell said before the tournament. “But, it’s impossible to play five events in a row and perform your best, physically and mentally. It’s just really tough, especially if your competing and coming down the stretch in contention It’s just very draining.
“It’s just a tough time of year for guys and our schedule because of all the quality fields.”
Next year, Bay Hill will be the middle event of that five-week stretch.
This year’s Honda, won by South Korean Sungjae Im, was notable for the names not in the field.
The disappointment was five of the top-10 golfers in the world who have homes a short distance from the course skipped the tournament: No. 1 Rory McIlroy (Jupiter), No. 4 Justin Thomas (Jupiter), No. 5 Dustin Johnson (Palm Beach Gardens), No. 7 Patrick Cantlay (North Palm Beach) and No. 9 Woods (Jupiter Island). The schedule is the primary reason, although Woods continues to deal with back stiffness (he is not playing this week at Bay Hill) and Cantlay is taking off time for a medical procedure.
Following Honda in the schedule next year will be WGC-Match Play in Austin, Texas, the Texas Open in San Antonio and the Masters.
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