PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, once again plays host to The Honda Classic. Defending champion Sungjae Im fronts this week’s field following Justin Thomas’ victory at The Players Championship. Below, we look at the 2021 Honda Classic odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.
Many of the PGA Tour’s biggest names are taking this week off following The Players Championship. The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play runs next week in Austin, Texas. The 2021 Masters Tournament is just three weeks away.
Daniel Berger was the top golfer in attendance from the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings, but he withdrew Wednesday afternoon. Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jordan Spieth are among those taking this week off in preparation for the match play and the Masters.
2021 Honda Classic picks – Favorite
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 11:20 a.m. ET.
Sungjae Im (+1200)
Im’s second by the odds behind Berger following a T-17 finish last week at TPC Sawgrass. He won this event by one stroke over Mackenzie Hughes (+8000) at 6-under par last year. He tied for 51st in his 2019 tournament debut at PGA National.
Improved putting was the biggest reason for Im’s climb up the leaderboard from 2019 to 2020. He averaged 1.15 Strokes Gained: Putting per round last week and was fourth in the field among those to make the cut with 1.06 SG: Off-the-Tee per round.
Im has played the weekend in each of his eight events thus far in 2021 and this is the weakest field in several weeks. He’s well-positioned to defend his title.
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2021 Honda Classic picks – Contender
Doug Ghim (+5000)
Ghim remains a betting value after back-to-back quality showings at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.
He entered the final round of both events near the top of the leaderboard, but he struggled each of the past two Sundays, shooting 81 at the API and 78 at the Players. Those nerves may be relaxed this week against the lesser field and with his experience of the last two weeks.
He missed the cut here last year with a woeful putting performance, but he averaged 1.85 SG: Tee-to-Green and 1.19 SG: Approach per round last week. He has missed the cut in just two of his last 11 events dating to last fall.
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2021 Honda Classic picks – Long shot
Nick Taylor (+10000)
Taylor will make just his second appearance at PGA National following a T-30 finish in 2019. He tied for 48th in last week’s loaded field while ranking ninth among those to make the cut with 1.20 SG: Approach per round.
Putting hurt him last week, but he had success on these greens in 2019 when ranking fifth in the field with 1.64 SG: Putting per round. Improvement with the flat stick and a repeat performance of his approach game could have Taylor return to the winner’s circle for the third time in his PGA Tour career,
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