Tag: Champion Course

Needing par on 18 to make Honda Classic cut, pro on sponsor exemption stopped Friday at sunset. Here’s how he fared.

When you’re playing in just your eighth pro event and you’re a member of the Korn Ferry Tour, this is a big moment.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – How was your Saturday morning?

Andrew Kozan’s was rather busy.

Up at 4:30 a.m. ET after a touch more than five hours of sleep, the 23-year-old headed to work about an hour later, a 25-minute commute with a lot on his mind.

Ahead of him was 260 yards of potential ruin on the par-5 18th hole at the Champion Course, the rugged, water-laden layout at PGA National Resort that is home to the Honda Classic.

The young pro ranked No. 1,326 in the world and playing on a sponsor exemption had elected to cease play in the fading light Friday, the only player among the 144 in the field to do so. He was on the cutline and just as important, he could barely see the ball below his feet, let alone the green in the distance.

So there he was in the middle of the 18th fairway with only his caddie by his side on a bright Saturday morning, punching the timeclock at 6:47 a.m.

Make par with four good shots or miss the cut and go home for the rest of the weekend. When you’re playing in just your eighth pro event and you’re a member of the Korn Ferry Tour, this is a big moment.

Kozan was confident he’d get the job done despite the last of the Bear Trap’s fangs getting him the day before as he made triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 17th. He didn’t give much thought into going for the 18th green in two from 260 yards and, after putting a little bit more emphasis on hitting 9-irons and sand wedges while warming up, he hit his second shot 158 yards with said 9-iron and then used a sand wedge from 116 yards to reach the green. From 20 feet he two-putted to secure playing privileges in the final two rounds.

Took him 12 minutes to do so.

“It was kind of a tough break, I mean I wanted to finish last night, I was excited to get the round over and get ready for the weekend, but I mean coming down 18 we couldn’t see the balls at all,” said Kozan, who was born in West Palm Beach. “For the position I was in, it was a lot easier just to take the stress out of it, hit two easy 150-yard or so shots and call it a day.”

Oh, but his day was far from over. His dream of playing in the Honda Classic, born from his youth from the many days he attended the tournament, would continue.

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Kozan rushed to get some breakfast, hit a few more shots to re-warm up and headed to the first tee for the third round.

At 7:35 a.m.

And the unusual nature of the day took a different twist, as Kozan played as a single seeing as 73 players made the cut and Saturday called for twosomes. Kozan breezed around the Champion Course in 3 hours, 16 minutes and signed for a 68, leaving him at even par for the week. From being an errant shot from missing the cut just before 7 a.m., Kozan was tied for 26th five hours later.

“I still had a lot of energy, surprisingly,” he said. “This is my sixth week in a row, so you would think maybe being a little more tired, especially come the weekend, not getting a whole lot of sleep, but still had a lot of energy, especially this week, a lot of fans, a lot of friends and family that are out here, supporting me, kind of pushing me along.”

He’s guaranteed his largest check of the year. Kozan, who played in the 2015 Puerto Rico Open as a 16-year-old after he won the AJGA Puerto Rico Junior Open, tied for 15th in the Panama Championship and cashed for $10,921.87.

If he maintains his position, he’d be looking at something in the neighborhood of $65,000 to $70,000. Solo 73rd pays $15,920.

And if he makes a run at a top 5 or top 10, he might even get his own Wikipedia page.

But Sunday isn’t on his mind just yet. After he wrapped up his play Saturday morning, he could only think of doing one thing.

“Relax,” he said. “Long couple weeks. Last night was a long night. Early morning. So grab some lunch, maybe practice a little bit and get back and watch some movies and relax.”

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A couple of surprises are atop the leaderboard in the early goings of the Honda Classic

A rookie and a vet got the party started early on Thursday at PGA National.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Rookie Kurt Kitayama missed his last five cuts and seven of his last nine heading into the Honda Classic.

Veteran Rory Sabbatini said his days of going toe-to-toe with the game’s most powerful players are over, that he has to pick and choose his spots to be successful.

So of course the two are at the top of the leaderboard after tangling with the difficult Champion Course at PGA National Resort in Thursday’s first round of the Honda Classic.

Kitayama, ranked No. 289 in the world, began his round with three consecutive birdies and then strung together four in a row on his inward nine to come home with a 6-under-par 64. Sabbatini, the silver medalist in the Tokyo Olympics, shot his first bogey-free round in the tournament and shot 65.

Among other early finishers, three players were at 3 under.

Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka shot 68.

Honda: Leaderboard | PGA Tour Live streaming on ESPN+

Kitayama, who has two wins on the DP World Tour, hasn’t gotten off to a good start in his first year as a member of the PGA Tour. This season he’s missed six cuts and finished in ties for 45th and 65th. His best finish of late was a tie for 11th in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship last September.

“I felt like I’ve been playing well, and I’ve started to figure out my putting to kind of find this kind of round,” Kitayama said. “I think when you’re struggling, I think just that self-motivation to keep getting better and finding a way to figure it out. It’s kind of how you’ve got to keep going.

“I drove it well, hit 14 greens. I think that’s really important out here. Then my putter was pretty hot in those birdie stretches. Everything felt really solid.”

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Sabbatini, ranked No. 123 in the world, was the tournament in 2011, the most recent of his six PGA Tour titles. The 45-year-old, who knew he had posted his first bogey-free round on the Champion Course in 37 attempts, said he can’t keep up with today’s firepower in the game and he has to rely on experience.

“I’m getting to that point in my game where I think I’ve gotten past where I feel like, I hate to say it, truly competitive out here,” he said. “There are too many guys out here that have much more firepower, so I’ve just got to kind of pick and choose my way around the golf course, so to me it’s become more of a chess game and less about throwing some darts out there. I think I’ve just learned to maximize what my abilities are and stay away from my inabilities.

“It’s been quite a rapid transition over the last two years. When you’re playing with two guys in your group and their combined age is less than yours, you’re thinking, wow, this is not my sport anymore.”

It was on Thursday, however.

“Every time I missed, I missed it in the right spot, so I kept the stress to a minimum,” he said. “But this golf course isn’t going to let you get away with three more rounds like that, so I’ve got a lot of cleaning up between today and tomorrow and going forward.”

Sabbatini said the silver medal “is somewhere safe” and winning it “was like putting sprinkles on top of ice cream.”

“It was that little added bonus at the end,” he said. “When I’m out here I’ll keep running the course as long as I can, but it’s kind of like, it’s getting to that time where it’s getting close to me being bucked off and I’ve got to go find something else to do.”

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Brooks Koepka enjoys the fight put up by Champion Course at PGA National in Honda Classic

The higher the scores, the better. That’s Brooks Koepka’s take on this week’s Honda Classic.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – The higher the scores, the better.

That’s Brooks Koepka’s take on this week’s Honda Classic on the windswept, difficult Champion Course at PGA National.

Then again, that’s Koepka’s golf DNA – the tougher, the better. He doesn’t like pitch-and-putt courses where the rough is light, the greens are painless, bogeys are rare and scoreboards bleed red numbers.

Koepka prefers a fight with the course, where par is your friend and struggles are real.

“I like difficult courses,” Koepka said Wednesday ahead of the Honda Classic. “I can’t compete when it’s 30 under, 25 under every week. That’s not me. I’m not going to go out and shoot 66, 65 every round.

Tee times, TV info | PGA Tour Live streaming on ESPN+

“Probably why you see U.S. Opens, I’m pretty much contending every time, and the more difficult tracks I seem to do better. That’s kind of our M.O., the history I’ve looked at it. I think maybe four or five times I shot (better than) 18 under, that’s about it, but the rest of the time when it’s difficult I’m usually right there.”

Actually, it’s been six times he’s bettered 18 under. On two of those occasions, he won: the 2021 WM Phoenix Open (19 under) and the 2018 CJ Cup (21 under).

But Koepka has shined the brightest on the biggest and most difficult stages – the majors. Half of his eight PGA Tour titles have come in majors. Starting with the 2016 PGA Championship, Koepka has 13 top-10s in 18 major starts. He missed just one cut in this streak and won the U.S. Open in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship in 2018 and 2019. He also had three runner-up finishes, including last year in the PGA Championship, which came before he tied for fourth in the U.S. Open and tied for sixth in the Open Championship.

While this week’s Honda Classic is not a major, the Champion Course at PGA National renovated by Jack Nicklaus will provide a similar, stern test. Since moving to PGA National in 2007, there have been only four double-digit under-par winning scores in the event. Considering the forecast – harsh winds – and the course, one will be hard-pressed to get to double-digits.

“Fairways are nice and tight. It’ll be difficult chipping around the green. Rough is getting a little bit thicker. Greens look like they could use a little bit of water. Hopefully they don’t die out there come Sunday because they are pretty brown,” said Koepka, who missed last year’s Honda with a knee injury and has a tie for second in 2019 as his best finish. “It’s a tough test, especially when the wind blows. You’re going to see even-par always being a pretty good score here.”

Koepka, coming off a missed cut in the Genesis Invitational, which followed up a tie for third in the WM Phoenix Open, is in the middle of moving to a new residence in Jupiter, Florida, about 10-15 minutes away. The former world No. 1, who is ranked 15th, doesn’t relish the home game like so many others do.

“I’d say probably more disadvantages than advantages,” he said about playing near his home. “Phone blows up a lot more, a lot more people wanting tickets, more people wanting to go to dinner. I don’t do that in a normal week. I’m pretty much locked in my house and only see the golf course and the gym.

“It’s different. You’re used to having things in a suitcase. I know it sounds weird, but when I’m in my own home sometimes, I just moved, so literally trying to find stuff isn’t always the easiest, but when you’ve got it all packed in a couple bags, it makes it a lot easier. Just odds and ends, making sure everybody is taken care of, family, some friends, things like that, so it makes it a little bit more difficult.”

Sounds like he’ll be in the right frame of mind heading to the Honda each day.

“I like the way I’m playing,” he said. “Like the way I’m putting, like the way everything seems to be coming together and rounding into form.”

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Check the yardage book: PGA National’s Champion Course for the Honda Classic

The Honda Classic kicks off the Florida Swing with water, water everywhere at PGA National.

PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida – site of this week’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour – originally was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and was renovated by Jack Nicklaus in 2014.

The Champion opened in 1981 and was home to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the U.S. beat Europe 14.5-13.5. It also hosted the 1987 PGA Championship, in which Larry Nelson beat Lanny Wadkins in a playoff. This week’s Honda Classic is the first stop on the Tour’s annual Florida Swing.

Nicklaus’ redesign includes a three-hole stretch dubbed the Bear Trap on Nos. 15, 16 and 17. Two watery par 3s with the wet stuff short and right, plus a par 4 over and around more water, typically demand bravado and supreme ballstriking as the tournament is decided.

The Champion Course ranks No. 10 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also ties for No. 88 on Golfweek’s Best list for resort courses in the U.S.

PGA National Resort is home to 99 holes of golf in all and has recently undergone a $100 million renovation that includes the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.

The Champion Course will play to 7,125 yards with a par of 70 for the Honda Classic.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Matt Jones gets best of fierce Champion Course, ties course record with 61 in Honda Classic

Matt Jones got the best of the fierce Champion Course as he tied the course record with 61 in Honda Classic.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Matt Jones didn’t seem overly impressed.

“I play golf for a living,” Jones said. “I mean, I should be able to shoot a good score occasionally. It doesn’t happen as much as I want.”

Well, it happened Thursday in the first round of the Honda Classic.

On the windswept Champion Course at PGA National, Jones somehow shot a bogey-free, 9-under-par 61 to tie the course record set by Brian Harman in 2012 and move three ahead of the field midway through the opening 18.

His round was so good that playing partner Adam Hadwin joked he stopped saying, “Good shot,” sometime during the round.

“He just hit so many, you just stop saying it. You’re just under the assumption that it was good,” Hadwin said. “It was one of the best rounds I’ve seen in my life. He didn’t make any mistakes. It was fun to watch.”

HONDA CLASSIC: Tee times, TV | Odds | Fantasy

Just don’t expect Jones to start doing cartwheels or high-fiving everyone in sight despite shooting the lowest score of his 14 years on the PGA Tour. Or doing so on the same course where not a single player in any round last year shot 65 or better – the first time that’s happened on the PGA Tour in a non-major since 1996.

Jones hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation and 10 of 14 fairways, needed just 24 putts and ranked No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. He made birdies from 14, 2, 4, 4, 17, 6, 23 and 5 feet and another from 6 inches.

“I’m very happy with it,” Jones said. “I was very calm, I was very relaxed out there. I’m normally a bit more amped up and I had a different goal this week, to be a little bit more calm and walk slower.”

Aaron Wise and 2014 Honda winner Russell Henley each shot 64.

“I felt like I played amazing today,” Wise said. “The first few holes were pretty easy because there was no wind, but once we made the turn and got to the back nine, it was playing incredibly hard.

“For Matt to shoot 9 under, that’s an amazing round.”

The Honda Classic
Matt Jones stands on the 18th green during the first round of the 2021 Honda Classic at PGA National (Champion). Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Jones tied for fourth in 2008 in his tournament debut but has just one top-20 in six starts since. But he was reminded earlier this week about his debut when his name was prominent on the leaderboard all week.

“Someone sent me a screenshot of that leaderboard yesterday, so it was good to see that,” Jones said. “It’s just a difficult golf course. If you’re off a little bit you can’t get away with it around here. It was good to make birdies and get away with it.”

Jones, 40, is ranked No. 83 in the world and has one – the 2014 Shell Houston Open – PGA Tour title. But with birdies on half the holes – four consecutive on the front nine and three consecutive to end his round – he took a big step toward winning No. 2.

“I actually didn’t know I made four in a row until I saw it on the scoreboard on 18. I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “You can’t think about that on this golf course because every hole can bite you.

“It was probably one of the better ball-striking days with my irons that I’ve had for a long, long time. You have to be able to control the ball. It was windy out there, and I turned with a good score, and then you know what you’ve got ahead of you here, and I was just lucky to make a few more birdies.”

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Honda Classic odds, predictions, picks and PGA Tour best bets

Analyzing the golf betting odds to win the 2020 Honda Classic, with PGA Tour betting odds, picks, predictions and best bets.

The PGA Tour begins its four-event Florida swing with this week’s Honda Classic. Just three of the top 10 players in the world, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings are in the field this week. Many of the world’s top golfers are taking the week off ahead of next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship the following week.

The key stats for the 7,125-yard, par-70 PGA National are:

  • Strokes Gained: Ball Striking
  • SG: Approach
  • Birdies or Better Gained
  • Sand Saves Gained
  • Par 4 Efficiency: 400-450 Yards
  • Strokes Gained: Scrambling

My model at Fantasy National looks at the most recent 36 rounds for each golfer in the field on courses shorter than 7,200 yards.

Honda Classic – Tier 1

Feb 20, 2020; Mexico City, MEX; Tommy Fleetwood reacts after playing his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of the WGC – Mexico Championship golf tournament at Club de Golf Chapultepec. (Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez – USA TODAY Sports)

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 12:30 a.m. ET.

Tommy Fleetwood (+1000)

At No. 5 in the Golfweek rankings, Fleetwood is the top golfer in attendance. He also leads my stat model for the week on his strengths in SG: Ball Striking and Par 4 Efficiency. He finished fourth here in 2018 before skipping last year’s event.

Fleetwood is one of the more precise and accurate golfers in the world, and the forced layups off the tees at PGA National will play to his advantage as golfers need to navigate their way around the course. He’s a chalky play as the tournament favorite, but it worked for us last week with Viktor Hovland at the Puerto Rico Open.

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Billy Horschel (+2800)

Horschel has finished T-9 at each of his last two events – last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He tied for 16th at last year’s tournament following a missed cut in 2018. He finished T-4 and T-8 in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Like Fleetwood, he’s a great irons player.

Honda Classic – Tier 2

Jan 24, 2020; San Diego, California, USA; Matthew Wolff plays his shot from the 18th tee during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course – North Course. (Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez – USA TODAY Sports)

Matthew Wolff (+8000)

Wolff took last week off following a missed cut at the Genesis Invitational. He had previously missed the cut at the WMPO. While he ranks just 72nd overall by the stat model, he’s 18th in Birdies or Better Gained on shorter courses.

Luke List (+9000)

List’s advantage in length is largely negated at PGA National due to the forced layups off the tee. He was the runner-up to Rickie Fowler in 2018 and he tied for 10th in 2016. He’s on a streak of three straight made cuts.

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Honda Classic – Longshots

Apr 21, 2019; Hilton Head, SC, USA; Sam Burns tees off on the second hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament at Harbour Town Golf Links. (Photo Credit: Joshua S. Kelly – USA TODAY Sports)

Sam Burns (+10000)

Burns’ odds are attractive following a T-8 finish in 2018. He followed it up with a T-73 last year, but he’s coming off a T-23 result in a much stronger field at the Genesis Invitational. He can score low on shorter courses.

Dylan Frittelli (+15000)

Frittelli excels on par 4’s ranging from 400-450 yards. He missed the cut last year on the heels of an 11th-place finish in 2018. He hasn’t found top form since his breakthrough win at last year’s John Deere Classic, but he picked up top-10 finishes at the Sanderson Farms Championship and Safeway Open earlier in the 2019-20 season. These odds are far too high for someone with a Masters invite already secured.

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