Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Honda needs PGA’s help
Fowler wins; Classic suffers from weaker field caused by Doral’s loss
PALM BEACH GARDENS — A couple cases of beer rolled into The Honda Classic press room midSunday afternoon on one of those luggage carriers hotels use. Jhonattan Vegas hit a hole-in-one at the Honda Classic and, bless him, wanted to share his good fun.
Maybe this is the best place to start with the current predicament of pro golf in South Florida. This gesture meant Vegas went from being known only to dedicated golf fans to being a media favorite.
We’re easy that way. Beyond that, it didn’t take much of a nudge to become a favorite this Honda Classic. Rickie Fowler won it going away, thank goodness, because he was the only one of two players near the top of the leader board you’ve likely ever read about.
And the other player sent a case of beer to the press room.
This is the first year since 1962 that the PGA doesn’t have a tournament in Doral, and the effect is obvious and unfortunate to the Honda and local golf fans. To put it succinctly: The best golfers weren’t here.
The Honda remained an impeccably run and heavily attended tournament that was
kissed by perfect weather. But this wasn’t the Honda of recent years. Too many golfers didn’t want to come from California to South Florida for a one-week trip before jetting to the next stop in Mexico City.
There were no players ranked in the top five and only three in the top 10. This was, judging by the field, the Quad City Open. And it’s going to remain that unless something changes.
Does it matter? Well, if you like good golf and big-time competition it matters. Fowler was undramatic in victory. He had five birdies and four bogeys on a relatively uninspired final round to beat Morgan Hoffmann and Gary Woodland by four strokes.
“I didn’t play great,” he said. “It wasn’t a pretty round. But I got the job done. A win is a win.”
Maybe there’s more drama if Rory McIlroy, who was hurt, played as scheduled. Certainly there would be if Tiger Woods also had played. But it says something about golf that Tiger has barely played and certainly not won in five years but remains the bell-cow golf. It’s like Mike Tyson at the end of boxing.
Honda executive director Ken Kennerly built this into at topnotch event over the last several years and knows it needs some help from the PGA now. When the current World Golf Classic moved from Doral to Mexico City, the initial thought was it would help the Honda.
Wasn’t Honda the only PGA golf outlet now? Wouldn’t all the attention center on it?
There was a short-term benefit, too, as roughly $200,000 in sponsorship money from local companies that previously was directed to Doral’s events, Kennerly said.
But the big picture shows top players stayed away. They weren’t coming to South Florida for one week. Kennerly wants to swap tournament dates with Mexico City so make Honda and tournaments in Tampa and Orlando in successive weeks.
That makes sense. But when Cadillac pulled sponsorship of the World Golf Classic at Doral last year for financial or political reasons, the fall-out hit all South Florida.
Donald Trump, a common citizen and Doral owner, said when the PGA move to Mexico was announced, “like Nabisco, Carrier and so many other American companies, the PGA Tour has put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs, millions of dollars in revenue for local communities and charities and the enjoyment of hundreds of thousands of fans who make the tournament annual tradition.’’
It isn’t lost on anyone Trump’s tournament went to Mexico, of all places. It’s South Florida’s loss not to have a Doral event coming up this week. Fowler typically would stay at home in Jupiter before and after Doral.
“Now I’ll hop on a charter,” he said of the PGA’s jet services. “That’s what we do. We travel.”
Golf fans in South Florida? They watch their fun fly away. It’s bad enough there’s a void this week at Doral. But the Honda, well-run as it was, didn’t have the field to be the Honda of recent years.