Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hyde: Im wins at Honda Classic
Brendan Steele. MacKenzie Hughes. Tommy Fleetwood. Sungjae Im.
Those were either your leaders coming down the stretch at The Honda Classic or the members of that 1960s band, The Turtles. Who knew?
You want the latest on Tiger Woods’ back? I know it. You want to know how hometown hero Brooks Koepka missed the cut of his hometown tournament? I know it.
You want to know how Jack Nicklaus would play Sunday’s final holes, back in his day, against this faceless foursome with one combined PGA Tour win among them?
I know that, too, because Nicklaus told everyone on NBC in a way that summed up the finish.
“I would go along and play my game, because most of the time, somebody was going to self-destruct,’’ he said. “Now, if I had Palmer, Player, Watson and Trevino up there, I knew I had to play.”
Palmer, Player, Watson and Trevino weren’t within a quartercentury of Sunday.
It played out how Nicklaus forecast it. Hughes hit an approach shot into the stands at No. 16 at the PGA National Champions Course and tried but couldn’t recover. Steele treaded water on the back nine before plunking his second shot on No. 18 into the water. He was toast.
Fleetwood was the most recognizable of the four as the No. 12 player in the world. He needed to get on the green from the 18th fairway with his second shot to have a decent chance for his first PGA Tour win.
He hit into the water.
“Just a bad shot, really,’’ he said.
He, too, was done.
So Im won.
This isn’t to dismiss his accomplishment. He followed Nicklaus’s advice. He played his game. He made a great shot into the 17th green to make a go-ahead birdie. He then scrambled to save a tournamentwinning par on No. 18 as the others crashed and burned around him.
It was the South Korean golfer’s first win on the PGA Tour. At 21, he’s the Honda’s youngest winner. He doesn’t speak English so his caddy, Albin Choi, a Jupiter native and mini-tour golfer, agreed to caddy for the first time and ease the language barrier.
With no home in this country, Im also hop-scotches from hotel to hotel following
the golf events. He wasn’t even sure Sunday evening if he was staying in Palm
Beach Gardens or driving to Orlando for the next tournament.
“Wherever I am, in a hotel or whatever, I feel like this is going to be one of the happiest nights of my life,’’ he said.
It’s easy to appreciate a story like that, right?
But you can appreciate a story like that without investing deeply in it. Or watching it, which is what golf must fear. Oh, it’s still a fun day at this tournament. The crowd is loud in a non-golf way at No. 16 and No. 17.
The tournament has everything to succeed but a star in the mix down the stretch. It happens. But South Florida once was a hot golf stop in the winter. And now? It’s a a weigh station more than a destination.
Sandwiched between a World Golf Championship tournament in Mexico (the
old Doral tournament) and Arnold Palmer’s tournament in Orlando, the Honda struggles more and more for relevance.
Tiger didn’t come again. But then he didn’t play in Mexico and isn’t playing at Orlando. Back stiffness, the problem is.
Like boxing once did even with an aging Mike Tyson, golf still rides on Tiger showing up to events.
Oh, stars like Koepka and Rickie Fowler came and would have been showcase names. Except they missed Friday’s cut. Koepka is a the best, big-tournament player out there. But here are his last six finishes at the Honda: missed cut, withdrew, tied for 34th, tied for 17th, tied for 43rd and another missed cut.
Nicklaus, more than any of the top finishers, had the line of the tournament.
“This course is avoiding disaster at the finish,” he said on NBC.
Im avoided disaster. He won. It wasn’t a tournament of big-name drama. But he’s off to a party in some hotel, somewhere, just as he should.