TEN PLAYERS TO WATCH
The players with the best chance to dethrone 2017 champion Rickie Fowler this weekend:
JUSTIN THOMAS
The 2017 PGA Tour Player of the Year has been top-25 in each of his six events this season, including a victory at the CJ Cup in South Korea last October. Thomas won a Tour-best five times in 2017 and captured his first major at the PGA Championship. Still only 24, the Jupiter resident has risen to No. 4 in the world. He finished fourth in the Honda Classic two years ago with four rounds under 70, but the Honda represented one of his six missed cuts last year after he opened with rounds of 71 and 70.
RORY MCILROY
The popular four-time major winner has a solid history in the Honda Classic, winning in 2012, when the victory lifted him to No. 1 in the world, and losing in a four-man playoff in 2014. But recent years haven’t been so kind, either at the Honda or elsewhere. Still ranked the No. 10 player in the world, the part-time Palm Beach Gardens resident skipped the event in 2014 and 2017 and missed the cut in 2015 and ’16. He also missed the cut in his first PGA Tour start of this year at Pebble Beach two weeks ago.
SERGIO GARCIA
Years of coming up short at the biggest moments all fell away last April when Garcia won his first major at the Masters at age 37. Among the most talented long-iron players on the Tour, Garcia has won 10 times on the PGA Tour and 21 more around the globe. This will be his fifth straight appearance in the Honda Classic and he has two top-10 finishes in his past four, placing eighth in 2014 and second to Adam Scott in 2016.
ADAM SCOTT
The first Australian to win the Masters in 2013, Scott scored back-to-back wins in 2016 at the Honda Classic and WGC-Cadillac at Doral but hasn’t won since while seeing his world ranking slip to No. 58. Scott had six top-10 finishes in 16 events last year, highlighted by a sixth at The Players Championship, and missed the cut in his first 2018 start at Pebble Beach. He has 13 victories on the PGA Tour and 13 more worldwide. His recent struggles could be due to putting, where he is ranked 198th on Tour.
TIGER WOODS
The iconic 14-time major champion only committed to his hometown tournament late Friday after debating the risk of playing consecutive weeks for the first time since undergoing major back surgery last year. Still the biggest draw in golf, Woods’ best run at a Honda win came in 2012, when a final-round 62 vaulted him into second place behind Rory McIlroy. His most recent appearance was in 2014, when back problems forced him to withdraw midway through his final round.
DANIEL BERGER
The Plantation native and Jupiter resident best remembered for losing the 2015 Honda to Padraig Harrington in a Monday playoff has yet to record a top-10 finish in six starts this year, though he has been in the top 25 four times including 11th at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii and the Phoenix Open. Berger, 24, has won twice on the PGA Tour, both at the St. Jude Classic (2016 and ’17), and represented the U.S. in the Presidents Cup last September.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD
A contender last year in both the WGC-Mexico event, where he finished second, and the U.S. Open, where he placed fourth, Fleetwood is playing much of his schedule on the PGA Tour for the first time this year and seeking his first PGA Tour victory. Ranked No. 13 in the world, the 27-year-old Englishman does have five international victories, including Abu Dhabi and the French Open. He finished third in the Hero Challenge, a non-sanctioned event in the Bahamas, last December.
TYRELL HATTON
The 26-year-old Englishman who made a splash in last year’s Honda Classic has done the same on the European Tour so far this season, with six top-20 finishes in as many starts including a third in his most recent event, the Omega Desert Classic in Dubai. Rounds of 68, 67 and 66 put Hatton in second place with 18 holes to play at Honda last year before a 2-over 72 dropped him to a tie for fourth. A three-time winner on the European Tour, Hatton qualified for the 2010 British Open as a 16-year-old amateur.
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN
The South African’s lone PGA Tour victory came in the 2010 British Open, but Oosthuizen, 35, had an excellent 2017 with second-place finishes at the PGA Championship and Players Championship, nine top-25s and only one missed cut in 18 events. Over the past three years he has 30 top-25 finishes. He has 12 wins worldwide, his most memorable shot being a double-eagle on the second hole in the final round of the 2012 Masters.
ALEX NOREN
Noren got into the 2013 Honda Classic by winning the Monday qualifier at Mayacoo Lakes in West Palm Beach. This is the first Honda since then for the Swede, who is now ranked No. 16 in the world. Noren, 35, has yet to win on the PGA Tour and has played only sparingly, though he did finish second at Torrey Pines three weeks ago.