Honda draws golf’s elite

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — There was a time, not long ago, when the Honda Classic was as transient as the snowbird vacationers from the north who pass through Florida seeking a warmweather winter respite.

Despite Honda being the longeststanding sponsor of any current PGA Tour event (33 years), the tournament traveled nomadically from one golf course to another — five moves from 1984 to 2003 — and had fields so bereft of toptier stars it looked more like a Web.com event.

Now, though, the Honda Classic, which begins Thursday at PGA National, has become one of the marquee events of the PGA Tour season, having settled on the stout golf course that played host to the 1983 Ryder Cup and the 1987 PGA Championship. This week’s events mark the Honda’s eighth year at PGA National.

The tournament also now boasts one of the strongest fields of the season with seven of the top 10 players in the world playing (only after Justin Rose withdrew on Tuesday with a shoulder ailment), including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson, who went out of his way to add it to his schedule for the first time since 2002.

“I’m excited about it,’’ Sergio Garcia, playing here for the first time since 2010, said Tuesday. “It’s a great golf course … definitely one of the most sought after golf courses we play all year.’’

Since Woods’ commitment to the tournament for the first time in 2012, the Honda Classic has skyrocketed to become one of the powerbroker events on the PGA Tour. Woods had a lot to do with bolstering the profile of the tournament when, in 2012, he electrified the place with a finalround 62 that was nearly good enough to run down McIlroy, who went on to win and elevate to No. 1 in the world.