Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview – Honda Classic

OVERVIEW
The Florida swing is upon us this week as we head to Palm Beach Gardens, FL for the Honda Classic. The field isn’t as strong as it has been in previous years, so hopefully one of our value plays can stop the run of tournament favorites winning. The course was originally designed by Tom Fazio back in the 80’s, but redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 2002 and features the famous “Bear Trap”, a three hole stretch that typically plays well over par. The Bear Trap gets all the publicity, but the Par 4, 14th hole may be the hole that really takes the wind out of player’s sails as it played as the 4th toughest hole in all of golf last year. Scores will be worse this week than previous weeks, so keep that in mind as you’re sweating your first wave of tee times (or 2nd wave) on Thursday. One last item of note is we actually have some comparable courses to look at this week in Copperhead (Valspar), Colonial (Dean & Deluca) and Wailae (Sony), so make sure you check out how players have fared at those events when making your final rosters.

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

o The Course
• PGA National
• Par 70
• 7,140 yards
• Bermuda Greens
o Location: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
o Expected scoring: The winds will dictate how low these guys go this week. Of course, someone will go really low one day, but considering who’s in the field I don’t think we’ll see multiple rounds of 64 or better. We also haven’t seen the winner eclipse the -10 threshold in four years, so I don’t think we’ll see that this year either. Projected winner of -8.
o Past Champions:
• 2016: Adam Scott -9 over Sergio Garcia [-8]
• 2015: Padraig Harrington -6 over Daniel Berger in a playoff
• 2014: Russell Henley -8 over Ryan Palmer, Russell Knox, & Rory McIlroy in a playoff
• 2013: Michael Thompson -9 over Geoff Ogilvy [-7]
• 2012: Rory McIlroy -12 over Tiger Woods & Tom Gillis [-10]

KEY STATS TO TARGET

o Strong Emphasis – SG:T2G, Greens or Fringe In Regulation, Birdie Or Better
o Important – Bogey Avoidance, Scrambling, Prox from Rough, SG: Putting

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