The Honda Classic
Preview for The Honda Classic: The last two weeks on the PGA Tour were amazing with loaded fields at the WM Phoenix Open and The Genesis Invitational, both with $20M purses. This week things come back down to earth with a mediocre field in a less-than-average event, but a bit of a breather is fine. The event goes back to 1972 when it was first called the Jackie Gleason’s Inverrary Classic with Tom Weiskopf edging out Jack Nicklaus by a stroke, and this course in Palm Beach Gardens has hosted the tournament since 2007. The record at this event on this particular track is held by Camilo Villegas who shot a -13 in 2010 – so it’s a tricky place to play with lots of water to contend with. Winners of The Honda Classic over the past five years include Sepp Straka in 2022, Matt Jones in 2021, Sungjae Im in 2020, Keith Mitchell in 2019, and Justin Thomas in 2018.
Tournament purse: The prize money for this week’s event is $8.4M, the winner collects 1.512M and also earns himself 500 FedEx Cup points.
Course and key stats: PGA National Resort and Spa (Champion Course) is 7,125 yards in length, is a par 70, and the big greens are Bermudagrass. The winning score here over the past decade ranges from -6 to -12, so will see a tough test of golf this week. Some core key stats to factor in this week, in order, include strokes gained: putting, driving distance, strokes gained: around the green, strokes gained: tee to green, strokes gained: approach, and strokes gained: off the tee.
The field: We have 144 players in action this week, and the top 65 players plus ties after round 2 will advance to play round 3 on Saturday and round 4 on Sunday. We will see Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry, defending champ, Sepp Straka, and other good players teeing it up. On a scale ranging from A to D, I rank the field strength to be a C.
DFS PGA Tour Golf Picks
Make the most of the data, predictions, and insights from this article to help with your fantasy golf picks for The Honda Classic. And check out our PGA Projections and Optimizer tools to make more informed player selections for your DFS DraftKings lineups. Best of luck this week!
Three questions that are relevant to The Honda Classic this week:
- Which 10 players have gained the most strokes total over their last 24 rounds? Sungjae Im, Alex Noren, Patrick Rodgers, Hayden Buckley, Joseph Bramlett, Ben Griffin, Aaron Baddeley, Aaron Wise, Eric Cole, and Matt Kuchar.
- Which 10 players does my custom model like the most? Sungjae Im, Matt Kuchar, Chris Kirk, Alex Noren, Jhonattan Vegas, Shane Lowry, Billy Horschel, J.T. Poston, Aaron Wise, and Dylan Frittelli.
- Which 10 players gained the most strokes total (minimum 8 rounds) at this event since 2018? Webb Simpson (8 rounds), Byeong Hun An (14 rounds), Sepp Straka (14 rounds), Sungjae Im (14 rounds), Shane Lowry (16 rounds), Alex Noren (14 rounds), Harris English (12 rounds), Mark Hubbard (12 rounds), Sam Ryder (12 rounds), and Cameron Davis (12 rounds).
All the best in your journey to win or at least be in the money in some contests this week – here are (in no particular order) 15 DFS golf picks on DraftKings (DK), plus I also include player salaries for DK. I consistently provide recent and seasonal finishes for each of my picks, their performances at the event over the last five years, and add in some tasty data.
15 Players Who Are Either High-Potential or Solid-Value Plays This Week – Get Them Into Your DFS Lineups
Sungjae Im (Salary: DraftKings – $10.7K) – He had a tough weekend at the Genesis last week but prior to that he had two straight top 6’s and five top 18’s in six starts. He won here three years ago and I can see him wanting to avenge his missed cut last year since his putter was ice cold and his approach play wasn’t too good either. He’s #1 in my custom model this week by a decent margin over Kuchar, Kirk, and all others. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut, 2021 – T8, 2020 – won, and 2019 – T51.
Chris Kirk (Salary: DraftKings – $9.9K) – Kirk missed the cut in his most recent start two weeks ago at the Phoenix Open but had a T3 and a 3rd in the starts before and pretty much gained strokes across the board in both tournaments. He finished top 10 here a year ago and seems to really have his around the green game and putting figured out on this track which are two key stats to keep an eye on. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T7, 2021 – T25, 2020 – cut, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – T33.
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Eric Cole (Salary: DraftKings – $6.9K) – The $6K range is quite weak but I don’t mind Cole who had a T15 at Pebble Beach in his most recent start, and he has five top 39’s over his last seven starts. He’s good on approach and with his short game, so another top 40 should be doable this week, especially given the lack of talent in the field. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: None.
Min Woo Lee (Salary: DraftKings – $9.4K) – Lee had a T21 at the Open Championship and a 27th at the U.S. last year, and has been eating up the DP World Tour with five top 4’s over his last eight starts and finishing no worse than T13. It’s hard to say how he will fare this week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts up a top 5 given he has great finishes overseas in much tougher fields, plus he has sexy stats to boot. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: None.
Denny McCarthy (Salary: DraftKings – $9.1K) – The local resident has done well here over the last two years, especially in 2021 when he finished T3 on the back of gaining 8..82 strokes with his short game. He has two top 14’s over his last three starts including a T4 at Pebble Beach thanks to good ball striking and great putting which is a staple of his. His T14 from last week is especially noteworthy given the big-time strength of the field. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T30, 2021 – T3, 2020 – cut, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – cut.
Ben Griffin (Salary: DraftKings – $7.9K) – Prior to his Pebble Beach appearance, Ben had five consecutive top 32’s including a T12 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. I like that he has gained strokes on approach in eight straight measured events, and the rest of his game looks fairly decent, as well. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: None.
Matt Kuchar (Salary: DraftKings – $9.3K) – I didn’t originally have Kuchar in this list but he’s 2nd in my custom model so I had to give him some props. He has actually been pretty tight lately with two top 8’s over his last four starts including his 8th last week where he gained an unbelievable 8.36 strokes ball striking and 4.21 around the green. He hasn’t competed here since 2011 when he finished T17 via outstanding ball striking and clean putting – he could do as good or better this week given his current form. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: None.
Billy Horschel (Salary: DraftKings – $9.7K) – There’s lots to like about Horschel’s performances here with four top 16’s since 2016 including his T4 in 2017. He gained 9.25 strokes ball striking here last year and would have been in contention had he not lost 4.06 strokes with his short game. His play has been a tad spotty lately, but he still has three top 32’s over his last five starts – unfortunately two of those events were small fields so he comes with risk this week, but his upside is real. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T16, 2020 – T42, 2019 – T16, and 2018 – cut.
Joseph Bramlett (Salary: DraftKings – $7.5K) – If his track record at this event was good then his salary number would be a lot higher as he is coming off a T7 at Pebble Beach and a T13 at the Farmers Insurance Open. He has gained 10.5+ strokes ball striking over his last two starts, and if he’s field average with his short game this week he could very well enjoy his third straight top 13. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2021 – cut and 2020 – cut.
Adam Schenk (Salary: DraftKings – 7.2K) – He has two missed cuts here over the last three years, but he also has three top 36’s since 2018. Another positive is that he has made four straight cut lines with a T23 in a stacked field at the Phoenix Open and a T20 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – cut, 2021 – T36, 2020 – cut, 2019 – T30, and 2018 – T29.
Alex Noren (Salary: DraftKings – $9.5K) – Noren was decent from last July through last November including earning a T4 at the Houston Open, but he has back-to-back missed cuts. I’m not overly concerned though given he has two top 5’s here since 2018 and gained more than 14 strokes ball striking in those top 5’s. Plus the two recent missed cuts were at the Phoenix Open and The Genesis Invitational which we know were pretty much major-caliber fields, so let’s not fault him too much. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T5, 2021 – T46, 2019 – cut, and 2018 – T3.
Robby Shelton (Salary: DraftKings – $7.8K) – He’s all about solid approach and around the green play and it has netted him three top 20’s over his last five starts including a T6 at The American Express and a T10 at The RSM Classic. His T11 here three years ago could be repeated this year if he plays to his DNA and his putter is respectable. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2021 – cut and 2020 – T11.
Taylor Pendrith (Salary: DraftKings – $8.9K) – He had a huge five-event streak last year between March and August where he had top 13’s in all starts including a T2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. More recently, Pendrith has two top 15’s over his last five starts including a T7 at Pebble Beach two starts ago. In his rookie debut here last year he secured a top 25 through strong ball striking but he lost 3.18 strokes with his short game, so if he can straighten that out and keep up his solid off the tee and approach play, it’s possible we see his name near or at the top of the leaderboard. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T25.
Jhonattan Vegas (Salary: DraftKings – $8.6K) – He has only missed one weekend of play here over his ten starts at The Honda Classic, three of those have gone for top 16’s including his T4 in 2017, and another two more were top 30’s. He has two top 25’s over his last three starts including a T23 at the difficult Phoenix Open event. He had a T56 last week but upon deeper inspection, he lost 6.93 strokes putting – his fourth-worst putting performance of his career, so he should be due to bounce back. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – T42, 2021 – T30, 2020 – T27, 2019 – T16, and 2018 – T72.
Shane Lowry (Salary: DraftKings – $10.4K) – He likely feels robbed of not winning here last year as he blew it on the 72nd hole due to heavy rain, so he’s likely motivated to avenge that tough break in 2022. He has four top 23’s over his last five starts, two of them were in small fields but his T14 last week was solid given his impressive stat line and the strong field that he was up against. If he wins this week you can look to the golf gods for making it up to him. Honda Classic finishes over the last five years: 2022 – 2nd, 2021 – T36, and 2020 – T21.
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