Honda Classic Golf Betting: Tournament Preview

PGA National Golf Club is the site of the Honda Classic, known a long time ago as the Jackie Gleason Inverarry Classic, and it kicks off on Thursday. This is an event that kicks of a short swing through Florida, before getting to the rest of the year's schedule. There has historically been a problem in attracting some of the game's biggest names to this event, but what has helped is that the Honda, which has bounced around from one location to another in the south Florida area, has settled at PGA National.

It's a bona fide, upper-level golf course; a par-70 that stretches 7241 yards. In last year's tournament, the most difficult hole to negotiate was the par-3 17th, which produced only 27 birdies and 144 bogeys or worse.

This was a rare Florida site for a major, as it hosted the PGA Championship in 1987. The location, in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, is kind of unique in that it contains four courses - the Palmer is, of course, named after Arnold Palmer; the Squire is named in honor of Gene Sarazen; the Haig is for Walter Hagen, and then there is the Champion course, which is where the high profile events, like the PGA and the Ryder Cup, have been played. It has been home to the Honda Classic since 2007.

Y.E. Yang offered an indicator of what was to come when he won last year's Honda by a shot over John Rollins, capturing the first million-dollar prize in the tournament's history. Yang, of course, later out-dueled Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship, in what was the first time Woods had ever lost a major when leading after three rounds of play. He is matched up in our golf betting propositions with Tim Clark, and is a -110 underdog.
 
The leaderboard of last year's event was not star-studded, but there is an outstanding list of winners. Tom Weiskopf won the inaugural; Jack Nicklaus is a two-time winner, as is Johnny Miller. Lee Trevino has been a champion, as have Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, Curtis Strange, Fred Couples and Nick Price. Jesper Parnevik, who has become more well-known these days as the man who introduced Tiger to his wife, won in 2001.
 
Mike Weir, the left-hander who won the 2003 Masters, is paired in a proposition against Vijay Singh, the 1999 Honda Classic champion who has also won the Masters and two PGA's. Weir is the -125 favorite, with Singh checking in at -105. Ernie Els, who won this event in 2008, is a -120 favorite over Padraig Harrington (-110) in a matchup of players who have both won three major titles. Justin Leonard, who was the 2003 Honda champ with a tournament-record 24-under, is a -120 favorite over Davis Love III, the former PGA champion.

Mark Wilson won the tournament in 2007, and he is a -115 pick'em with Matthew Goggin, who tied for fifth at the British Open last year. Australia's Stuart Appleby won this event back in 1997; he is in a matchup with former Masters champion Trevor Immelman, and that one is a -115 pick'em as well. Another interesting matchup, and another -115 pick'em, is comebacking former #1-ranked David Duval, who tied for second at last year's U.S. Open, against tour rookie Matt Every.