Honda Classic Tips and Betting Offers, Thursday 25th February 2016, PGA National
It is time for the world of golf to start gearing up for the major season which begins with the Masters in April. On the PGA Tour that means moving from the West Coast to the East. This week it is time for the Honda Classic, the first event of the Florida Swing. Ever since the tournament moved to PGA National – this is the tenth year in a row at that course – it has grown from strength to strength as is evident by the standard of the players taking part. Rory McIlroy is back to have another crack at the tournament he won in 2012 while players like Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama will have a big say in proceedings.
Honda Classic Betting Offers
Coming soon …
Honda Classic Betting Tips
Whoever wins the 2016 renewal of the Honda Classic is going to have to be at the top of their game. Apart from the major championships, this is the toughest par 70 course on the PGA Tour. The Champion Course is best known for its immensely difficult three hole stretch – the Bear Trap. Holes 15, 16 and 17 are among the most difficult tests of golf anywhere in the world requiring amazing accuracy and serious bottle. The Bear Trap has seen the end of many a challenge in this tournament but the rest of the course is hardly easy. There is water on 13 holes and a serious number of punishing bunkers. You wouldn’t describe PGA National as a links course but the wind certainly has a big effect on scoring and the forecast is for it to blow hard on all four days.
It’s Gonna Be Windy
Given the weather we are expecting it makes perfect sense to bet on players who have previous good form in windy conditions. One player who fits that bill very well is Rickie Fowler. Now a winner on multiple Tours, Fowler is rightly considered as one of the very best players in the world and having grown up playing a lot of golf in the wind he knows just how to keep the ball low and out of the reaches of the biggest gusts. He can shape the ball both ways off the tee and fairway and is an extremely good putter. He was unlucky to miss out in a playoff at the Phoenix Open and should contend again at odds of 12/1 with Ladbrokes, with Ladbrokes sweetening the deal by giving newcomers a £50 matched free bet!
Odds of 200/1 Big Enough?
Fowler can be found towards the very top of the outright betting but the second recommendation comes from a long way further down. Ernie Els is firmly in the autumn of his career but he is going through something of a resurgence. He seems to have sorted out those damaging issues with his putter which have plagued him and his ball striking is as pure as ever. Els won this tournament at this course in 2008 and at odds of 200/1 with Coral he offers big appeal for a smaller stakes bet.