Is Our Honda Totaled?

The Honda Classic is the PGA Tour’s equivalent of a load-management game in the NBA. Dates are set, sponsors committed, tickets purchased, and arrangements made, then the Warriors show up the night after a game in Boston and sit Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins for rest. This year’s Honda Classic is jammed in between four designated events, two on each side of it. It’s no wonder the field strength is just 186 and only four of the top 30 players in the world will tee it up at PGA National. I know we’re simply asking people to play golf for millions of dollars, but given the schedule, even drawing four of the top 30 seems like a moderate surprise and accomplishment.

A decade ago, such a weak field on hand at PGA National would be incomprehensible. In 2012, the field strength was 327 and the week concluded with Rory McIlroy winning to become the youngest ever to reach world No. 1 (OWGR, not SIWGR) and Tiger Woods as runner-up following the lowest final round score (62) of his career at that point. In 2013, the field strength was 434. In 2014, it was 494 and included eight of the top 10 players in the world at the start of the week, as well as the Tour’s ultimate rainmakers, Tiger and Phil Mickelson.

The prior decade’s winners included Rory (both of them), Rickie, JT, Adam Scott, and Padraig Harrington. Tournament director Ken Kennerly was viewed as a savant. Everyone went home happy in their Accords.

It’s been a steady, quick decline over the last 10 years. Here’s a quick rundown of the field strength since Tiger first started showing up and Rory got his win.

• 2012 — 327
• 2013 — 434
• 2014 — 494
• 2015 — 466
• 2016 — 446
• 2017 — 387
• 2018 — 375
• 2019 — 298
• 2020 — 261
• 2021 — 179
• 2022 — 227
• 2023 — 186

It’s a pretty clear-cut example of the PGA Tour’s schedule working against itself. The creation of “elevated events”—you remember those—and the nods to a couple of legends of the game, Arnie and Jack, probably hastened the Honda’s decline the most. Those original elevated events, which weren’t called that initially, ensured that Bay Hill and the Memorial carried enhanced status and purses, and would continue to be well-attended, including in the event of a host’s death. The Tour and its media partners did not want to see Jack’s or Arnie’s event go the way the Byron Nelson did after the passing of “Lord Byron.”

In 2014, the Honda’s field was stronger than Bay Hill’s and every other non-major or WGC aside from the Memorial. Nothing on the West Coast swing could touch it. But then Bay Hill got elevated, the Players swung back to March, and Tiger’s hosting duties switched from a languishing mid-summer event to Riviera, which also got elevated. It didn’t help that a WGC was moved from nearby South Florida to Mexico. You can see how the Honda went from being stronger than Bay Hill in 2014 to quickly out of its weight class. This was a series of punches, with the Tour doing little in the Honda’s corner between rounds before sending it back out into the ring wobbled.

A decade ago, there was a clear mindset on Tour, and among fans, that prep for the Masters really started with the Florida swing. It was the time for tournament reps after a restful winter and some dabbling on the West Coast or in Hawaii. Tiger was one of these cases: he’d play once or twice before Florida, then three of four weeks in the Sunshine State before the Masters. So the Honda actually piggybacked off having WGC-Doral and Bay Hill in close proximity on the schedule and in state. But certain West Coast swing events started to rise, namely Phoenix and L.A., and increased rest weeks became a need in Florida for top stars. It also didn’t help that Tiger, who started playing at PGA National in 2012 as he put down roots in South Florida, got hurt.

Now we have maybe the worst schedule circumstance of all for the Honda with the creation of designated events. There are two tournaments with $20-million purses before it, one with a $20-million purse right after it, and a $25-million purse after that. This is merely a bridge week on the schedule, getting us from one designated event to the next. It’s an opportunity for fans to tune out, and for young talents looking for a shot or journeymen trying to keep working. The Tour’s busy schedule, changes to that schedule, and the promotion of other tournaments wrapped the Honda around a telephone pole.

What’s next? I mean, the Tour kinda owes this event one! But who knows what’s salvageable at this point. Honda, a title sponsor for 42 years, is bailing. One of the more frustrating parts about this decline is the location, which I pejoratively tongue-in-cheek call The Swamp, is full of highly-rated OWGR stars who would love to play an event where they sleep at their own house… save for the fact it would mean playing five or six weeks in row. Attendance has also remained strong in one of the more golf-devoted corners of the country.

There are no easy solutions as the Tour begins the designated era. No one’s arguing—here, anyways—that the designated events are a misstep because of their impact on the lowly Honda. This event was in trouble because of all the other makeshift tweaks and reactionary schedule adjustments from Ponte Vedra in the preceding five or six years. It sounds like Honda is pushing for a better date that will get it out of the traffic jam between Riviera and the “important” Florida events. But the problem of an overcrowded schedule would remain even at a different date.

So what else is there? I guess you could look for a better golf course in the Palm Beach or South Florida area, one that’s more interesting for diehard fans but also appeases pros (a tough needle to thread). The best course of action, though, may be to simply lean in harder into your lower-tier status.

In talking to the folks at the Travelers, one thing that always struck me was how they embraced their shitty date the week after golf’s “toughest test” and did whatever else they could to boost their event. The Honda, similarly, could try to become the League Pass Team or MACtion of the PGA Tour. Push an identity, via the venue and field exemptions for as many young studs and KFT star prospects as possible, that appeals to the true golf sickos and Swamp denizens. And offer something more, be it off the books or on the up, for local elite pros to occasionally drive down the street and play their “hometown” event. As the Honda’s recent history demonstrates, there are ways to fall both in and out of favor on the PGA Tour’s moody schedule.

What are your suggestions for the future of this Palm Beach event? Are we heading for an improved era of clarity and context in the overall Tour schedule? And could it actually be a good thing for the Honda to just embrace that second-tier status within that context?