2021 Honda Classic Betting Preview/Player Props
15 March 2021
After the recent Players Championship, the PGA Tour now heads south to West Palm Beach, Florida, for the Honda Classic at PGA National. Bettors will notice the field is a little weaker as compared to the other events recently.
Tournament Details
Date: Mar 18–21, 2021
Course: PGA National Resort & Spa - The Champion Course
Watch on: GOLF, NBC
Purse: $7,000,000
Betting Overview
Fans and golf gamblers have seen top-level talent in the field for the last few events. But for the Honda Classic, it is an event that is stuck between the Players Championship and the WGC Match Play, so as a result, most top players are opting to sit this one out.
This event does have some familiarity with Sungjae Im participating again this year. Sungjae is the defending champion, as he won the 2020 Honda Classic while showing flashes of upside performances.
However, he has not been very consistent. Just by looking at the Players Championship, Sungjae played to a 66 on Friday to get into contention but then followed that performance with a 77 the next day to knock him out of contention.
One thing for sure is that those players who are still struggling with missed fairways with more accurate clubs are continuing to punish themselves. Precise iron play is going to be very important, as the firm and fast nature also enhances the importance of premium ball striking in order to locate proper locations on the green.
Dunkel Index For This Event
The Dunkel Index is showing these top 10 golfers that could win this event. The following 10 are:
- Daniel Berger -11.660
- Lee Westwood -13.176
- Joaquin Niemann -15.182
- Sungjae Im -16.114
- Matt Wallace -17.011
- Talor Gooch -17.022
- Brandon Wu -17.361
- Shane Lowry -17.708
- Jim Furyk -17.844
- Chris Kirk -18.239
*index is subject to changes
Golfers That Could Win
The best golfers in this event by ranking have some work to do. The highest-ranked player for this event is 15th ranked Daniel Berger.
He has yet to win a major, and this would be a good start. But there are 18 other major champions in the field that could show him up otherwise.
2020’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and Honda Classic winner Sungjae Im is another quality option. The 17th ranked player in the world is a solid choice to look to defend his title.
Adam Scott (-19.826) is not too far behind those two in the rankings. At the 25th spot, he is also another player to watch, especially with some good value.
Head to Head Matchup to Watch
Lee Westwood and Daniel Berger will be the matchup to watch here. Westwood is coming off of a second-place finish at The Players tournament.
Berger is the best-ranked golfer at this event. For Westwood, he is the 31st best golfer in the rankings and will provide a solid matchup for Berger.
Potential Winning Pick
Sungjae Im has a solid choice to claim victory here. He will have a few players that will give him a run for his money, but he has a positive outlook on this course, to say the least.
Player Props
Top 20 Finish: Doug Ghim (+175)
This PGA rookie has been making a name for himself while near the top of the leaderboard in the last two weeks.
Poor final rounds had him finish 36th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and 29th at the Players Championship. But that didn’t overshadow the fact that he was in contention on Saturday in both events.
At Bay Hill, he shot a 65 in the third round to vault near the top and at The Players, he actually held the lead after the 14th hole on Saturday before relinquishing it to Lee Westwood.
A career-high 5th place finish earlier this year at the American Express shows that Ghim does know how to close. Ranked 12th in this week’s Dunkel Index and playing against a less-challenging field, we’ll take Doug Ghim (+175) to finish in the Top 20.
Top 20 Finish: Brendan Steele (+140)
The three-time PGA Tour winner is off to a solid start in 2021. He picked up a season-best 4th place finish at the Sony Open and followed that up with another Top 20 finish (18th) at the Arnold Palmer.
Steele barely missed a third Top 20 finish at the American Express (21st). The strong start comes on the heels of a solid 2020 season when he recorded 3 Top 10 and 5 Top 25 finishes.
Rated No. 14 in this week’s field, take Brendan Steele (+140) to finish in the Top 20 this week.
To Make The Cut: Matt Jones (-188)
The Australian veteran has been a workhorse so far in the 2021 season. He has entered 15 tournaments and made the cut in 12 of them.
He missed the cut at Bay Hill following an opening round 76, but bounced back to make it last week at the Players Championship.
Prior to the Arnold Palmer, Jones had made 10 straight cuts and finished with a 4th place at the Bermuda Championship and 8th at the Genesis Invitational.
Rated No. 24 in this week’s field according to the Dunkel Index, Jones is a significantly better value to make the cut than expected contenders Daniel Berger (-700), Sunjae Im (-500) and Joaquin Niemann(-455).
We’ll take Matt Jones (-188) to still be playing on Sunday.
Keep up with your latest golf news and betting pick previews at The Dunkel Index.
