PALM BEACH GARDENS — The glory days of the Honda Classic were as electric and as worthy of the national stage as any non-major on the PGA Tour.
Take 2012. A then-record attendance of more than 160,000 witnessed Tiger Woods’ lowest final-round score of his career up to that point, a 62 that was not good enough to overtake a 22-year-old hotshot named Rory McIlroy, who on that day became the youngest to move to No. 1 in the world since Tiger was there at 21.
Then there was 2014. Seven of the top 10 golfers in the world took on the difficult Jack Nicklaus-designed Champion Course at PGA National and four ended up in a playoff that was guaranteed to produce a winner whose first name started with the letter “R.” Russell Henley beat Rory McIlroy, Ryan Palmer and Russell Knox with a birdie on the first playoff hole.
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That leads us to 2023. An event that has difficulty attracting a world-class field — a trend that started about four years ago — could (and should) receive help from the PGA Tour, which has an opportunity to do the right thing in 2024 because of the nuances of the schedule.
More from Palm Beach Post: PGA Tour narrows title sponsor list for Honda Classic from 40-50 to about five
The Honda Classic will be rebranded next year with Honda Motors ending its 42-year run as the title sponsor, and what better way for the PGA Tour to show a new sponsor it really does care about the event’s future by ensuring it ends this run of its top golfers treating Honda as if it were an alternative event. This is the least the Tour can do for a tournament that has succeeded in every other way.
Despite most of the top-ranked golfers skipping Honda in recent years, mainly because of its spot in the schedule, attendance has remained steady in non-pandemic years and local charities have continued to benefit with record amounts of donations. All a credit to first-year Executive Director Andrew George and his predecessor, Ken Kennerly.
“There’s a lot of stuff we can’t control,” George said. “But we can control the atmosphere we put out here and making sure we’re continuing to be a community event. And that’s not going to change. It’s only going to get better.”
But spectators also want to see marquee names, especially those they could run into at a local coffee shop, and Honda is among a handful of tournaments that have been squeezed by the Tour when it comes to the schedule. For many golfers, the…
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