2021 Honda Classic: Golfer Picks to win at Champion

The PGA Tour sticks around in Florida for another event, this time for the Honda Classic.

Now, it can seem like a bit of a letdown after playing the Arnold Palmer and the PLAYERS, but it has still been a great event in the past. Take a look at some of the names that have either won or finished in second place over the last few years.

Winners – Sung-jae Im, Keith Mitchell, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler

Second – Mackenzie Hughes, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland

It’s a pretty strong and well-known group of golfers that have finished at the top of the board each year. You could say Keith Mitchell is the least known name, but it came in a year where he held off both Rickie and Brooks.

Let’s check out the staff picks to win the Honda Classic.

Sung-jae Im

Tim Letcher – Got his first tour win here last year and he will make it a repeat in 2021. Im is among the game’s most talented young players and comes in after a 66 on Sunday at the Players. He will ride that momentum to a win this week.

Michael Ellis

West Valentine – He played well at the Players and at times was red hot. Going with Im here to repeat.

Josh Mullenix – I don’t love picking repeat winners, but Im is a good bet this week. He has three straight top 30 finishes in the Florida swing and hasn’t finished outside of the top 30 since the Farmers Insurance Open. He’s the defending champ and the highest-ranked player in the field. Sometimes let’s not make it harder than it needs to be.

Bill Felber – The Honda field is so wide open that I’d almost guarantee a surprise, probably first-time, champion this week. Nevertheless, I’m not picking any of those guys because doing so would be too much of a crapshoot. Rather, I’ll ride with Sungjae Im. He’s the defending champion, and he’s a quality ball-striker on a course where that really pays off.

Mike Randleman – In an excerpt from his weekly power rankings…

“Rounds of 72-66-70-66 produced a one-shot win over Mackenzie Hughes. Im put on a stripe show, leading the field in strokes gained tee to green (3.31 per round). He putted poorly the first three rounds but finally got a hang of the greens to gain over two strokes on the greens on Sunday.”

Cameron Tringale

DJ Cadden – Give me Cameron Tringale this week. Only because he’s followed me on Twitter for years.

Talor Gooch

Chris O’Day – Pretty consistent in all aspects of his game, Gooch ranks between 45th and 85th in the four major Strokes Gained categories and is 39th total. He brought home a 4th and a 5th place finish before the new year, and was T-5th at the PLAYERS last week, shooting under par in each round. With that combo of consistency and recent success, I like him to earn his first PGA Tour win at the Honda Classic.

Kasey Kuhrts

Adam Scott

Mike McAllister – Hasn’t flashed much form lately, although he did have a T10 at Torrey Pines. But he has a solid track record at PGA National — a win and three top-15s during four consecutive Honda starts between 2014-18. “I play fairly solid every week I play,” Scott said recently. “It’s just those small margins I think that have been missing.” Maybe he finds them this week at a course he likes.

Shane Lowry

Hans Geevers

Joaquin Niemann

Joey McCusker

Richie Randolph

Kathy Bissell

Dalton Finkbeiner – One of the better wind players in the field, I like going with Niemann at a course that plays tough. He plays a low ball flight which will help if the wind blows at PGA National. Add in the fact Niemann already has two second-place finishes this year, I like the 22-year old to get the win this week.

Best of luck to everyone playing in the Honda Classic this week!