Next Up On The PGA Tour: Tour Begins Florida Swing With Honda Classic
The California swing has officially come to an end in 2022 and that means one thing, the Florida swing is set to kick off!. The Honda Classic takes center stage this week, but upcoming weeks will see the PGA Tour make stops at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 3-6), TPC Sawgrass for the 2022 PLAYERS Championship (March 10-13), and Innisbrook (Copperhead Course) for the Valspar Championship (March 17-20).
A fantastic week at Riviera concluded with Joaquin Niemann capping a dominant performance for his wire-to-wire victory, the win was the Chilean’s second on the PGA Tour and surely the first of many more to come. He is currently listed in the field for this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National.
The field for the 2022 Honda Classic is nowhere near what we just saw at the Genesis Invitational in terms of strength, but it should still be significantly improved from last year when it reached its lowest ever rating. Louis Oosthuizen (13th) is the highest-ranked player in the field at PGA National, he is joined by Brooks Koepka (15th), the aforementioned Niemann (20th), and Daniel Berger (21st),
Previous winners Rickie Fowler (2019), Sungjae Im (2020), and Matt Jones (2021) will also play in the first Florida event of 2022.
Players to watch moving into the PGA Tour’s Florida swing
Sungjae Im
Sungjae begins the list of players to watch heading into the Florida swing, and he sits top of the list as he makes the trip back to PGA National for the 2022 Honda Classic this week. Im won the Honda Classic in 2020 and now he returns to Florida with his game showing significant signs that it is trending in the right direction just in time for the Florida swing.
The 23-year-old finished 28th (WGC at Concession), 21st (Arnold Palmer Invitational), 17th (The PLAYERS), and 29th (Valspar) in 2021. He has recorded two 3rd place finishes (API) and a 4th (Valspar) already in his young career, when you throw in the 8th and 1st place he has at the Honda Classic it becomes increasingly clear that the man loves Florida golf.
Sugnjae has begun his year with an 8th, MC, 11th, 6th, and 33rd place finish in his first five starts in 2022. Despite the 33rd place finish at Riviera he showed significant signs of improvement as the week went on, this culminated on Sunday when he gained (3.85) in total strokes gained. The Korean is certainly one to keep an eye on throughout the Florida swing.
Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy hasn’t been seen in this part of the world since the C.J. Cup last October, and he is one of just a few Ryder Cup stars that will be making their first appearance on the PGA Tour in 2022 this week. Fleetwood hasn’t taken much time away from the game, however, as he has been busy overseas on the DP World Tour producing finishes of 48th, 12th, and 8th since January.
Fleetwood has played the Honda Classic twice in the last four years and both times he produced a top 5 finish, 4th in 2018, and 3rd in 2020. He has generally faired pretty well in Florida events with three top 10’s at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (2021, 2019, 2017), and a 5th and 7th place finish at the PLAYERS (2019, 2018).
The 31-year-old hasn’t won since 2019 and he will be looking to improve upon the six top-ten finishes he had in twenty-six starts last year.
Alex Noren
Noren has quietly put together a nice start to 2022 and aside from missing the cut at the American Express in his first start of the new year, Noren has reeled off three straight made cuts. This includes a 6th place finish at the WM Phoenix Open a couple of weeks ago.
He was 48th at the Genesis Invitational but he really did not have any bad rounds, he opened with two rounds of 70 before a 72 on Saturday sent him tumbling down the leaderboard a bit, he finished strong on Sunday though with a closing 69, three under par round.
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Alex finished 3rd at the Honda Classic in 2018 and he also has recorded a few nice finishes at the PLAYERS Championship in the past as well with finishes of 17th (2018), and a 10th (2017). Overall he has had some mixed results across the Florida swing throughout the years.
Noren recorded three top 10 finishes in 26 starts in 2021, he already has one top 10 finish in just four starts to begin 2022.