Now that the action down at The Riviera Country Club is over following the conclusion of the Genesis Invitational, the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season now marches on to the next one: The Honda Classic. With that said, let’s now take a look at some of the favorites, sleepers, and long shots to win this week at PGA National Resort (The Champion).
Im is winless so far in the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, but he is consistently making it to the weekend. He is 8/9 this season and 4/4 in his last four starts. He also cracked the top 10 in two of his last three starts, including a T4 at the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open. And of course, he won the Honda Classic in 2020.
After missing the cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open – his first PGA TOUR start of the year, Lowry came out much stronger last week at The Genesis Invitational in which he finished with a T14. He is 5/5 in his career at PGA National Resort, finishing runner-up to Sepp Straka in the 2022 Honda Classic.
The 44-year-old Kuchar missed the cut at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but has recovered nicely since. He had a T32 at the 2023 Waste Management Phoenix Open and finished eighth at 2023 The Genesis Invitational. He now has cracked the top 10 twice in eight starts.
Here’s what we said about Simpson in our 2023 Honda Classic sleepers piece.
Simpson isn’t exactly having a fantastic season, as he is only 2/6 thus far. He missed three cuts in a row, which were at The RSM Classic, Sony Open in Hawaii, and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. However, he has already snapped that skid with a T57 at the 2023 Waste Management Phoenix Open. The 37-year-old Simpson still has ways to go before earning bettors’ confidence in him again, but just know that he is 3/3 in his last three PGA TOUR starts at PGA National Resort (The Champion), including a fifth-place at the 2018 Honda Classic.
Here’s what we said about Hoffman in our 2023 Honda Classic sleepers piece.
Hoffman is only 4/10 this season and has not cracked the top 10 in any of his starts to date. However, he is starting to turn things around. After back-to-back missed cuts at The American Express and at the Farmers Insurance Open, Hoffman placed T48 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before pulling off a T14 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Ranked 379th in the world. Novak has managed to make the cut four times in six starts this season. He placed 57th in his PGA National Resort (The Champion) debut in 2018 and then missed the cut there last year.
