Honda Classic

The Honda Classic is a PGA Tour golf tournament which is played each March in Florida. It was founded in 1972 as Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic and has been sponsored by Honda since 1982. It is currently played at the Country Club at Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

From the event's inception until 1983, it was played at Inverrary Golf Club in Lauderhill, Florida. In 1984 it moved to the TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Florida, where it stayed until 1991. From 1992-95, the event moved to the Westin Hills Golf & Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then returned to Coral Springs, first at the TPC at Eagle Trace in 1996 and then at the TPC at Heron Bay from 1997-2002. In 2003, the event moved to its current location in Palm Beach Gardens, first at the Country Club at Mirasol through 2006, and starting in 2007, at PGA National Resort & Spa's Champion Course. The 2007 event will also have new executive director, Ken Kennerly, who will oversee a newly-formed tournament organizing committee.

The Honda Classic has been won by some celebrated golfers including Jack Nicklaus in 1977 and 1978, but in recent years it has acquired a reputation for struggling to attract the top players. Tiger Woods has never taken part, Ernie Els has been an absentee since 1999 and Phil Mickelson since 2002. This is despite the fact that the prize money is comparable to other PGA Tour events outside of the "big nine" (the majors, the World Golf Championships individual events, the Players Championship and the Tour Championship), that is $5,500,000 in 2006, with a top prize of $990,000. Part of the problem is the Honda Classic's place on the schedule. It is played two weeks before The Players Championship (the "fifth major" to some in the media) and four weeks before The Masters (one of the four genuine majors), and is sandwiched between the more successful regular tour events, the Ford Championship at Doral which has attracted very strong fields in recent years and the Bay Hill Invitational, which has the advantage of being associated with Arnold Palmer. Therefore many of the top contenders for the Players and the Masters find it makes sense to choose Honda Classic week to take a break.

In 2005 only three of the top ten players in the World Golf Rankings entered. In fairness it should be noted that there are many other PGA Tour events which attract comparatively weak fields as the top players only compete in about half of the events. The Honda Classic has had a fairly high number of first time Tour winners, including Larry Nelson and Todd Hamilton, who have gone on to win majors.

The tournament will have a new beneficiary - the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, which is chaired by Barbara Nicklaus, wife of golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.