PGA Results: 2011 Honda Classic

The Honda was an interesting tournament from a few perspectives this past weekend.  The biggest news of the tournament was the weather.  Winds were fierce, producing very high scores even among the best players in the world. The Bear Trap demolished a lot of players and the water hazards ate up a record amount of golf balls. Rory Sabbatini fired a course record 64 in 30mph winds on Friday, tying the course record and beating the course stroke average by eight shots.  It was an amazing round.  Then he followed that up with a 66 on Saturday, which was also the lowest round of the day.  The five shot lead he'd built up over the first three days was just enough cushion to seal a one shot victory, his first win in about two years. Y.E. Yang continued his solid year and notched a 2nd place finish, one shot behind Sabbatini.  Yang's low round of the day on Sunday, a 66, made things interesting down the stretch. Jerry Kelly had a great and very entertaining tournament.  Kelly recorded a solo 3rd place finish.  The real entertaining part of Kelly's week was on the 6th hole Saturday, where his tee shot ended up in the top of a palm tree.  If he were unable to identify it, he'd have to return to the tee and take a lost ball penalty.  Rather than climbing the tree to identify the ball, a local photographer with a big zoom lens zoomed into the ball and shot a picture.  They looked at the ball on the camera's LCD screen and Kelly was able to positively identify his ball out of the two which were lodged in the tree.  That allowed him to save the distance penalty, and make bogey.  In the long run, that photographer may have saved Kelly more than six digits in prize money. Ricky Barnes was solid this week with a solo 4th place finish, while the ever entertaining Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey took solo 5th. The not so good A few big names fought the wind and missed the cut. Mike Weir continues to struggle, shooting an 85 in the 2nd round, 21 shots behind the low round of the day by Sabbatini. Others who failed to make the cut included Angel Cabrera, Vijay Singh, Boo Weekly, returning champion Camilo Villegas and Rickie Fowler.