Honda Classic Tournament Notes 2012

Dates: February 27 – March 4, 2012
Where: PGA National (Champion Course)
Par/Yards: 35-35—70/7,241 yards
Field: 144
2011 champion: Rory Sabbatini
Purse: $5,700,000
FedExCup: 500 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play
Website: hondaclassic.com
Facebook: thehondaclassic
Twitter: @thehondaclassic

The Field:

• 15 of the top 30 in the current FedExCup standings, including Nos. 1-2 (Kyle Stanley-Johnson Wagner).
• All four major winners from 2011: Charl Schwartzel (Masters), Rory McIlroy (U.S. Open), Darren Clarke (British Open) and Keegan Bradley (PGA Championship).
• Poised to make his first start at The Honda Classic as a professional, 14-time major championship winner Tiger Woods will begin the Florida swing at PGA National, where he will be seeking his first official PGA TOUR win since the 2009 BMW Championship. In 1993, Woods played The Honda Classic as an amateur at Weston Hills, where a 72-78 resulted in a missed cut. The Honda Classic is the second of three consecutive starts on TOUR for Woods in 2012. The stretch began with the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championshipand ends with the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. Woods has not competed in three consecutive events on TOUR since the first three events of the 2010 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, The Barclays (T12), Deutsche Bank Championship (T11) and BMW Championship (T15). Woods, a 71-time winner on TOUR, has amassed 12 career TOUR victories in the state of Florida.
• Last year, Rory Sabbatini claimed his sixth PGA TOUR title with his Honda Classic win, defeating 2009 champion Y.E. Yang by a stroke, thanks to a course-record-tying, 6-under 64 in the second round. The win
  helped earn him berths into the first three of four Playoffs events, where he finished 35th in the season-long points race.

• Nos. 2 and 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Rory McIlroy (No. 2) and Lee Westwood (No.3) have both re-joined the PGA TOUR in 2012.
• 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III will make his 18th career start at The Honda Classic. He has collected five top-10 finishes in the event.
• Hank Kuehne will make his first PGA TOUR start since 2007 at the 2012 Honda Classic. The Palm Beach Gardens resident has been out of commission with a lingering back injury and will be playing out of the
  Major Medical Extension category. He will have 18 events to earn $636,221 in order to retain his status for the remainder of the season.

• Past Honda Classic champions: Rory Sabbatini (2011), Camilo Villegas (2010), Y.E. Yang (2009), Ernie Els (2008), Mark Wilson (2007), Padraig Harrington (2005), Justin Leonard (2003), Vijay Singh (1999),
  Mark Calcavecchia (1998, 1987), Stuart Appleby (1997), Tim Herron (1996).

Random Tournament Notes

• The four winners on The Florida Swing in 2011 finished among the top 35 in the final FedExCup standings: Rory Sabbatini – The Honda Classic/35; Nick Watney – WGC-Cadillac Championship/9; Gary
  Woodland – Transitions Championship/17 and Martin Laird – Arnold Palmer Invitational/31.

• Eleven players have recorded their first PGA TOUR victory at the Honda Classic, most recently Y.E. Yang in 2009.
• Jack Nicklaus (1977-78) is the only player to successfully defend his title at The Honda Classic.
• International players have dominated The Honda Classic in recent years, with wins by Padraig Harrington (2005), Luke Donald (2006), Ernie Els (2008), Y.E. Yang (2009), Camilo Villegas (2010) and Rory
  Sabbatini (2011). Mark Wilson (2005) is the only United States native to win since 2005.

• PGA National continues to rank among the toughest layouts on TOUR. Again in 2011, it ranked as the toughest course on TOUR, outside of the majors, with a scoring average of 72.540, more than 2.5 strokes
  over par. “The Bear Trap” (Nos. 15-17) was the most difficult stretch of holes last year. No. 17 ranked first in difficulty at 3.526 (+526), while No. 15 was third at 3.384 (+.384) and No. 16 was No. 4 at 4.268 (+.268).

• Now in its 31st year, the American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has been a title sponsor on the PGA TOUR since the 1982 Honda Inverrary Classic, making it the PGA TOUR’s longest-running title sponsor. Honda
  is followed on the list by AT&T, which began sponsoring the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1986.