Pro Survives Epic 16-Man Playoff To Reach Honda Classic

Rick Lamb woke up this morning fresh from a five under par round of 67. Ordinarily, life would be pretty good. Today, he had to face a 16-man sudden death playoff with a spot in the Honda Classic on the line. Beginning at 7.30am local time at Banyan Cay Resort, West Palm Beach, Florida, the sixteen men were divided into two groups of five and one group of six. Lamb dropped a statement of authority with a 30-foot eagle at the first playoff hole and sat back and watched as no one could match him, securing his place in the Honda Classic.

“I’m excited to play the Honda Classic this week”, Lamb said calmly after the playoff. The American last tasted victory at the LECOM Health Challenge, where he became the first Monday Qualifier to win on the Web.com (now Korn Ferry) Tour since Sebastian Cappelen at the 2014 Air Capital Classic. Lamb is also no rookie to the PGA Tour. Whilst he is yet to hold his card and relies upon sponsors exemptions and qualifiers, he has made thirty appearances with a career high of T3 at the 2017 John Deere Classic, finishing two back from eventual winner Bryson DeChambeau. He also finished T46 at the 2021 US Open, ahead of the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson, Gary Woodland, Marc Leishman and Lee Westwood.

Lamb will now tee it up at the PGA National, which is renowned as one of the toughest tests on the PGA Tour and one of the best golf courses in Florida. For its own impeccably high standards, the Honda Classic is a noticeably weaker field than usual where only 12 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking are present, led by Open champion, Louis Oosthuizen (13). South Florida locals Daniel Berger and Brooks Koepka are in the field, with the latter describing his recent decent in the ranking as “embarrassing”. Many of the world’s leading players have elected to rest in the run up to a busy four weeks, which includes the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.