Since opening in 1981, the Champion Course at PGA National has established a reputation as one of the best courses in Florida.
It has also hosted several prestigious events including the 1983 Ryder Cup and 1987 PGA Championship, while it has been the home of the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic (formerly The Honda Classic) since 2007.
The course is also regarded as one of the more difficult on the PGA Tour, and has earned that reputation in part because of the daunting three-hole stretch between the 15th and 17th named The Bear Trap, named after Golden Bear Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the original course in 1990.
Despite that, the venue has seen its share of low scores, including Tiger Woods' final round of 62 at the 2012 Honda Classic. That was seven shots better than Rory McIlroy’s 69 on the same day, but it was the Ulsterman who finished on top of the leaderboard, with Woods settling for runner-up two shots back.
While that was undoubtedly a heroic effort from Woods, it wasn’t even the lowest score that year. Two days earlier, Brian Harman set the course record with a 61, which would been even better had he made a five-foot birdie put on the 18. Still, Harman obliterated the previous course record, set by Davis Love III just a day earlier, by three shots.
Although Harman couldn’t win the tournament, eventually finishing T12, a measure of just how big an accomplishment his round had been was the number of years needed for another player to match it – nine.
In the 2021 edition of the tournament, Matt Jones hit nine birdies in a bogey-free opening round to equal Harman’s record. What’s even more impressive about the Australian’s achievement was that he did it in windy conditions, beating the field’s first-round scoring average by 10 to take a three-shot lead.
Matt Jones won the 2021 Honda Classic, helped by his record-equalling first round of 61 at PGA National
Jones, who is now with LIV Golf, couldn’t match the brilliance of the first day in the remaining three rounds, but the 70, 69 and 67 that followed were enough for him to finish top of the leaderboard by six shots for his second PGA Tour win.
