Honda Classic Tips & Predictions: Take a chance on Gentlemen Jim in Florida

Russell Palmer is back with another three golf betting tips for this week's PGA Tour event, the Honda Classic from PGA National in Palm Springs Gardens in Florida teeing off on Thursday...

After a couple of high quality events on the PGA Tour we have a slightly weaker field lining up this week at PGA National for the Honda Classic.

A standing dish on Tour, there's plenty of course form to go on here but with many of the top players taking some time off before a run in to the Masters next month, the betting is headed by Daniel Berger at 11/1 who is the top ranked player in the field (15).

Others prominent in the betting include last year's winner Sungjae Im who is best price 12/1 and the in form Lee Westwood who is a 22/1 shot.

Westwood arrives at a course where he has a lot of good form, with four top10s in his last seven visits and off the back of his second consecutive second place finish on the PGA Tour.

I just wonder if the wind will blow a bit out of Westwood's sails this week and at the prices I've picked three players who have a sporting chance.

Regular followers will know I'm a fan of Joaquin Niemann and whilst he's not been firing on all cylinders the last few weeks he's still striking the ball consistently well and I think he's a good chance on a course like this.

At 22/1 with William Hill paying eight places this week, Niemann hasn't got a massive amount of experience at the course, but he ranks inside the top ten for both greens in regulation and scrambling within this week's field on the PGA Tour and I think that will serve him well here.

If the wind gets up that'll be a bonus and I'm hopeful after his last three outings 43-28-23 he can propel himself back up towards the top of a leaderboard like he did when landing consecutive second places at the start of the year.

Second up this week is Russell Henley at 30/1 with William Hill (8 places).

The American missed the cut last week and has been bubbling under the surface so far this year without really putting four good rounds together in a row.

It's his course form which I'm especially excited about here. The winner in 2014, he has five top 25 finishes at the course in eight visits and was T8 last year.

Like Niemann, Henley's stats stack up, ranking in the top ten in this field for GIR and scrambling and I'm a backer this week.

Last up I've gone for a longshot in the shape of Jim Furyk at 125/1 with Paddy Power paying eight places.

Now on the Champions Tour, Furyk may lack the distance required to compete regularly on the PGA Tour but his stats still hold up in two of the metrics I'm paying a close look to this week.

The 50-year-old ranks second for GIR on the PGA Tour this season and he's also ranked number one for scrambling.

He's held his own on the PGA Tour this season, making the cut in all four of his appearances and also has a top ten on the Champions Tour eight weeks ago.

His course form is okay, but a top ten here two years ago is enough to persuade me he can still cut it amongst the young guns and go well here at a big price. 

As ever, good luck with your bets if you're following and please gamble responsibly. I'm going to keep showing my record post lockdown for a few weeks until we have some 2021 results to show.

Follow me at Twitter @rustyboy75.

Post-lockdown form:

Winners

• Daniel Berger - Pebble Beach Pro-am - advised at 14/1
• Tyrrell Hatton - BMW PGA Championship - advised at 16/1
• John Catlin - Irish Open - advised at 40/1
• Jon Rahm - BMW Championship - advised at 14/1
• Dustin Johnson - Northern Trust - advised at 20/1
• Justin Thomas - WGC FedEx St Jude - advised at 12/1
• Webb Simpson - RBC Heritage - advised at 30/1

Placed

• Colin Morikawa - T7 Sony Open In Hawaii - advised at 14/1
• Xander Schauffele - T5 Sentry Tournament of Champions - advised at 10/1
• Laurie Canter - 2nd Italian Open - advised at 45/1
• Kristoffer Ventura - T6 Sanderson Farms Championship - advised at 80/1
• Xander Schauffele - 5th US Open - advised at 16/1
• Kristoffer Ventura - T7 Safeway Open - advised at 80/1
• Laurie Canter - 2nd Portugal Masters - advised at 66/1
• Si Woo Kim - T3 Wyndham Championship - advised at 40/1
• Jason Day - T4 USPGA Championship - advised at 40/1
• Phil Mickelson - 2nd WGC FedEx St Jude - advised at 110/1
• Viktor Hovland - 3rd Workday Charity Open - advised at 25/1
• Kevin Streelman - T7 Workday Charity Open - advised at 60/1
• Tyrrell Hatton - T4 Rocket Mortgage Classic - advised at 16/1