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Honda Classic: Memorable moments

This week’s PGA Tour stop is the Honda Classic. We look back at 10 of the event’s most memorable moments.

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It’s not as celebrated as, say, the 1986 Masters, but what Jack Nicklaus did in the 1978 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic was masterful nevertheless. The Golden Bear birdied the last five holes to edge Grier Jones by one shot. Nicklaus’ remarkable run included two chip-ins – one from 80 feet – and three birdie putts. Tied with Jones on the 18th hole, Nicklaus stuck a 9-iron to within 5 feet, then made the winning putt after Jones missed his 15-foot birdie attempt. “The man’s amazing,’' marveled Hale Irwin, who finished two shots back. “He birdied No. 16, walked across water to No. 17 and teed it up.”

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Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods teed it up in the 2012 Honda Classic, each knowing that a win would carry extra significance. For McIlroy, it would elevate him for the first time to the world No. 1 ranking. For Woods, it would be his first triumph since 2009 and would answer the segment of golf fans who wondered if injuries and swing tinkering would prevent him from ever winning again. McIlroy achieved his goal with a win, but not before Woods put on a charge, punctuating a 62 with a final-hole eagle. Woods wouldn’t have to wait long to return to the winner’s circle, prevailing at Bay Hill later that month, the first of his three wins in 2012.

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For final-hole fireworks, it’s hard to beat the 1992 Honda Classic at Weston Hills. After losing his lead thanks to a double bogey on 15 and a bogey on 17, Corey, Pavin flew a 136-yard 8-iron directly into the cup on 18. Then, after signing his scorecard, he was almost one-upped by Fred Couples, whose 118-yard wedge shot stopped 10 inches from the cup, setting up a birdie that forced a playoff. The extra session matched the two most accomplished players of the previous year: Pavin, the leading money winner and PGA of America Player of the Year, and Couples, the PGA Tour Player of the Year. Pavin won with a birdie on the second playoff hole.

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The channels in the face of irons had traditionally been V-shaped, but square, or U-shaped versions came under fire for imparting too much backspin, especially out of the rough, which devalued the importance of accurate driving. The square-groove “shot heard ’round the world” was Mark Calcavecchia’s Ping Eye2 8-iron out of deep rough to a peninsula green on the 16th hole in the final round at Eagle Trace. Instead of releasing and possibly running into the water, the shot stuck on the green. Calcavecchia, who had caddied in this event the previous year, went on to win. Much legal wrangling ensued and the USGA eventually mandated grooves that produced less spin.

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Here are the key facts about winner Kenny Knox: a.) He Monday-qualified. b.) He shot 80 in the third round. c.) He closed with 70 to earn his first PGA Tour win. Now for some context: a.) The third round was played in winds topping 45 mph; Knox was one of 36 players to shoot in the 80s that day at the TPC at Eagle Trace. And he is the last player to win with a round in the 80s. b.) One of the great bogey saves of all time helped him win. On the seventh hole on Sunday, he hit his tee shot on the par 3 into a bunker. His sand shot rolled off the green and into a water hazard. He opted to take a drop in the bunker, then holed the next shot for a 4.

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After shooting a third-round 77 in high winds, Greg Norman blasted the TPC at Eagle Trace and the “carnival golf” he said it fostered. “I’m sick and tired of playing courses like this. … If they’re going to build a course like this, move it to Atlanta or somewhere there’s no high wind,” Norman vented. Norman’s wasn’t the only voice raised against Eagle Trace, and the Honda moved to nearby Weston Hills in 1992. But players hadn’t seen the last of Eagle Trace. The tournament returned there in 1996 when two bar mitzvahs scheduled on the Honda’s dates forced a late change of venue. And guess who was in the field? Greg Norman.

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Defending champion Rory McIlroy was 7 over par and certain to miss the cut when he walked off the course on the ninth hole of his second round. In the players’ parking lot he told reporters, “I can’t really say much, guys. I’m just in a bad place mentally.” Later that day, however, the PGA Tour said that McIlroy cited “wisdom tooth pain” for withdrawing. STILL later that day McIlroy issued a statement, saying wisdom tooth pain had left him “simply unable to concentrate.” In January 2014, in an exclusive interview with Golf.com, McIlroy stuck by the wisdom tooth story but said withdrawing was “not the right thing to do.”

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Like many tournaments, the Honda Classic began as a vehicle to promote real estate. The developers of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Lauderhill asked entertainer Jackie Gleason, an avid golfer, to lend his name to a fledgling PGA Tour stop. Gleason agreed, and the tournament bore his name until 1981. Tom Weiskopf was the first winner, edging Jack Nicklaus by one shot. Weiskopf earned $52,000 for the win, a figure surpassed by only one other tournament that year (the Greater New Orleans Open, which paid its winner $58,000).

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The day before Round 1, the USGA ruled that John Huston’s Weight-Rite shoes were a performance aid. Huston, a winless, third-year Tour pro, bought a pair of conforming Foot-Joys in the pro shop at Eagle Trace, then shot a 68 to take the lead. “I don’t know how you can make shoes that are illegal,” said Huston, who represented Weight-Rite on Tour. The shoes had wedges on the bottoms designed to keep a player’s weight on the inside of his feet, thus guarding against swaying in the backswing. Weight-Rite sent Huston replacement shoes without the wedges to wear on the weekend, and he went on to win by two shots.

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A pair of 16-year-olds contributed significantly to Honda Classic history. In 1990 Chris Couch Monday-qualified for the Honda. Two months short of his 17th birthday, he was believed to be the youngest player ever to qualify for a PGA Tour event (neither the PGA Tour nor Golf Digest could say for sure). Eleven years later in 2001, another high schooler, Ty Tryon, Monday qualified. Where Couch had missed the cut, Tryon made it, becoming the third-youngest person (16 years, 9 months, 7 days) to do so on Tour. In subsequent years, only Couch won on the PGA Tour, taking the 2006 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

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