Honda Classic: stars back in action

February 27, 2014: After the BMW Championship near Chicago last summer, it is the  first occasion Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott are all part of one field at Honda Classic, which tees off in Florida this Thursday.

That’s how it was a generation ago, when some of golf’s top players either rested or played overseas early in the season, and then showed up in tropical conditions at Doral to start the official road to Augusta National.

Woods has plenty of work to do based on his early performance — a missed 54-hole cut at Torrey Pines in his lone PGA Tour start this year, followed by a dismal performance by his standards at the Dubai Desert Classic, where he tied for 41st.

He conceded that he spent most of his winter break working on his body instead of his golf. Since returning from overseas earlier this month, Woods said he has spent most of his time working on his short game.

Woods isn’t the only player coming off a substantial break.

Scott, the defending champion at Augusta, hasn’t competed since the Sony Open in Honolulu. He spent the following week on the Big Island, surfing and playing a few casual rounds with his friends, then killed time on the couch or doing anything not related to golf until it was time to get back to work.

He plans to play three of the next four tournaments.

“After three weeks I kind of felt like I needed to start swinging again and started to get the itch, but I think I timed it pretty well because I’ve had a nice couple weeks of intense practice before getting here and a week of playing with some mates before that,” Scott said to golf.com. “I feel like I’ve had a nice preparation, but this is a very tough test, and it’s probably not the ideal one to float back in off after an extended break.”

PGA National looks to have as much blue (water) as green (grass), and the course is converted into a par 70 at 7,140 yards for the Honda Classic. Michael Thompson won last year at 9-under 271.

Mickelson, who has not played PGA National since he was an amateur, needs to calculate his shots.

Mickelson missed the last two weeks because his kids were on spring break, spending some of that time skiing and some of that playing golf. He did not want to fly out from California for one tournament next week at Doral, so he added the Honda Classic.

“The greens are really immaculate,” Mickelson said. “If you get hot with a putter, you can make a lot of putts. But I do like the golf course. I’ve always liked Nicklaus-designed golf courses.

Woods has played the Honda Classic thrice. He rallied with a 62 in the final round in 2012 to finish behind McIlroy, and then struggled off the tee — particularly on the sixth hole — a year ago when he tied for 37th.

McIlroy has his own set of memories from PGA National, not all of them good. Even though he won in 2012 to become No. 1 in the world for the first time, he walked out of field last year after playing 26 holes, with his game in disrepair and his business affairs not much better.

McIlroy regrets his mistake and says he won’t ever do again. The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland is in a better frame of mind this year with his comfortable equipment and his calmed personal life after his engagement.

“I’m in a better place,” McIlroy said. “And I feel like when my game is in a good place, everything else can sort of fall in line with that. It makes me feel more comfortable about everything.”

The Masters, the first major of the year is barely six tournaments away, and world’s seven of the top ten player’s in the field at PGA National have their eyes set on it.

“I think once we get to Florida, I think we’re all thinking about our way to Augusta,” Woods said.