Find out how to watch The Honda Classic 2016 online free live streaming on PGA Tour Live for featured holes coverage, following by The Honda Classic on TV later Sunday courtesy of The Golf Channel and NBC Sports.
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The course at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, isn’t going to yield many low scores, with just 13 players now under par, so a smart, conservative round on Sunday will likely produce the victor.
Scott did bounce back from a poor drive at the 16th to make par, then stuck a 6-iron shot to close range at the par-3 17th, rolling in the birdie putt to retake the lead – his eighth birdie of the day.
Can he still win with a short putter? Ranked 13th this week, Scott won for the first time since the anchored-style long putter he used for years was banned by changes in the rules of golf.
“I guess that’s why they call it the Bear Trap”, said Scott of holes 15, 16 and 17. “It’s never easy but I gave it my all and unfortunately (hit) a couple of bad shots on a couple of holes and it was just not enough”. “I just didn’t get anything out of it”, he said.
A freaky, breezy afternoon at PGA National ended with Scott and Garcia (67) sharing a four-shot lead going into the final round.
Playing alongside Garcia for the second day running, Scott seized the early initiative by sinking a 15-foot gain at the first and doubled his advantage with a birdie-two at the short fifth.
“I played well the first two rounds”. That’s the good thing. “I feel really happy with where the game is at”.
Scott had not claimed a tournament worldwide since claiming the 2014 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, but the Australian returned to winning ways after carding a final-round 70 at the PGA Tour event at Palm Beach on Sunday.
“I am playing great and the way I played today was attractive”, said the 2013 Masters champion.
Scott, who has won 12 times on the PGA Tour (most by a player under 40), was 23rd in strokes gained putting in the tournament.
“I’ve kind of said it the whole time”. “My game’s come into a really good spot at the end of last year and now starting out this year, ” he said.
“I hit a good putt that missed and unfortunately it’s a seven”. He birdied the 18th hole to avoid an 80 and is 11 shots off the lead.
American Peter Uihlein (71) and Romain Wattel of France (65) were tied for second, with Australia’s Jason Scrivener four strokes off the lead after a 69. “We’ve been working hard because it was a little bit loose, it was slipping a year ago, the consistency wasn’t there. You don’t need to hit that bad a shot to make a 7 like he did”. He needs to get off to a quick start.
After both made careless bogeys on the 16th, Scott faced one more par 3 over the water on the 17th hole, where fans holding beer in both hands hurled insults at Scott and Garcia as they stood on the tee.
Scott finished at 9-under 271 and moved to No. 9 in the world, his highest in 10 months.
Sung Kang, Luke List, John Senden and Scott Brown rounded out the top 10. And he finally had another victory. “Shame about 15 but that’s this golf course – the Bear Trap got me today”. Depends on how aggressive you want to be. “But at some point, you’re going to have to have the results to actually prove it”. Others who qualified for Doral through the FedEx Cup were Graeme McDowell, Fabian Gomez and Smylie Kaufman….
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Scott was looking better than ever, 7 under through 14 holes and only once having to save par.
