Break Time Is Over on PGA Tour

Let's hear it for the PGA Tour's Florida Swing -- home of golf's best nicknames.

At this week's Honda Classic, played in Palm Beach Gardens at PGA National, the "Bear Trap" awaits down the finishing stretch. Next week, the CA Championship goes to Doral Resort, where it will be played on a course called the "Blue Monster."

After that, it's on to Tampa for the Transitions Championship, played on Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course. That explains the three-hole finish tagged "the Snake Pit."

And finally, the name game comes to an end with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Orlando's Bay Hill Club -- where the torturous finishing hole is guarded by a ball-gobbling hazard called "The Devil's Bathtub."

But don't be fooled. There's more to the next four weeks of golf than cleaver monikers. There's the guttural moans of the wounded tour pro.

"As far as quality golf courses in one state, it's pretty darn good," Zach Johnson said. "I don't know what would be better. These are pretty sweet."

Welcome to Florida. Now take your bogey and like it.

The Florida Swing, once viewed as a non-strenuous, coming-out party for players to knock rust off their early season games, in recent years has become a contact sport.

"If you don't like this golf course, your game isn't good enough and that's it. That's the reality of this course."
- Padraig Harrington,
On PGA National PGA National, a Jack Nicklaus redesign, gets a lot of mileage out of the "Bear Trap," a three-hole run of Nos. 15, 16 and 17 that creates a savage finish, but the other 15 are no walks in the park.

Since the Honda relocated to PGA National four years ago, the course has ranked among the 10 toughest courses every season. It played nearly 1.4 shots above par in 2009, the seventh-highest total of any course and fourth highest in non-majors.

"Just a big, tough golf course," Padraig Harrington said. "Every golf shot it asks you to hit out here, it's a strong shot, but there's no rebound, It's one of the toughest courses. If you don't like this golf course, your game isn't good enough and that's it. That's the reality of this course."

The fun part is things do not get a whole lot easier.

Doral is a World Golf Championship stop, and the Blue Monster has long been one of the tour's most noted layouts.

The par-4 18th with water running down the entire left side ranked as the second-most difficult on tour last year. The 235-yard, par-3 No. 4 checked in as 2009's 15th-most difficult.

At Innisbrook the last two winning scores have been in single digits. And Bay Hill, its par-4 16th ranking as last year's fourth-most difficult, is even harder.

Tiger Woods' winning score last year was 5-under. Only once in the last five year has the winning score not been single-digits under par.

By comparison, look at this season's winning numbers. After eight weeks, no tournament winner has finished worst than 15-under. At the SBS Championship it took 22-under for Geoff Ogilvy to win. Three winning scores have been 16-under. And, even it is was over five rounds, the 30-under that Bill Haas wasn't exactly a grind.
"We play enough tournaments where it takes 18- to 20-under to win," Charles Howell III said. "It's nice to see 5-under win. It's good. It rewards pars, and when you make a birdie it actually means something."

Be careful what you wish for.

Florida's pesky early-year winds greeted players for Thursday's opening day at Honda and the results were reflective.

"You see the results," said Alex Cejka after an opening 68. "It's not so much under par. Every tournament is 14-, 16-under and here it's 3-, 4-under par. The course is tricky with the wind. It's tough."