England's Lee Westwood, the top-ranked player in the World Golf Rankings, reigning U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell (No. 5) from Northern Ireland and fellow Irishman Rory McIlroy (No. 7) headline a very strong International contingent of stars who have committed to play in The Honda Classic, a PGA TOUR event that runs Feb. 28-March 6 at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens.
England's Luke Donald (No. 9) and 2008 Honda champion Ernie Els (No. 11) of South Africa give the Honda Classic field early commitments from five of the top 11 players in the World.
Another early commitment into the field is 2007 Honda champion Mark Wilson, whose two early 2011 victories at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Waste Management Phoenix Open have him atop the current money list and Fed Ex Cup standings.
Several Top 50 World-Ranked players are committed to play including 13th-ranked Matt Kuchar, the 2010 TOUR money champion with $4,910,477, Sweden's Robert Karlsson (15), British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen (20) from South Africa, Italian Edoardo Molinari (24), South African Charl Schwartzel (25), Aussie Robert Allenby (28),Rickie Fowler (29), Anthony Kim (33), England's Ross Fisher (37), Ben Crane (39), Japan's Yuta Ikeda (42), Honda Classic defending champion Camilo Villegas (43) from Colombia, 2009 Honda champion Y.E. Yang (44) from South Korea, Bo Van Pelt (45) and Japan's Hiroyuki Fujita (50) .
Other notables also committed to play are two-time Honda champion (1987, 1998) Mark Calcavecchia, 1999 champion Vijay Singh, 2003 champion Justin Leonard, 1994 champion Nick Price, Stewart Cink, Rocco Mediate, 2001 champion Jesper Parnevik, and Kenny Perry. The Honda field will close at the completion of play at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship on Friday, Feb. 25.
Westwood became the top-ranked player in the world on Nov. 1, ending a 281-week reign by Tiger Woods at the top of the World Golf Rankings. He began his surge late in the 2009 season when he ended a two-year drought with victories at the Portugal Masters and the Dubai World Championship.
He continued that momentum in 2010 with victories in the FedEx St. Jude Classic on the PGA TOUR and the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, and also finished second in the Masters, British Open and HSBC World Golf Championships. He placed fourth at THE PLAYERS Championship and ninth at last year's Honda Classic.
His emergence in 2010 increased the demands on his time, something Westwood knows he must do a good job of managing in 2011.
"The demands on my time have increased, but it's not affected the way I approach the game," Westwood said. "You have to just go out and try and play well each day, and the No. 1 World Ranking comes as a consequence of that.
"There's no real short route to it. You have to go the long way around and put the work in beforehand. And anybody that plays well and gets to No. 1 in the world deserves it, and if you don't play well you drop down in the rankings. That's the beauty of them; they reflect how people are playing at the time. First and foremost, you have to look after your game. So basically I just end up saying no a lot to lots of people. Obviously there's a lot more requests on time and stuff like that, so you just have to be a bit harsh at times. There just aren't enough hours in the day."
McDowell had a dream season in 2010 which included a victory in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, holing the winning putt for the European Ryder Cup team, European Tour victories at the Celtic Manor Wales Open and the Andalucia Valderrama Masters and winning a playoff against Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge. Following his U.S. Open victory, McDowell joined the PGA TOUR.
"What do I take away from 2010? Mainly just confidence and momentum and belief in myself really," McDowell said. "Expectations are something I've talked about a lot. You know, you can't expect to play well, just because I've had the season I've had, doesn't give me any God-given right to go out and shoot 66 every day. It's important that I keep it real and keep working hard on my game.
"One of the goals that I have for 2011 is to keep working hard and keep the work ethic up and keep working on the things that I did to get me to where I am right now, and of course, not take the game for granted. Certainly not get sucked in by other people's expectations of me, either. Like I say, just trying to use the confidence and the belief that I gained from last year. That's really all I can take away. It's definitely not a free pass for low numbers every day."
McDowell has to pinch himself a little when he looks at the World Golf Rankings and sees himself in the No. 5 slot.
"When I look at the World Rankings, I guess I'm trying to be realistic about it and realize that my World Ranking right now reflects the last seven months of golf I've played really," McDowell said. "If I can finish the 2011 season Top-5 in the world, I'll start to believe I'm a Top-5 in the world player. I feel like I have a lot of work to do. It's one thing getting there and maintaining and hoping to keep climbing is another thing."
McIlroy is established in the golf world now after surging onto the scene two years ago with a victory at Dubai at age 19. Back then, he was the youngest player to ever exceed 1 million pounds in earnings on the European Tour. Now he is focused on trying to turn more top 10 finishes into victories and challenge for the top spot in the rankings.
He won more than $2 million worldwide in 2010, but won only once, at the PGA TOUR's Quail Hollow Championship in May. Yet he finished in the Top 10 in his last four events of 2010 and his first two events of 2011.
"I walked away from Tiger's tournament in Los Angeles in December (Chevron World Challenge) thinking that if I had just played smart and made some good decisions I would have easily won the thing. And it was like that for most of last year,' McIlroy said. "Now I am trying to be more patient.
"I feel as if I am a more complete player than I have been. I definitely swing it better. I'm able to shape it both ways and physically I've gotten stronger and I feel like I'm definitely headed in the right direction. A couple years ago, all I could do was hit a draw. I was very one-dimensional and I had to try to change my swing a little bit to be able to play different types of courses. I feel as if I'm a more developed player now, but I still think that I've got a little bit to go to try and compete -- well, not compete but try and become the best in the world."
The 2011 edition of The Honda Classic will be played February 28th - March 6th at PGA National Resort & Spa. The tournament, Palm Beach County's largest sporting event, awarded more than $1 million to area children's charities in 2010.
