2008 Honda Classic Results

South African Ernie Els broke a long and tedious four year drought on the elite American tour to claim the 2008 Honda Classic by a single stroke.

The man best known as the “Big Easy” must have thought the golfing gods had forsaken him for a time, but he managed to rally all his skills and experience at the PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens to claim his 16^th career win, and the first on American soil since 2004!

His 6 under 67 was only one shot adrift of England’s Luke Donald who carded a 71 in the final round, one ahead of the man placed third, Australia’s Nathan Green. But it was homeboy, Mark Calcavecchia who lost out to the tall South African.

Both men shared the top of the leaderboard going into the back nine but Calcavecchia made the mistake of his life when he hit a bunker on the par 3-15^th. His sand shot looked great initially but the ball simply wouldn’t stop rolling and eventually ended up in an unplayable position, flush against a rock ledge across the green.

In his frustration Calcavecchia tossed the ball into the water and had to make do with a double bogey, a heart breaking score that cost him the tournament.

Els, who was a couple of holes ahead of Calcavecchia, kept his cool, made par on the final holes and waited patiently to see whether anybody could match his score!

Luke Donald nearly upset Els’ long awaited return to form when he made a 35-foot birdie on the 16^th but it was not to be and Els moved one spot up the Official World Golf Ranking, knocking America’s Steve Stricker off the number three spot!