Brendan Steele carded an even-par 72-69-69-70 — 280 at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, last week. The native Idyllwilder posted his fourth top-20 finish — and his second top-15 — in nine starts this season and moved from 38th to 32nd on the FedExCup points list. He also moved from 81st to 75th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
It could not have looked all that rosy Friday afternoon when Brendan bent over a 27-foot putt on the final hole, needing to sink it for birdie to make the then-projected cut line of 2 over par. But sink it he did, then he came back on the weekend to climb into a tie for 14th place by tournament’s end. Overall, he gained 2.4 strokes on the field putting and 4.3 strokes tee-to-green.
Saturday, at the 538-yard, par-5 third hole, Brendan slammed a 350-yard drive down the middle of the fairway — the fourth-longest drive of the tournament — leaving only 188 yards to the green. He got down from there in three for a nice bird.
Brendan has this week off. We’re not sure about next week, but we expect he’ll play in the Arnold Palmer, which is two weeks off.
Jack Clark can be reached at [email protected].
