After a change to the schedule which meant a stop-off in Mexico for many of the world's elite, the PGA Tour finally arrives in Florida for a four-week run whose highlight, of course, is the PLAYERS Championship in a fortnight.

Bringing that event forward from its previous May slot makes sense, the switch having been made to accommodate the PGA Championship, but the knock-on effect is a weaker field than we'd perhaps have expected for the Honda Classic at PGA National.

As Golf Channel's Will Gray pithily observed, it's a good job Justin Thomas won the play-off for this title last year, but for which he might have joined former winner Rory McIlroy and the crowd-drawing Tiger Woods in skipping an event which otherwise would make plenty of appeal as an ideal way to prepare for the condensed major season.

PGA National is a fearsome test, particularly the three-hole Bear Trap from 15 to 17, and perhaps that's why the roll of honour is littered with major champions from the obviously elite, like Thomas and Adam Scott, to the more surprising in YE Yang and some of those, like Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els, who have thrived whenever and wherever the wind has blown - hence those Claret Jugs.