PGA Tour's final four elevated events do not include Honda Classic in 2023

The Honda Classic will have to wait at least a year to receive elevated status from the PGA Tour.

The tour added its final four events with elevated status for the 2023 season, announcing Tuesday the Waste Management Phoenix Open, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and Travelers Championship will be among the tournaments with $20 million purses.

Honda was not expected to receive a boost in 2023, but its time is coming. The final four events with elevated status will rotate every year, assuring every tournament will be guaranteed one of the very best fields every few years.

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Commissioner Jay Monahan announced in August that top players agreed to play at least 20 events each year including the four majors, The Players Championship, 12 additional elevated Tour events plus three more of each player's choosing.

The four announced Tuesday join the three FedExCup playoff events, the Genesis Invitational (hosted by Tiger Woods), the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Tournament (hosted by Jack Nicklaus), WGC-Match Play Championship and Sentry Tournament of Champions among the elevated Tour events.

Adding several events with elevated purses are among changes that are a direct result of the threat caused by Greg Norman and the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series. LIV's inaugural season included eight events, seven with a $25 million purse and season-finale next week at Trump National Doral that will include a $50 million purse to determine the season-long team championship.

LIV, whose schedule will expand to 14 events in 2023, has persuaded several top golfers to defect from the PGA Tour, including Jupiter's Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, Palm Beach Gardens' Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na and Phil Mickelson.

Honda, played at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, has felt the squeeze in recent years sitting between Genesis and Arnold Palmer and two weeks before the Players. As a result, Honda's fields have been underwhelming, mainly due to the schedule, but also because some golfers aren't up to the challenge of the Champion Course.

The tournament has had one golfer ranked in the top 10 in the world in the last three years combined.

Adding the Phoenix Open as an elevated event is a further blow to Honda in 2023. The tournament now falls in the middle of a five-event stretch in which the two prior to Honda (Phoenix and Genesis) and the two following Honda (Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players) have purses of at least $20 million, with The Players' increased to $25 million.

Honda, scheduled for Feb. 23-26, will have an $8.4 million purse.

Honda Classic could get help in future

But beyond 2023, Honda is willing to be flexible to become part of the big-money events, something that would be easier in 2024 with an extra week on the calendar before the Masters.

That window could range from mid-January following the Tour's Hawaii swing to the third week in April (two weeks after the Masters).

Honda, though, could benefit by the tightened criteria for qualification for the playoffs. Next season the playoffs will start with 70 players (instead of 125) earning a spot in the first event, followed by 50 advancing to Week 2 and 30 in the Tour Championship at East Lake.

Many will be looking to earn points early in the season and with the game's elite golfers committing to participate in 20 tournaments, those living in the area who have skipped the event in recent years - Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Fitzpatrick, among them - may chose Honda as one of their three wildcard events.

Honda will lose a handful of locals who are suspended from the PGA Tour after joining LIV, including Koepka, Niemann and Charl Schwartzel. Dustin Johnson also cannot play but he has not played Honda since 2015.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Honda Classic not among PGA Tour's final four elevated events for 2023