NOTE: The following is from golfdigest.com on Wednesday (and the full table of picks below has been updated): The Honda Classic took another hit on Wednesday when the top-ranked golfer in the field, Daniel Berger, withdrew due to a rib injury. Berger .. pulled out of the pro-am Wednesday morning before deciding to skip the tournament entirely.

The Players Championship is in the books and we’re back to the regular weekly grind of the PGA Tour. It’s a great time to take a break if you’ve been out there all winter. Thus we have one – count him, one — of the Hawley Ratings top 10 (Daniel Berger) entered in this week’s Honda Classic, two of the top 20 (add Sungjae Im), and only six of the top 40 (add Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann, Brian Harman, and Lee Westwood).

Berger is the no. 1 player in the field on the basis of a pretty nice record so far in 2021. He missed the cut in Phoenix but bounced back to win the next week at Pebble Beach. In his other four appearances, he has finished in the top 10 three times.

Westwood, the 43-year-old Englishman, has been the source of some amazement in the last two weeks as he boosted his Hawley rating from 81st to 38th by finishing second in back-to-back events, the Palmer and TPC, each time losing by one stroke. He is not an especially good fit for the course but has four prior top-10s in this event.

Im is eight-for-eight on cashing a paycheck in 2021 events, with one top-10 and three other top-20s.

The Honda is not exactly bereft of recognizable names. Unfortunately, the news is not great in all cases. Consider:

• Rickie Fowler — The ongoing sad story of the one-time world no. 3 player continues. His best finish in 2021 is 20th place at the Genesis. In seven appearances he has three missed cuts and two finishes lower than 50th. Won the Honda in 2017, was second in 2019.
• Sergio Garcia — Opened eyes last week when he had the early lead in TPC, eventually finishing ninth. He’s been in the top 20 four times (twice in Euro events) in seven 2021 appearances. Has four top-10s here, including last year.
• Adam Scott — Has got himself up to fourth on the PGA Tour list of consecutive made cuts (12) without becoming even close to a leaderboard regular. Since the Tour re-opened last June, he has one top-20 finish — 10th at the Farmers — but 11 other finishes between 21st and 54th. Won here in 2016.

One unique thing about the Champion course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens is that it is the only course on Tour where sand saves percentage is the no. 1 stat in terms of correlation of stat performance with event performance. The bunkers are not considered overly penal but they come into play on almost every hole. The no. 2 stat in correlation with success is greens in regulation. If you follow the event on TV, you’ll hear plenty about the “Bear trap”, a difficult three-hole stretch from the 15th through 17th holes. The first and last of those are par-threes, sandwiched around a long par-four.

Jim Furyk, age 50, has a solid lead over the rest of the field in the extent to which his stats profile aligns with the course stats profile. He’s in the top 5 percent of PGA and Euro pros in both sand saves and greens in regulation. His play has been just so-so, with three appearances in 2021 and three made cuts, although yet to crack the top 20. Next in course fit are Russell Henley and Matthew NeSmith. Henley was the winner here in 2014 and a top-10 finisher last year. He’s been lackluster recently; in eight events since November he has three missed cuts and no top-10s. Henley is in the top quarter in sand saves and top 10 percent in GIR. From down in 87th place in the Hawley Ratings is NeSmith, who is in the top half in sand saves and top 1 percent in GIR. He had a nice run of three top-20 finishes in a row in February but arrives here after two straight missed cuts.

Other players of some interest include Keegan Bradley, Talor Gooch, Nate Lashley, and Cameron Percy.

Bradley, 34 years old and winner of the 2011 PGA, has had somewhat of a resurgence this year with a 10th-place finish at the Palmer and solid finishes at Phoenix and TPC. He’s also a nice fit for the course. Gooch had a closing 67 on Sunday to elevate himself to fifth in TPC. The $575,000 paycheck was easily the best of a four-year career for the 29-year-old Oklahoman.

Lashley finished in the top 20 at Phoenix and in the top 10 at Pebble Beach a week later. Those finishes were sandwiched between three missed cuts and a finish just above the cut line. Percy has made the top 10 once and the top 30 twice in his last four outings.

Did you see this where Dustin Johnson, currently no. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, said he would not be competing in the Olympics? “It’s right in the middle of a big stretch of golf for me, so that was the reason I was kind of waffling on it a little bit,” Johnson said last week, per espn.com. “It’s a long way to travel, and I think the WGC [World Golf Championship-FedEx event] is the week right after it. The British is a couple weeks before. It’s a lot of traveling at a time where it’s important to feel like I’m focused playing on the PGA Tour.”

With that in mind, consider this seven-week block of events from Johnson’s 2021 schedule:

• Jan. 10 – at PGA Tour Sentry Champions event in Hawaii.
• Feb. 7 – at Euro Tour Saudi International event in Saudi Arabia.
• Feb. 21—at PGA Tour Genesis Invitational event in Los Angeles.

I suppose it would be crass to think about how the Saudi and Olympics events are similar in travel requirement — and different in appearance guarantees and Johnson’s level of interest.