- One-Way Drama:  There was a certain mind-numbing quality to last weekend’s telecasts of the Honda Classic, as “Bear Trap” temporarily replaced “Tiger Woods” as the NBC broadcast team’s favorite words to obsess over.  Unlike Tiger, however, PGA National’s vaunted 15th, 16th and 17th holes really aren’t, shall we say, sublime...though they certainly are difficult.  The 179-yard 15th begins the stretch and is a one-shotter which every Florida golfer has seen a dozen times, its green angled from left to right beyond a stonewall-buttressed lake.  There’s nothing terribly bad about this hole; I’m just trying to figure out what anyone sees that’s particularly good about it.  The 434-yard 16th, on the other hand, is, to my way of thinking, a poor hole.  Doglegging right across a lake, its fairway is too short for most professionals to regularly hit driver, and so far as I can tell, there is no particular advantage to be gained by flirting with either the left- or right-side fairway bunkers.  Fairway metal, mid-iron to a two-level, triangular green, without much else to consider.  I just don’t see much quality there.  The 190-yard 17th, on the other hand, though painfully similar in design to the 15th, at least seems a fitting penultimate test for a professional event, its green rising out of a lake above Seth Raynor-like embankments, its far-right pins looking nearly inaccessible from the tee.  There is no question that these holes, at least in their own way, inject a bit of drama.  The problem is that it’s one-way drama – will someone make a double by splashing their approach shot? – as opposed to the drama of, say, the TPC Sawgrass, where doubles are made frequently, but so are birdies and even eagles.  Which, I wonder, would fans and players alike tend to prefer?

- Bear Trapped:  By the way, it’s worth noting that Jack Nicklaus and Co. can’t be faulted too much for the Bear Trap, or most anything else on display at PGA National.  True, Jack’s organization has redesigned the course not once but twice – which gives an idea of just how much the original Fazio layout stood to be improved – but with housing and/or large lakes lining most holes, potential re-routing options were limited.  Thus it is today a golf course talked about almost exclusively for its toughness, not anything strategic or thought-provoking about its design.  But in a South Florida market saturated with flat, lake-filled, cookie cutter layouts, at least it’s being talked about.  And who knows, with two or three more renovations......

- Win Some, Lose Some:  Yesterday’s Best Bets feature has yielded both good and bad results within its first 24 hours.  On the plus side, the suggestion of Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik (66-1) as a longshot pick at the Malaysian Open thus far seems prescient, as the long hitting 30-year-old fired an opening-round 65 and is very much in the hunt.  On the other hand, singling out Charl Schwartzel and Jyoti Randhawa from among “the five favorites listed at 20-1” isn’t looking quite as impressive.  Randhawa has done his part, shooting solid 67, but Schwartzel is presently tied for 145th through nine holes (at +2).  And then there’s the matter of Nick Dougherty; he was one of the three 20-1 favorites I opted to ignore...and he just opened with a tournament-leading 62...