This week’s Honda Classic might be short on star power, the by-product of being sandwiched between four of the PGA Tour’s newly designated events and going up against the LIV Golf League opener. But the Honda field does boast a quirky billing: identical twins.
Pierceson Coody was given a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s event at PGA National Resort, and for good reason. Coody is considered one of the rising stars in the sport, winning twice on the Korn Ferry Tour — including a win earlier this month at the Panama Championship — in less than a year since turning professional. Pierceson will now be joined in Palm Beach Gardens by his brother, Parker, after Parker qualified for the Honda through Monday qualifying.
Well, technically, Tuesday qualifying, as Parker had to return to Tesoro Club to beat out four others in a playoff.
The Coody brothers, the grandsons of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody, are best known for leading the University of Texas to a NCAA national championship last summer, giving the Longhorns programme its fourth national championship in school history. They also both suffered the same freak injuries last year, breaking their arms during a training session in Austin.
Despite their similarities, the Coody brothers are on a bit of a different professional trajectory at the moment. Pierceson’s KFT victories have him on the precipice of securing his PGA Tour card and is inside the top 300 in the World Ranking, while Parker currently has just conditional status on the minor-league circuit. Conversely, a good week from Parker could put the brothers back on equal footing.
The DP World Tour already has an established pair of identical twins in Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard — who have six DPWT titles between them — while the Ladies European Tour had a brief twin encounter when Leona Maguire’s sister Lisa fleetingly entered the pro ranks before retiring and turning to dentistry.
Other notables in this week’s Honda Classic field include Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka.
