Featured Group: Westwood, Els, Oosthuizen at PGA National

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At each PGA TOUR event this season, a featured pairing will be highlighted prior to the first round. Here is the featured group for Thursday and Friday at The Honda Classic.

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By PGATOUR.COM Staff

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Two of the game's most recognizable international stars and a third who bears a striking resemblance to a beloved cartoon character will be playing together in the first two rounds of The Honda Classic.

Lee Westwood and Ernie Els are the veterans, both former world No. 1s, while the gap-toothed Louis Oosthuizen, who is nicknamed "Shrek" for obvious reasons, completes the marquee group at PGA National.

Els and Oosthuizen are very well-acquainted. Both are South Africans, each has won the British Open and Oosthuizen is a product of Els' junior golf foundation.

Westwood, who lost his No. 1 ranking to Martin Kaymer on Sunday after a 17-week reign, returns to Palm Beach Gardens to make his third start at The Honda Classic. And he should come in with confidence after a tie for ninth last year.

With three of the top four players in the world competing at PGA National, Westwood could actually regain the No. 1 spot, too, if he finishes solo third or better on Sunday. Only Kaymer is idle. In all, there are five of the top 10 in the world and 22 of the top 50 competing in a banner year at The Honda Classic.

Els should also return home to south Florida with confidence after winning The Honda Classic in 2008, beating last week's champ, Luke Donald, by one shot. Not to mention, Els, who lives in West Palm Beach, picked up two wins on the Florida swing a year ago.

Els, who won the South African Open in December, has tied for 17th twice in three starts this year. The first came at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions while the second was last week where he bowed out in the second round at Dove Mountain, losing to the surprising J.B. Holmes.

Oosthuizen, who is the reigning, runaway British Open champ after last year's seven-stroke win, is a rookie on the PGA TOUR this year. He tied for 62nd in his debut at the Northern Trust Open and lost in the first round of last week's World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Oosthuizen has seven wins around the world.

All three should be encouraged by this statistic. International players have won five of the last six Honda Classics -- Padraig Harrington (2005), Donald (2006), Els (2008), Y.E. Yang (2009) and Camilo Villegas (2010).

Statistical comparison

Key stats from Westwood, Els and Oosthuizen from the 2011 season (TOUR rank in parentheses)

Category WESTWOOD*   ELS   OOSTHUIZEN   Driving distance 298.7 (15th)* 281.1 (136th)   273.4 (173rd)   Driving accuracy 61.30% (135th)*   68.97% (20th) 60.71% (97th)   Greens in regulation 69.30% (37th)*   83.33% (1st) 58.33% (179th)   Putting average 1.795 (128th)* 1.867 (179th)   1.881 (181st)   Scoring average 69.31 (1st)* 71.37 (101st)   71.16 (84th)

*Westwood's numbers are from the 2010 season

EXPERT PREDICTIONS: We asked some of our PGATOUR.COM experts to predict which player will fare best this week at The Honda Classic.

Stan Awtrey: Ernie Els. Although he didn't play well at PGA National last year (T-67), the Big Easy has proven he knows how to overcome the Bear Trap and win here, as he did in 2008. His experience on the course will make the difference.

Craig Dolch: Lee Westwood. Westwood finished tied for ninth last year in his only start at The Champion course and he appeared very confident during his pre-tournament press conference. He knows he can regain the No. 1 world ranking with a top-three finish.

Melanie Hauser: Lee Westwood. The wise choice might be 2008 Honda Classic champ Els, but ... Going with Westy. It's his first chance to grab back No. 1 -- or at least take a step towards it. That's gotta count for something.

FANTASY INSIDER: Ernie Els and Lee Westwood are mentioned in the Power Rankings Plus portion of this week's Fantasy Insider. Rob Bolton metions experience, short game, and previous success as positives for Els, who he ranks as No. 11 for this week.

Said Bolton of 13th-ranked Westwood: "Underwhelming start to the year, but the Florida Swing marks the first stop on the ramp to the Masters, so the hedge is to a tighter focus. Shared ninth place here last year, with just eight holes over par all week. One of the world's best tee to green."