PGA Tour must return the Cognizant Classic to its heyday | D'Angelo
· Yahoo Sports
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Few days in the history of the PGA Tour event held at PGA National for the last two decades have been as disheartening as the one that happened Feb. 23, three days before the start of the 2026 tournament.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
That was when three of its marquee players withdrew from a field already following a recent trend that has seen most of the elite players stay away. Even those who could roll out of their bed and arrive at PGA National in shorter time than it would take to play the Bear Trap have not bothered to play here in recent years.
The two highest ranked players, No. 11 Ben Griffin and No. 20 Jacob Bridgeman, bailed. Hours later, one of the Tour's most recognizable and popular players, Adam Scott, withdrew from the tournament now known as the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches. Truthfully, the tournament had started losing its luster when it still was the Honda Classic.
While each surely has his specific and personal reasons, no doubt one common denominator went into each decision:
The schedule.
And only the PGA Tour, which is examining a significant schedule overhaul, can fix what has gone horribly wrong with the Cognizant Classic.
The loss of Griffin and Bridgeman leaves this year's tournament, which starts Feb. 26 on the Champion Course, with zero players from the top 25 of the current Official World Golf Ranking. That is a first going back to at least 2007 when the event moved from Mirasol to PGA National.
At No. 26, Jupiter's Ryan Gerard is the only player in the top 30 of the OWGR in the field. And he is one of 12 locals in the top 30. Jupiter's Shane Lowry is No. 31.
Griffin, Bridgeman (who is coming off his first career PGA Tour win at the Genesis) and Scott are playing the next two weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players.
Griffin and Bridgeman would have been teeing it up six consecutive weeks if they played Cognizant.
PGA Tour must move Cognizant Classic to better spot on schedule
It is not a good look when the banners flying around the PGA National property promoting the tournament depict images of two golfers — Sahith Theegala and Scott — who are not in the field. At least defending champion Joe Highsmith and local favorite Brooks Koepka, also on those banners, have stuck to their commitment.
Theegala had committed weeks ago and withdrew prior to Feb. 20.
What happened three days before the start of the tournament heightens the urgency for the PGA Tour to save a tournament it now operates.
The Tour took over day-to-day duties of the event under its PGA Tour Events division after the 2023 tournament and the same year Cognizant was signed as a title sponsor. Most believed with skin in the game, the Tour would get Cognizant back on track to being the preferred destination of area golf fans it once was in the mid-2010s.
But the Tour has failed the event that is held in what some would label the best golf market in the country.
Justin Thomas has lived in Palm Beach County for about a decade. He played in the then-Honda Classic down the road from his home, which now is in Tequesta, five times. This year, he is recovering from back surgery and has skipped Cognizant to make his return a week later at Bay Hill.
Thomas, who played a TGL match the week of Cognizant, called it "a bummer" this tournament has lost so much of its prestige.
"It's one of those events that has fallen at an unfortunate time in the schedule," he said. "It's just one of those things the way that guys need to play certain events, or feel like they give themselves the best opportunity to win, and make the most points as possible. It's just kind of where it falls kind of thing."
And fans clearly have recognized how this event has fallen.
"The PGA Tour clearly is a league of haves and have-nots, not only for golfers but tournaments too," one posted on X.
Billy Horschel, the Florida native who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, is playing the event for the 14th time. Horschel says this is more than Signature Events, which include the top 50 golfers from the previous year's FedEx Cup points list following the Tour Championship in August, diluting the less-significant events.
Although that certainly has been a major contributor.
"A decade ago, this event was unbelievable with the field," Horschel said. "Where it fell in the schedule was really good for a lot of the guys that lived here.
"This field has sort of been up and down the last couple years. When you've got so many events on the PGA Tour schedule and you've got guys trying to figure out where they're going to fit, it's tough to fill a field."
Which is why the future of Cognizant rests solely in the hands of the PGA Tour.
The Tour will decided whether or not it wants a tournament that started in 1972 as the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic to thrive as it once did. Or go away.
It will decide if it wants to save Cognizant and make it a tournament that locals such as Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, all in the top 30, see the benefits to playing.
Make it a tournament that even Jupiter's Rickie Fowler is not forced to skip. Few have show their appreciation for his hometown event than Fowler, who has played 15 times. But even he cannot fit it into his schedule this year.
Make it an event that those who make an effort to show up every year they are healthy and eligible — like Koepka, Jupiter's Daniel Berger, Delray Beach's Gary Woodland — can continue to fit it comfortably into their schedules.
Make it an event that comes close to what it was in its heyday.
It all up to the PGA Tour.
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cognizant Classic: Why top players skip it, how PGA Tour can save it