The Cognizant Classic Deserves a Fighting Chance

Bob Harig writes that the Florida Swing opener should be respected as the Tour reimagines its schedule. Plus Zach Johnson and major berths being secured.

Shane Lowry lost the Cognizant Classic down the stretch in a memorable edition of a tournament that is in a challenging spot on the current PGA Tour schedule | Raj Mehta/Getty Images

A good bit of the discussion leading into the Cognizant Classic—and into the weekend—was about who was not there instead of who was in the field at PGA National.

It was both understandable and inevitable.

When the PGA Tour went to its signature event model three years ago, this sort of storyline was bound to occur. And it was going to be made worse when a regular event such as the Cognizant—formerly the Honda Classic and long ago with entertainer Jackie Gleason’s name—got squeezed by the big tournaments around it.

The tournament had no players ranked among the top 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking after Jacob Bridgeman—coming off a win at the Genesis Invitational—and Ben Griffin withdrew early in the week. Former champion Adam Scott also withdrew. It was the event’s worst field rating via OWGR in its tenure at PGA National, which began in 2007.

It was obviously the lowest rating of the seven PGA Tour events played so far in 2026.

“I mean, it’s a tournament that’s sandwiched between four designated tournaments,” said Jack Nicklaus in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. “So it can’t be a good thing.”

The Golden Bear graced the broadcast booth on Saturday, which for years has been a part of the tournament since it’s just a few miles from his home in North Palm Beach, Fla. It also benefits his children’s hospital.

Nicklaus pointed out the obvious. The event followed two signature events, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational. It precedes this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, another signature event, and then next week’s Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship tournament.

The top players, almost without fail, are not skipping those tournaments. Not when they have purses of $20 million or more while the Cognizant offered $9.6 million with fewer FedEx Cup points.

“And I think, frankly, the field is pretty good for that,” Nicklaus said. “I mean, the guys to not play in between that, they can’t play five in a row. It’s pretty difficult. So I think they’ve probably done pretty well with that.”

Jack Nicklaus said the Cognizant Classic, his hometown PGA Tour event, is still doing well despite an unfavorable spot on the schedule. | Ethan Morrison / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sometimes too much is made of the world rankings. Obviously there are high-end pros competing in a full-field event such as the Cognizant, which was won by Nico Echavarria after a Shane Lowry meltdown over the closing holes. Lowry (who was 31st in OWGR going in and now 27th) is a major champion who clinched the Ryder Cup for Europe last year. Echavarria got a Masters invite out of it. (And it should be noted he and Lowry played in each of the previous two signature events.)

The event was not helped by the fact that the calendar the last two years was one week shorter leading up to the Masters. Two years ago, a Mexico event fronted the Cognizant and followed the Genesis. That at least gave players a break between the biggest events.

With just one such tournament between all the big ones, something had to give.

And in a world where the PGA Tour is looking to make significant changes to its model—reducing the schedule, perhaps having tiers of events that won’t see all of the star players participating—it puts a tournament such as the Cognizant in peril. And really through no fault of its own.

The tournament is run by the PGA Tour’s events arm formerly known as Championship Management, now called PGA Tour Events. It’s in the Tour’s interest to see the Cognizant prosper.

In a different era, the Cognizant thrived

For years, this tournament thrived. In 2014, it had seven of the top 10 in the world. Of course, that year, the landscape was different.

The Cognizant (then Honda), was the first event of the Florida Swing and still followed what was then the Northern Trust at Riviera. Because a World Golf Championship event followed at Doral, the Palm Beach event was in a risky spot, too.

And yet it still thrived. The Players Championship was in May. The Arnold Palmer was on equal footing with the Honda and Valspar Championship later in the month. The player wealth got spread around.

That is impossible with the current configuration, and it will only get worse after the Masters. The Zurich Classic follows the Masters and the RBC Heritage and precedes two signature events and the PGA Championship. It’s an impossible situation for a regular tournament and all but assures events such as the Cognizant and Zurich will be viewed poorly.

“This tournament ... it’s a charity,” Nicklaus said. “So the Tour wouldn’t want that to go away. The community didn’t want it to go away. It’s a community event. Whether they change the date of it or leave it the way it is, it’s struggled to come out of the pack, you might say, because of its date. But it’s been a good tournament. It’s been supported pretty well for every year.”

It might not go away, but who knows how it will look in a reconfigured PGA Tour?

New CEO Brian Rolapp and the Future Competitions Committee are in the process of remaking the schedule. If there are tiers of events, an event like the Cognizant could be relegated a notch below the so-called signature events anyway.

But if there is a gradual process into a new schedule, the least the Tour can do is either reduce or spread out the signature events so some of the tournaments that have been its backbone for years can have a fighting chance.

Zach Johnson can relate to Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup misery

Zach Johnson wasn’t at the 2025 Ryder Cup, but he can certainly relate to what Keegan Bradley is now enduring.

Like Bradley, Johnson was second-guessed considerably in the aftermath of a blowout loss in Rome in 2023—including his decision to not make Bradley one of his captain’s selections.

Then, ironically, Johnson was part of the Ryder Cup committee that helped pick Bradley to be the surprise captain’s choice for 2025, after Tiger Woods put off the decision and ultimately turned down the role.

Zach Johnson wasn't a part of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team but can certainly sympathize with its captain. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

“When you’re given the opportunity and the honor to do it, it’s blissful,” Johnson said during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. “My dreams never got that far. And some of my most favorite weeks of my life have been competing or being part of a Ryder Cup team. And when you sign up for it, you know there are two outcomes. You don’t understand the ramifications until you’re in it. It’s still an honor and I think I’m fortunately wired to where my mind is just to savor those moments with the team.”

Johnson, somewhat surprisingly, was not part of the 2025 team as an assistant. Perhaps that was due in part to the awkwardness surrounding Bradley’s 2023 snub. But for the better part of a decade, the outgoing captain stayed on as an assistant the next time for continuity purposes. That didn’t happen at Bethpage.

And Johnson said he is not part of picking the 2027 captain, which again appears to be Woods’s job if he wants it. A decision is likely forthcoming before the Masters. Bradley is supposedly part of that process as a member of the Ryder Cup committee.

“I wasn’t there but from all accounts that was a team, those guys were in it together,” Johnson said of the U.S.’s 15–13 defeat to Europe at Bethpage Black. “I hate it for Keegan. I remember [on the last day in Rome] I was on the 15th green and for a moment I thought there was a chance for a comeback for us to happen. Those are things I go back to. It was an amazing comeback for his team. They wanted to compete for each other. It’s very cliché, but those are the things I cling to. Afterward, it was not easy. Still isn’t. For Keegan it was more recent but you have to stay true to who you are and what you did.

“There are things I wish I could go back and change, things about timing or strategy I might do differently. But that’s not to say it would have changed the outcome. That’s a slap in the face to them. Somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose. And there’s not another [Ryder Cup] the next week or the next year.”

Johnson, who turned 50 last week and makes his PGA Tour Champions debut this week in Florida, said the enormity of the Ryder Cup is such that the fallout is inevitable.

“That’s the blessing and the curse of it,” he said. “I knew what I signed up for. I hate it for Keegan because in the end he did absolutely nothing wrong. There’s two outcomes. And I hope he knows that.”

Filling up the major fields

Sunday was a big one for major-championship qualifying.

Three national Opens gave spots to the British Open, as did one for the Masters—which also saw another invitee gain his way via victory at the Cognizant Classic.

First it was Lucas Herbert, who plays for LIV Golf, who made it to the Open at Royal Birkdale via his second-place finish at the New Zealand Open. The tournament gave one spot to a player not otherwise exempt and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, already in the field, won.

LIV Golf will have another player in this year's British Open as Lucas Herbert qualified through the New Zealand Open. | Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters via Imagn Images

Then it was the South African Open Championship, which was not only giving three spots to the Open but the winner was to get a Masters spot as part of the tournament’s new national Open invitations.

Casey Jarvis, a 22-year-old South African who won the DP World Tour’s Kenya tournament a week ago, made it two in a row to grab both a Masters and Open invite.

“I feel on top of the world in this moment,” Jarvis said. “I feel absolutely incredible. To win in front of my home crowd in my home Open is just absolutely fantastic, I’ve got no words. There’s so many good memories [of this event]. Brandon Stone, who’s a good friend of mine ... I watched him when I was about 10 years old and watched him win the SA Open.

“I just had a slight feeling from the start of the week that something crazy was going to happen and it’s incredible.”

Francesco Laporta and Frederic Lacroix also qualified for the Open at Royal Birkdale with their second and third-place finishes.

And then Alistair Docherty qualified for the Open via his win at the Argentina Open. The tournament is part of the Korn Ferry Tour and was Docherty’s first win.

This week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational will offer a spot in the Open to the highest finisher not already exempt who makes the cut.

The Masters got its first qualifier via a PGA Tour win this year with Echavarria’s victory at the Cognizant Classic.

There are now five players who have qualified for the Masters via the national Open criteria instituted since last year: Marco Penge at the Spanish Open; Tom McKibbin, Hong Kong Open; Naoyuki Katoako, Japan Open; Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, Australian Open; and Jarvis.

The Scottish Open is also a national Open qualifier but the tournament also gives a spot to the Masters as a PGA Tour event. Chris Gotterup won last year in Scotland.