Shane Lowry, Nicolai Hojgaard Are Valuable Fantasy Golf Picks at Cognizant Classic

The PGA Tour is taking its talent to South Florida this weekend with the Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches. This event has hailed by many names in its day, but it is an annual stop on the tour. The event is not a signature event, but many big names still show up because it's local to where many live. As the season is fully underway, the sample sizes have expanded, providing more data to crunch. When crunching the data, we then pop up winners for your fantasy golf strategy.

Fantasy Golf Key Metrics

PGA National is as standard of a golf course you'll get native to Florida. The course often can be compared to TPC Sawgrass with its low rough, sharp tee shots, tight approaches, but general score-ability if your game is good. The course is truly a pitch-and-putt, favoring no part of a golfer's game over another. The only note is that of driving the ball, which provides low difficulty and little advantage to be gained. Course setup will be paramount to tough scoring. These are key metrics to review:

Strokes Gained: Approach (Last 10 Rounds)
Strokes Gained: Putting (Under 15 Feet)
Eagle Ratio
Par 3 Scoring

Tournament History

The tournament has recently become much easier over the last two years. Generally, the event will find a winner in the teens under par. As for the weather, it can shake things up. Thursday will see moderate skies, likely no rain, and moderate wind. Friday will be humid, with a 35% chance of rain. Saturday is very likely to have thunderstorms, and then on Sunday, the weather is pleasant. This can provide for disparities in scoring depending on tee times. It is more predictive of winners, more volatile, and perhaps favors longer shots.

Best FanDuel/DraftKings Picks

Shane Lowry — $12,000 (FanDuel) | $9,900 (DraftKings)

Lowry is the clear-cut favorite in this event with superior metrics. Lowry has made his last seven cuts, five of which he finished top-12. He has also finished in the top 11 in his last four starts at the Cognizant Classic. In a thin field this week, Lowry stands above.

Nicolai Hojgaard — $11,600 (FanDuel) | $9,400 (DraftKings)

Compared to this field, Hojgaard would be on a Scheffler level of hot. Now, he is nothing near Scottie Scheffler, but in comparison, he matches up to seem like it. Hojgaard has top-4 finishes in two of his last three events and top-14 finishes in five of his last seven, including T-22 and T-52. Hojgaard has played only twice at PGA National, but his last start in 2025 netted a T-18 finish, while in 2026, he played his best golf yet.

Mac Meissner — $9,700 (FanDuel) | $8,000 (DraftKings)

Meissner had been dominant on the Korn Ferry Tour, and now he has shown great promise with consistent PGA Tour results. Meissner's rookie year was a bit up-and-down, but now he has not missed a cut in his last 11 events. In a tough-to-analyze field this week, taking a longer shot that is very likely to make the cut provides for profit over replacement. He has all the tools to succeed at a simplified course like PGA National.

Hao-Tong Li — $9,700 (FanDuel) | $8,100 (DraftKings)

When looking for deep longshots, we must check for upside that is worth the attempt. Li has that upside with four top-11 finishes in his last six events. Over Li's last 11 months of golf, he has eight top-10 finishes, including a T-4 at The Open Championship. If Li can golf to his ceiling, his ability lingers higher above those priced similarly on DFS platforms.