PALM BEACH GARDENS — The Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches has recovered nicely from being shunned by every top 15 golfer in the current world rankings.
With 16 of the 50 and 28 of the top 70, the field for this week’s tournament at PGA National is deep. As deep as we’ve seen in several years.
And to illustrate how judging a field by the top 50 alone can be misleading … Daniel Berger, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Gary Woodland, all fan favorites, will take on the challenging Champion Course this week.
None are top 50.
But this is Palm Beach County. And nothing defines our little slice of paradise world more than golf.
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We have golf courses. Lots of them. Nearly 150; more than any county in the country.
And we have golfers. Lots of them, too. Hundreds of men and women playing professionally, not to mention the Hall of Famers such as Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who have made this their forever home.
So why is it this event, dating back about a half decade, one of the few that has difficulty attracting the best of the best?
Area’s highest ranked golfers shun Cognizant Classic
This marks the fourth in the last five years this tournament, which is the first event of the Florida Swing, does not include a golfer in the current top 10. Taking that further, this is the first event on the PGA Tour this season in which nobody from that week’s top 15 entered.
And that group includes six locals who take advantage of all the amenities the area has to offer such as the weather, world-class golf facilities to hone their craft and, most importantly to them, the tax break. But none can be bothered to give back six days to the community to play a home game.
Not No. 9 Justin Thomas, who has lived in the area for nearly a decade and recently upgraded to a $13.75 million mansion on the Loxahatchee River in Tequesta. For the last six years, he has skipped the tournament played 12 miles from his home. Yet, in the last four years, he has played three Florida events in a row, including the Valspar Championship, the final event of the Florida Swing.
Not Rory McIlroy, although the world No. 3 from Jupiter deserves a bit of a break for playing last year and finishing T21. But that came after sitting out the previous five years.
Not No. 2 Xander Schauffele, No. 12 Patrick Cantlay or No. 14 Victory Hovland, all having moved here in recent years, who have played twice combined.
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Not No. 15 Keegan Bradley, the 2025 Ryder Cup captain and Jupiter resident who played 10 of 11 years starting in 2011, but decided put away the clubs the week of Cognizant each of the last four years.
“It’s tough because there’s a lot of guys who live in the area you want to support this event,” said Billy Horschel, the Ponte Vedra resident making his 13th Cognizant start. “Guys play in blocks and guys want some rest and it seems to be this is one where they can take Mexico and Cognizant off and get a two-week break if they play a heavy West Coast.”
And there’s more. Each of the TGL teams are playing this week at the SoFi Center, which is 5 miles from PGA National. Yet, there are 12 TGL golfers not in the Cognizant field.
That group includes McIlroy, Thomas, Cantlay and Bradley; along with three others in the top 15 — Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama and Wyndham Clark.
That makes nine of the top 15 who will be in Palm Beach County for either part of, or the entire, week who decided to skip the PGA Tour event up the road.
And that does not sit well with the community.
This doesn’t mean every golfer has to enter every year. But just think if this field, with its depth, also included three more from the top 15, say Schauffele, Thomas and Cantlay, and how the perception would change.
“Understand that fans would feel that way in any in any market,” said Jared Rice, the Tour’s senior vice-president of Championship Management. “We have to focus on what we can control. The player schedule is going to be dictated by their priorities and where they feel provides him the best chance to win.”
The Cognizant hit rock bottom two years ago, its last year as the Honda Classic, when just eight of the top 50 (none of the top 17) entered. The Tour recognized what was happening to an event that just 11 years ago drew seven of the top 10.
That year, Cognizant was sandwiched between Phoenix and Genesis the weeks prior and Arnold Palmer and The Players the following two weeks, four events with at least $20 million purses.
Starting in 2024, the Tour allowed Cognizant to breathe, adding the Mexico Open to the schedule and placing it the week before Cognizant.
That led to a boost in last year’s field.
PGA Tour focused on enhancing player experience
With Cognizant being taken over by the PGA Tour’s Championship Management Division last year, turning a bigger profit became even more important. And one of the ways to help that bottom line is to attract the best field possible.
With not enough time for a complete makeover last year, the Tour made modest changes. Some of that focused on upgrading the player experience when it comes to amenities for the golfers and their families, and hoping those players who were here would help spread the word.
Some listened. Some didn’t.
“They stepped it up,” said Lucas Glover, who is in his 16th Cognizant. “A lot of things that the players have been suggesting over the years were finally put into play. Whether that will help this year, I don’t know.”
And players such as locals Shane Lowry, Denny McCarthy, Cam Young, Max Greyserman, Taylor Pendrith and Eric Cole; along with Horschel, Sepp Straka and Sungjae Im — all qualified for this year’s signature events — still see the value of playing events like Cognizant.
As do Berger, Fowler and Woodland, who after this week will have combined for 35 starts in this event.
Glover is in the camp that signature events have caused tournaments like Cognizant, and others that do not offer a $20 million purse, to suffer. Horschel believes that could be true early in the season, but later in the year those players who have struggled may need the lesser events to stack up points.
While Glover’s theory certainly is true when it comes to marquee names, Cognizant, with its $9.2 million purse, has shown it still can produce a quality field.
A field that, despite lacking a top 15 golfer, if announced at Hilton Head or Detroit or Greensboro, would make most happy.
But in Palm Beach Gardens, where all those marquee players can roll out of bed and drive to the course in less time than it takes to play the Bear Trap, then it’s an issue.
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic needs more Palm Beach County pros to play
