There will be 144 golfers in the field for the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, but here are a baker’s dozen of the ones you should follow at PGA National.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: 2 in 2015 (lost playoff to Padraig Harrington)
Berger, the Jupiter resident and Dwyer High graduate, will make his ninth appearance at Cognizant. He missed the 2021 and 2023 tournaments because of injuries. Once No. 12 in world rankings, Berger was forced to take off 19 months because of back ailments, returning in January 2024. He is coming off a 12th place finish at the Genesis Invitational and runner-up at the Phoenix Open, where he shot a pair of 66s and was 17-under par. Berger, 31, is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour. He has three top-five finishes at Cognizant, including runner-up in his debut and placing fourth in 2020 and 2022.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: First start
Clanton, in the field on a sponsor exemption, is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The Florida State junior is looking to secure his PGA Tour card, needing one more point through PGA Tour University Accelerated to earn his card after the spring season, which he can earn by making the cut. The Hialeah native will make his fourth professional start of the season. He tied for 15th at the Farmers Insurance Open. He was 41st at the 2024 U.S. Open. He signed with Nike last week and more deals are sure to follow. Clanton is a three-time Florida state champion while playing high school golf for American Heritage in Plantation.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: Champion in 2006
Donald, a longtime Jupiter resident, is playing Cognizant for the 16th time. The Englishman will spend the year preparing for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, where he will captain the European team for the second time, including leading Europe to a dominating win in 2023 in Rome. He won the final Honda Classic played at The Country Club at Mirasol in 2006. He was 12-under, two shots better than Geoff Ogilvy. Two years later, he was runner-up, one shot behind Ernie Els. Donald, 47, has played in 428 PGA Tour events since 2002 with five victories and 16 times the runner-up. He also has won seven times on the DP World Tour.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: Champion in 2024
Eckroat, 26, won for the first time on the PGA Tour a year ago at Cognizant with a Champion Course-record 17-under par (267). Eckroat finished three shots ahead of Min Woo Lee and Erik van Rooyen and was forced to play 11 holes Monday morning after rain interrupted play Sunday. He finished the season 45th in the final FedEx Cup points list and won for a second time at the World Wide Technology Championship, in November. Now No. 44 in the world, Eckroat has had an inconsistent start to the season with four missed cuts and top-15s at The Sentry and Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: Champion in 2017
Fowler will make his 15th start at the Cognizant. He returned last year after a one-year absence to finish tied for 41st. The Jupiter resident won in 2017 and has three other top 10s, including runner-up in 2019, one shot behind Keith Mitchell. Fowler’s last win on the PGA Tour was the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic. He has just one top 10 since, October’s Zozo Championship. He played in four PGA Tour events this season, including withdrawing from the Phoenix Open after one round because of illness. He returned for the Genesis Invitational and tied for 39th. Fowler, 36, is ranked No. 92 in the world, his lowest in two years.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: T11 in 2015
Harman is playing Cognizant for the 11th time. He has two top 20s and has missed the cut four times, including his last start, 2022. The former Georgia Bulldog has won three times on the PGA Tour, including the 2023 British Open at Royal Liverpool, taking over the lead on Friday and winning by six shots over Jason Day, Tom Kim, Jon Rahm and Sepp Straka. He cracked the top 10 in the world ranking for the first time after his major championship and peaked at No. 8. Currently he is 35th. A member of the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team, Harman is coming off a T12 at the Genesis Invitational.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: Champion in 2014
Henley is making his 11th Cognizant start. He has three top 10s, including 2014 when outlasted Rory McIlroy, Russell Knox and Ryan Palmer in a one-hole playoff. The win was the second of four PGA Tour victories. The University of Georgia graduate and Columbus, Georgia, resident currently is No. 17 in the world ranking and No. 19 in the FedEx Cup standings. This season he has two top 10 finishes at Sony and Pebble Beach. Henley became the first PGA Tour rookie to win his debut in 12 years at the Sony Open in January 2013.
Best Honda Classic finish: T4 in 2017
Horschel, a Florida Gator, loves playing the Florida Swing. The Brevard County native and Ponte Vedra Beach resident is making his 13th Cognizant start where he has finished in the top 10 three times, including a T9 last year. His best was T4 in 2017. Horschel has won eight times on the PGA Tour, the most recent the 2024 Corales Puntacana Championship. In the last year his world ranking has risen 70 spots to No. 21. Horschel has played six times this year, missing the cut the past two weeks after a top 10 at Pebble Beach.
Best Honda Classic finish: Champion in 2020
Im, from South Korea, is playing the Cognizant Classic for the seventh consecutive year. He defeated Mackenzie Hughes by a shot in 2020, shooting a final-round 66 to win with a 6-under par, equaling the second-highest score for a winner in the tournament’s 18 years at PGA National. He missed the cut in two of the past three years. Im has two PGA Tour victories, most recently the 2021 Shriners Children’s Open. He is No. 22 in the world rankings and 12th in the FedEx Cup standings. In six starts this season, Im has top-five finishes at The Sentry and Farmers Insurance Open.
Best Honda Classic finish: Runner-up in 2022
Lowry, a Jupiter resident, will play Cognizant for the sixth straight year, and eighth time overall. He has had three consecutive top-five finishes at PGA National, including tied for fourth last year. He was tied for the lead with 18 holes to play but carded a 71 for the final round to close four shots behind winner Austin Eckroat. Lowry finished one shot behind champion Sepp Straka in 2022, finishing 9-under with three consecutive 67s to close. His last 11 rounds at Cognizant included a 66 and five 67s. The 37-year-old Irishman has three PGA Tour titles, including the 2019 British Open, and six DP World Tour wins. Lowry is No. 19 in the world, the first time he’s cracked the top 20 in two years.
Best Cognizant Classic finish: First start
Spieth, 31, will play Cognizant for the first time in his 12-year professional career. He is a 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, including three majors — 2015 Masters, 2015 U.S. Open, 2017 British Open — and won the FedEx Cup in 2015. Spieth’s last victory was the RBC Heritage nearly three years ago. Ranked 67th in the world, Spieth had a difficult 2024 season, playing through a wrist injury. After just three top-10 finishes, equaling the fewest in his career, and a career-high eight missed cuts, Spieth had surgery to repair a tendon in his left wrist in August and missed about six months to recover. He returned for the Pebble Beach Pro Am and tied for 69th. He followed that with a tie for fourth at the Phoenix Open before missing the cut at the Genesis Invitational.
Best Honda Classic finish: Champion in 2022
Straka reached his highest world ranking two weeks ago when he was No. 16 after finishing tied for seventh at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. That came two weeks after his third career PGA Tour title at the American Express. After Pebble Beach he was 15th at the Phoenix Open before missing the cut at Genesis. He currently is 18th in the world. In his win at Cognizant, Straka overcame a five-shot deficit on Sunday. It was his first on the PGA Tour and he became the first Austrian to win on the PGA Tour. A member of the winning 2023 European Ryder Cup team, Straka, 31, will be playing Cognizant for the seventh straight year.
Best Honda Classic finish: T2 in 2017
Woodland, 40, started 26 events in 2024 after having surgery in September 2023 to remove a lesion on his brain. The season was difficult but a relief after admitting he spent much of 2023 scared of dying. The Delray Beach resident and Topeka, Kansas, native is off to a solid start to the 2025 season with top 25s at the Sony Open, Pebble Beach and Phoenix Open. He is playing in his 11th Cognizant and has finished in the top 10 four times. In 2017, he was four shots behind winner Rickie Fowler. Woodland has four career PGA Tour wins, including the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and 2018 Phoenix Open.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PGA Tour Cognizant Classic players to watch: Billy Horschel, Rickie Fowler
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