Heading into the Cognizant Classic, there seemed to be real concerns that signing up to play PGA National may really come back to haunt Jordan Spieth.
Jordan Spieth was the marquee name in the field for the Cognizant Classic as he continues his comeback from wrist surgery. It was the first time that the 31-year-old had played in the event during his career. And some felt that PGA National would be a poor fit for Spieth.
Traditionally, PGA National has been one of the toughest tests on tour. The likes of Sungjae Im, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els have all won with a score of six under par since the turn of the century, while Mark Wilson was at five under par when he won in 2007.
However, this past week proved to be a very different test. Jake Knapp shot 59 on Thursday and did not win, as Joe Highsmith ended up emerging victorious with a score of 19 under par.
PGA National receives criticism from players after The Cognizant Classic
Billy Horschel criticised the setup at PGA National. And speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport suggested that Horschel was far from the only player to hit out at the conditions of the Florida track.
“Something wasn’t right about last week’s tournament. The golf course was far too easy. I’m going to start just by reading this stat: from 2013 through 2020, the winning scores were as follows, nine under, eight under, six under, nine under, 12 under, eight under, nine under, six under. That’s an average of 8.3 under par. This week, eight under would have been in a tie for 42nd,” he said.
“You might be thinking but the players are better now. Yeah, but they’re not much better than they were five years ago. You might say also there wasn’t any wind, that’s not in their control – that is true, but there was something in their control and they got it wrong, and it was the overseed. You also might be thinking they changed the 10th hole to a par five, so really the winning score wasn’t 19 under, it was 15 under. 15 under is still way too low. You may also be thinking that par’s a social construct – it is, but social construct’s matter. Public perception matters, and when we saw everyone and their mothers shooting six under on Thursday, the core fans had a problem with that.
“There’s certain tournaments that have an identity, and one of them is the old Honda Classic, the Cognizant Classic. And the identity is it’s difficult; you know you’re going to get your teeth kicked in. I remember all these Tiger Woods, the battling with Rory McIlroy, getting to 10 under really, really meant something. And it didn’t this week, and my phone was buzzing with players complaining about the overseed and how much softer it was. One guy just saying, ‘it’s so dumb’.”
The PGA Tour needs to learn from its mistakes after fans switched off at The Sentry
The winning score has got lower in each of the last four years, so it will be interesting to see if changes are made ahead of 2026 to provide a much sterner test.
Ultimately, the tournament had a difficult task attracting viewers anyway, given that there where not too many household names in the field. But it does appear that fans do not enjoy the tournaments were par often feels like a bogey.
The Sentry attracted poor viewing figures as Hideki Matsuyama broke the PGA Tour record for the lowest score to par. And it seems that many in the field in the past week will not have been at all surprised if plenty of fans switched off over the course of the week as PGA National failed to show its teeth.
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