The West Coast swing treated us to the very best players playing some of the most iconic golf courses in the world.
The start of the PGA Tour season took us to Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, and Riviera Country Club, where the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy fought for victories. It was golf at its very best.
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Unfortunately, it’s unrealistic to expect players to play every week on the PGA Tour. It’s a gruelling schedule, and players need to recover to last the entire season. And we’re coming off the back of two straight Signature Events at Pebble Beach and Riviera.
This has caused a real issue at the Cognizant Classic. McIlroy, Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, and a number of the other best players in the world are sitting this one out, meaning this is a much weaker field than we have seen in recent weeks.
Speaking before his appearance at the Cognizant Classic, Billy Horschel weighed in on this problem.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Billy Horschel says Cognizant Classic is ‘struggling’ with weaker field
After a number of withdrawals, including Genesis Invitational winner Jacob Bridgeman, the Cognizant Classic field is particularly weak this year. Players are looking ahead to the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship, so they are sitting this one out.
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Horschel thinks this is a real issue that doesn’t just apply to the Cognizant Classic. Speaking at TGL, he said, “Listen, it’s tough with any tournament on the PGA TOUR schedule, outside of Signature Events, due to a multitude of reasons.
“We had this issue before the Signature Events were around. We’ve always had this issue. A decade ago this event was unbelievable with the field, but where it fell in the schedule was really good for a lot of the guys that lived here. It wasn’t on the back end of an LA or a Riviera.
“This field has sort of been up and down the last couple years. When you’ve got so many events on the PGA Tour schedule, and you’ve got guys trying to figure out where they’re going to fit, it’s tough to fill a field.
“I think the world of this golf course. I think it’s a great tournament. Obviously, I’m a Floridian native, born and raised here, so I’m always going to support my Florida events. It’s just tough. It’s just not Cognizant; there’s a whole bunch of other tournaments that are struggling.
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“But even with that, we still have a really good field. You may not have Patrick or Scottie or some of the other top players in there, but as we’ve seen, like a Jacob Bridgeman, he made a name for himself, I think here last year, along with Joey Highsmith, so there’s going to be somebody that wins it on Sunday, and hopefully it’s me.”
The reason why the Cognizant Classic has declined
The Cognizant Classic has experienced a notable identity crisis regarding its field strength over the last decade. Historically, the event benefited from its South Florida location, serving as the hometown event for stars like Tiger Woods, McIlroy, and Justin Thomas, who lived nearby in Jupiter.
The field strength problems began to peak around 2019–2021. The primary issue was scheduling. The PGA Tour placed the event immediately following the high-stakes West Coast Swing, and right before the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship.
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Trapped between Signature Events, many top-tier players chose to skip PGA National to rest for the bigger purses and prestige that followed.
The last time the field was consistently elite was the mid-2010s. Specifically, 2012 to 2017 saw the tournament’s peak relevance. In 2012, McIlroy won to become World No. 1 for the first time, beating a field that included Woods.
In 2017 and 2018, Rickie Fowler and Thomas won back-to-back, anchoring a field that still regularly attracted 15–20 of the world’s top 50.
But by 2023, the field had thinned so significantly that Honda ended its 42-year sponsorship with the event. While Cognizant’s takeover in 2024 brought a purse increase to $9 million, the 2025 and 2026 editions continue to struggle against the Signature Events.
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Now this year, the field lost its top-ranked players, like Ben Griffin and Bridgeman, to late withdrawals, leaving it as a developmental opportunity for rising stars rather than a clash of titans.
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