Yeah, think Honda is having any second thoughts? Not bloody likely, as last year Face-Plant Tour™ seems a best-case scenario....
But The Narrative... - We're lucky enough to live in a no-cut Nirvanas, in which the best players in the world can sleepwalk through Thursday and Friday. It's perfect for the age, as removing any lingering drama from professional golf is only prudent:
Four feet, seven inches.That’s the par putt that Joe Highsmith had Friday at PGA National to make the cut at the 2025 Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches. Highsmith poured the putt in the center to play the weekend, but he had no idea what the next 48 hours would hold.The Pepperdine product had a terrible warmup before Saturday’s third round but rode a hot putter to a 7-under 64 to vault into contention. On Sunday at the Champion Course at PGA National, Highsmith watched as every other contender stumbled while he fired a bogey-free 64 to finish at 19-under par to claim his first PGA Tour win.In doing so, Highsmith became the first player in nine years to make the cut on the number and go on to win. Brandt Snedeker was the last to do so at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open.“I feel like once I made it on the number, I knew I was going to go out early on Saturday, and that was going to be a good chance because the scores just get so much harder as the day goes on,” Highsmith said Sunday after his win. “I definitely took advantage of that. I played really nicely on Saturday.
But our best players won't endure the indignity of a cut, which is win-win, baby! They don't have to risk a weekend of leisure and we, therefore, don't need to watch.
Although, this is spit-take funny from the winner:
His putter, one he put in his bag just before the Farmers Insurance Open, propelled him past some of the PGA Tour’s most notable names.“A lot of big names, obviously, up on that board, and knowing that there’s a lot of great accomplished players that are right around the same score, and I saw, like, Russell Henley was under early, I think, and I was playing so good, and I think I was at 14-under and he was at 17, and I was like, how am I going to catch these guys?” Highsmith said. “Was able to just stick with it.
Big names? Well, they don't get much bigger than Russell Henley, do they? In fact, I have a question for Patrick Cantlay, how canm golf grow if we don't know when Russell Henley is going to play? You see how tenuous this all is....
The man of the week couldn't get it to the clubhouse, though "love" seems more of a personal reaction:
Jake Knapp’s watery demise reminded us why this event is great
They keep using that word..... Notwithstanding that the lede is a bit more candid:
The Cognizant Classic has faded in importance over the years. Ever so slightly, but it has faded nonetheless. There are four tournaments in this Florida Swing and it ranks fourth for a lot of people. It’s okay to say so.
It used to be the Honda Classic — the automobile manufacturer sponsored the event for more than 40 years, but they moved on when things started getting weird in pro golf in recent seasons. The event used to draw Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson — the Jupiter crew — but none of those guys have played since 2022. (Woods and McIlroy are in town, but saving themselves for the Seminole Pro-Member and some nighttime TGL. Koepka and Johnson are in Singapore.)But the Cognizant Classic pushes on mostly for those who aren’t in next week’s Signature Event field, or who aren’t in good form, or who aren’t in great standing in the world ranking. It’s a place to tee it up for more money than anywhere else, but more importantly, it’s a place to see if you’ve got some mettle. This is what PGA National reminds us constantly, and did so once again this week. It wasn’t just Sunday when players had to walk through the Bear Trap on their tiptoes. It was the week as a whole.
Well, that's quite the downer.... and quite the about-face from the header.
And a seemingly brutally honest take on that 59-shooter:
On an overseeded golf course with tame conditions, the best modern golfers — largely built by numbers to be repetitive robots — are going to take this course down. Jake Knapp was our chief aggressor, shooting a 59 with a closing tap-in — the way you’d prefer to shoot 59 if you were a Tour pro. He drove it supremely, which is Jake Knapp Golf. He is not known for his short game, his putter or iron game. He’s PGA Tour Average in a lot of spots but way above average in distance and well below average in accuracy. But on the days when he is accurate? Look out. That was Thursday.Fifty-nines are rare enough that they still feel special, though their lore is, like the event, fading as well. A 59 is special enough that if it comes in the opening round, all the tournament’s eyes are locked on you now. There have been 15 59s, but only five have led to victories. Don’t get too full on the appetizer and ruin the entrée.Knapp was never going to pull off that round twice. He is not made to thrive on this golf course. He’s made to thrive on big, wide courses without water everywhere. You can ignore those hazards for 18 blissful holes, but eventually they will greet you. How you respond says a lot. Knapp made a double on Friday when he met those hazards for the first time, but otherwise kept his ball dry all weekend. He teed off Sunday with the lead and appeared on cruise control, up one shot on the field when he found the 11th fairway.
Spoiler alert: Here's how it ended:
Naturally, this miscarriage of golf justice had Golf Twitter up in arms. This was once atournament where single-digit winning scores were the norm. A U.S. Open-like test, in Florida of all places. Much of that was often due to high winds and crispy, almost-brown-colored Bermudagrass fairways and greens that baked in the Florida sun.That changed in 2023 when the tournament began overseeding the Bermudagrass with Ryegrass, a practice to help soften conditions and make the golf course greener. Chris Kirk won that year at 14 under. Last year, Austin Eckroat won with a score of 17 under. In the previous 19 editions of the event, no winner had shot any lower than 14 under.This has not only come as a shock to those on the internet. Some of the players playing in the actual event sounded off on the soft setup, too. Among them was Billy Horschel, a Florida man through and through who contextualized what's taking place so far in the first round in Palm Beach Gardens."There was no wind so it helps tremendously," Horschel said after shooting a first-round 66. "You've got to tip your hat to him [Knapp]. He shot a 12-under par 59 at PGA National, which no one ever thought. I know we had a discussion earlier this week and I've probably changed my tune a little bit. I think the overseed has -- the rough is not long enough. It's not penal enough when you miss the fairway.
"I really wish we would just play this as a straight Bermuda," he added. "From tee to green, everything be straight Bermuda. I know it doesn't look prettier on TV and I know that's one of the reasons why it's overseeded."
The Tour Confidential gang took a swing at this issue as well:
After Jake Knapp shot 59 in unusually tame conditions on PGA National’s Champion Course, some pros were wondering what happened to the beastly Bear Trap. Is that unfair to the 15th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history? Or do 59s no longer carry the same historic weight as they used to?Zak: They just don’t mean the same they used to. And that’s okay! We’ve been traveling down this road for quite a while. The course had been overseeded, received some rain, had zero wind and one of the best drivers on Tour drove it extremely well. Someone was bound to go low. It just becomes a bit inevitable.Hirsh: No, Sean, 59 is still 59. PGA National is easier than it used to be, but it’s still a rating over 75 from the back tees. That’s a hard golf course. Is it as hard as it used to be? No, and that’s unfortunate after the recent renovation. But just because a 59 comes on an easier setup, that doesn’t make it less impressive. I don’t think I’d be able to swing a club if I was 11 under with one hole to play.Dethier: We’re asking these tournaments to walk a very, very fine line. Too hard? They get ripped for sloppiness and slow play. Too easy? Your 59 means nothing! But yeah, it means less. Yeah, it’s still cool. Yeah, it’s fun to watch when this tournament is a suffer-fest. But it’s tough to do it all.
Journalism On Parade - We all instinctively understand that sports journalism isn't really journalism, and when you fall short of even those degraded standards...
I mean, what are the going for here?
First reported by Golfweek, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler will not receive sponsor’s exemptions into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a Signature Event with a 72-man field. While it’s easy to agree with Fowler’s “at the end of the day, play better” comment, is it more complicated than that? Regardless of current form, Spieth and Fowler are two huge draws. With the pro ranks still split and the best players not on the same tour, is there an argument to load tournaments with star power?Zak: It’s extremely complicated! Webb Simpson took a bunch of these invites last year and got criticized by his fellow pros for it. Adam Scott took a bunch of those invites, too, and played well enough to finish within the heralded FedEx Cup Top 50. You want to invite players fans will cheer for, pros who will deliver some pep for sponsors, and you also want to appear dutiful in assessing all your options. It’s lazy to just choose the biggest names. It’s commendable to take Rafa Campos’ letter to heart and hand him a ticket to the biggest event of his season.Hirsh: I’m with Zak here, too. If you’re going to argue that LIV has a diluted product because it hands out spots to guys who were supposed to be relegated (looking at you, Bubba) just to maintain a draw, then you shouldn’t argue the same for Spieth and Fowler. It is interesting because Spieth seems to be finding his game again and Fowler had a good week at the Cognizant, but obviously these decisions get made before that. I also love that a heartfelt letter still has some weight and I’ll be pulling for Rafa Campos, whom I interviewed back in college about being the lone PGA Tour player from Puerto Rico.Dethier: There’s definitely an argument to load tournaments with star power! And there’s also an argument that the PGA Tour should lean in on meritocracy and ditch these sponsor invites altogether. If you’re gonna have ‘em and keep anybody from getting mad, well, that’s impossible. But this may be the most thoughtful way to do it, even if you’re leaving some big names out.
Guys, is there any context to this discussion? Any changes in the last few years that maybe impact how folks are reacting....
They seem to be having the "How should sponsors use their exemptions" conversation, which is Ok as far as it goes. But isn't it, in this moment, the least interesting aspect of this all?
The first thing I would be inclined to note, si that it's their a*****e buddies Tiger and Rory that have cared them out of these events, while concentrating vast sums of the PGA's treasury on these events that Rickie and Jordan are not, boo hoo, qualified into. The first question is whether, with the field limited only to Tiger's BFFs, should there still be sponsors' exemptions? Yes, they've committed money with those in play, but such delicate feelings about fair play didn't stop the Tour from giving it to Honda up the you-know-what.
But, as an alleged journalist, how do you mention those Webb Simpson and Adam Scott exemptions without adding in the dark underbelly. Their votes were needed to ensure that Cantlay got paid, and the votes seem to have been purchased with sponsor exemptions..... Add Peter Malnati to that list, and the Golf Magazine writers seem all too happy to bury that not-so-little bit of ugliness..... Remind me again, they're all gentlemen selflessly serving the game? Sure, and now I suppose you have some swamp land for me....
Par For The Course - Anyone surprised?
Tiger Woods won’t play Arnold Palmer Invitational but will play another exclusive event
Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour season debut will have to wait at least another week as the 15-time major champion is not in the field for next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.Woods, however, will tee it up Monday in the annual Seminole Pro-Member tournament, which is played at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.Woods is playing with former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh for the second consecutive year. The field at the Seminole Pro-Member includes Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Nelly Korda, Tom Brady and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, among others.
OMG, what a brutal week for the guy:
Woods is also in the lineup to play in Tuesday night’s TGL match between Jupiter Links and the Atlanta Drive. Jupiter needs a win Tuesday and some help to make the playoffs.
I'm supposed to be excited, right?
Udder Stuff - A little copying and pasting and you can get your week under way:
Florida State junior Luke Clanton made the cut at the Cognizant Classic — his ninth made cut in 12 career PGA Tour starts — to earn his 20th point in the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, securing his PGA Tour card at the conclusion of this college season. As the top-ranked amateur in the game and a future Tour player, what should the average fan know about one of the game’s most promising young talents?
Zak: He isn’t just making a bunch of cuts to earn his way into this Tour card. The kid has contended! Multiple times. He already fits in among the well-known names on Tour, stats-wise. Entering the tournament, DataGolf gave Clanton the same expectation of making the cut, finishing top 10, and winning as Cameron Young. You know, the guy everyone thinks would be a good Ryder Cup asset. That’s who Clanton is, too.Hirsh: People need to realize how quickly his rise to stardom was. He didn’t earn his first point in the PGA Tour U Accelerated program until the U.S. Open last year when he made the cut and battled Neal Shipley down the stretch for low amateur (Shipley beat him out on the last hole after Clanton missed a tying birdie putt). But by the end of November, he had 17 points, the quickest accumulation of points in the three-year history of the program. When the Tour announced PGA Tour U Accelerated, it said since 2010, only three golfers would have earned their Tour card through it. Clanton is now the second after Gordon Sargent earned 20 points and deferred to this season. It’s just another example of how much better players are, younger.Dethier: What should people know about Clanton? In high school he won the Florida state title three times…and finished second the other year. He also might make the Ryder Cup team.
Lydia Ko won the HSBC Women’s World Championship on Sunday in Singapore to capture her 23rd career LPGA victory. Nelly Korda didn’t play, but she has two top 10s in two starts already this season. Who wins more in 2025: Korda or Ko?Zak: Ko does. She’s already one up! Having spent some time with Lydia recently, she seems so incredibly centered. She speaks a lot like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler these days, which is great company, mindset-wise. We were treated to a Korda-Ko battle early in 2024, and even at the Open in St. Andrews. Frankly, it’s becoming time for Korda to punch back.Hirsh: Ko had one more on Korda early on last season, too. It’s kind of amazing to me that Ko is actually third behind Jeeno Thitikul in the Rolex Ranking. That said, I think Korda has a bit more to prove after last season, which sounds strange after she won seven times. She’ll want to capture more majors this season after watching Ko win the Open last season.Dethier: Korda wins more. But it’s a great sign that we’re asking the question. This era of Ko has been a welcome addition to the golf landscape — and the fairytale continues.
This stage of Lydia's career has been shockingly productive.... Hard to see her staying at the top, though I'm not completely sold on Nelly as well.
That's it for today. I head West on Wednesday and will see you from out there.
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