Tournaments / 2026
Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches
2026-02-26 · PGA National - Champion Course
- Winner
- Nico Echavarria
- Winning score
- -17
- Field
- 122
- Field strength
- -0.074 SG
The 2026 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches was played at PGA National - Champion Course, starting 26 February 2026. Nico Echavarria won at 17 under par (267), 2 strokes ahead of Austin Smotherman. The winning card was 63, 72, 66 and 66, and the win paid $1,728,000. Austin Smotherman, Shane Lowry and Taylor Moore tied for second. 122 players started the event. The field averaged -0.074 strokes gained per round against the tour baseline, with strokes-gained data covering 80% of the players. The full leaderboard below lists every player's finish position, round scores and total to par. Every figure on this page comes from the published final leaderboard for the event — nothing here is estimated or modelled.
Final leaderboard
Top 20 of 122. Search finds any player in the field, including those who missed the cut.
- Nico Echavarria
- Pos
- 1
- R1
- 63
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 66
- Total
- 267
- Austin Smotherman
- Pos
- T2
- R1
- 62
- R2
- 69
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 69
- Total
- 269
- Shane Lowry
- Pos
- T2
- R1
- 70
- R2
- 67
- R3
- 63
- R4
- 69
- Total
- 269
- Taylor Moore
- Pos
- T2
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 67
- R3
- 67
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 269
- Ricky Castillo
- Pos
- 5
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 64
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 271
- Keith Mitchell
- Pos
- T6
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 73
- R3
- 64
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 273
- Nicolai Højgaard
- Pos
- T6
- R1
- 70
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 65
- Total
- 273
- William Mouw
- Pos
- T6
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 273
- Brooks Koepka
- Pos
- T9
- R1
- 74
- R2
- 66
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 65
- Total
- 274
- Joel Dahmen
- Pos
- T9
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 68
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 70
- Total
- 274
- Matti Schmid
- Pos
- T9
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 67
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 274
- Rasmus Højgaard
- Pos
- T9
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 274
- A.J. Ewart
- Pos
- T13
- R1
- 71
- R2
- 64
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 72
- Total
- 275
- Max Homa
- Pos
- T13
- R1
- 73
- R2
- 66
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 275
- Patton Kizzire
- Pos
- T13
- R1
- 70
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 63
- R4
- 70
- Total
- 275
- Pontus Nyholm
- Pos
- T13
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 72
- R4
- 66
- Total
- 275
- Chad Ramey
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 69
- Total
- 276
- Kristoffer Reitan
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 70
- Total
- 276
- Matthieu Pavon
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 71
- R2
- 69
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 276
- Sudarshan Yellamaraju
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 276
Model score
Backtest · reconstructedOur course-fit model re-run as it would have seen this week — using only data that existed before the first tee shot — then compared with how the 67 players actually finished. It was not published in advance, so this measures the model, not a call we made.
- Rank correlation
- +0.048
- Top-20 hit rate
- 25%
- Top-10 avg model rank
- 22.9
Grade is this event’s percentile (2nd) against every other event we have scored — not an absolute pass mark. Rank correlation runs −1 to +1, where 0 is a coin flip and a full-field golf model landing near +0.35 is a genuine read.
Who the model liked
Its top 10, and where they finished.
| Player | Model | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Shane Lowry | 1st | 2nd |
| Ryan Gerard | 2nd | 23rd |
| Nicolai Højgaard | 3rd | 6th |
| Keith Mitchell | 4th | 6th |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | 5th | 37th |
| Daniel Berger | 6th | 32nd |
| Max McGreevy | 7th | 40th |
| Davis Thompson | 8th | 60th |
| Alex Smalley | 9th | 52nd |
| Aaron Rai | 10th | 23rd |
Where it was most wrong
Largest gaps between rank and result, either direction.
| Player | Model | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Pontus Nyholm | 67th | 13th(−54) |
| Davis Thompson | 8th | 60th(+52) |
| William Mouw | 52nd | 6th(−46) |
| John Parry | 19th | 63rd(+44) |
| Taylor Moore | 46th | 2nd(−44) |
| Matthieu Pavon | 61st | 17th(−44) |
| Alex Smalley | 9th | 52nd(+43) |
| Patton Kizzire | 56th | 13th(−43) |
| Brooks Koepka | 50th | 9th(−41) |
| Seamus Power | 13th | 52nd(+39) |
One known caveat. Player stats, form and course history are all restricted to what existed before this event. The course archetype is not — it is derived from the venue’s full history, including this edition. That flatters the model slightly and equally at every venue. How the model works.
This event in the model
OTIS ranks every field on how well each player's game matches the course, then prices their chances. Both are published in full and graded afterwards.
This week's modelProbabilities and the track recordHow the model works
The venue
This event was played at PGA National - Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA. The venue page carries its scorecard, hosting history and every other tour event played there.
Common questions
Who won the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in 2026?
Where was the 2026 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches played?
What was the winning score at the 2026 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches?
How many players were in the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches field?
Where these numbers come from
Finishes, round scores and to-par figures are the published final leaderboard for this event. Nothing is estimated or interpolated — where no value was published, this page shows a gap rather than a guess. Full sourcing notes are on the methodology page, and every stat name is defined in the glossary.