Austin Smotherman leads the
Cognizant Classic, making 6 straight birdies in a first-round 62
[February 27, 2026]
By TIM REYNOLDS
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Austin Smotherman's one previous PGA
Tour appearance at the tournament now known as the Cognizant Classic
was in 2022 and it was unmemorable: He shot 70 in the first round,
76 in the second and missed the cut by four shots.
Given that, he didn't see a round like Thursday's coming.
Smotherman matched the best score of his career, shooting a 9-under
62 to take a one-stroke lead over Nico Echavarria after the first
round.
Smotherman became the seventh player to shoot 62 or better at PGA
National in this event. The others: Jake Knapp (59 in round 1,
2025), Matt Jones (61 in round 1, 2021), Brian Harman (61 in round
2, 2012), Chris Kirk (62 in round 2, 2023), Brandon Hagy (62 in
round 2, 2021) and Tiger Woods (62 in the final round, 2012).
“It was a pretty easy round,” Smotherman said, “on a golf course
that shouldn’t be this easy.”
And that is a talking point at PGA National.
The course is overseeded, which means rye has been added to the
Bermuda grass. The advantages are many, including the grass looks
greener, which means PGA National looks prettier on television. Not
just that, but the course plays softer as well.
Put in simplest terms, an overseeded PGA National isn’t as daunting
to get around as the PGA National of a few years ago. Mark Wilson
won in the tournament’s first year on this course with a score of 5
under, and 11 of the first 14 winners at PGA National finished less
than 10-under par. The winning scores in the last five years: 12
under, 10 under, 14 under, 17 under and 19 under.
“This is a really good golf course,” said Billy Horschel, who shot a
2-under 69 on Thursday. “It’s a very fair golf course. When it blows
hard, it’s a challenge, and when it’s sort of benign like it is
today, it’s gettable. A few years ago the rough was longer and then
they started cutting it down and then they overseeded the golf
course.
“Listen, I think the Tour gets a bad rap, and it’s not anything
against the owners of PGA National. I understand where they would
want to overseed. People want it to look pretty on TV, and if it
looks pretty on TV, maybe people will want to come play it.”
[to top of second column] |
Billy Horschel hits from the 17th tee at Spyglass Hill Golf Course
during the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf
tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP
Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Horschel created a bit of a buzz on Wednesday when
he weighed in on X to discuss the overseeding issue. On Thursday, he
didn’t rant and rave — but made clear that he preferred the PGA
National that had some more teeth than this version.
“I understand we are using a golf course that we don’t own a lot of
times, and sometimes we’re at the discretion of what the owner wants
to do,” Horschel said. “Obviously we give our opinion of what we
think is best for the golf course and how they want to set it up and
challenge it, but also, the owners have a say in it. This isn’t just
PGA National; it goes to a lot of courses that we play throughout
the years.”
Smotherman — fueled by six consecutive birdies on holes 7 through 12
— tapped in for a birdie on the par-5 finishing hole for the second
62 in his PGA Tour career. He also shot 62 in the first round of the
Bermuda Championship in October 2022.
He held a first-round lead once before this week, at the 2023 Mexico
Open, and hasn’t won any of his first 81 starts on tour. He's also
playing without a line on the ball this week, seeing what that does
for his putting.
So far, so good.
“Trying to just be a little bit more freeing with the stroke, be an
artist on the greens, see the line, kind of let it just be external,
look at the hole, see where I want it to go in and just trust that
I’m pretty good at just aiming in the general vicinity that needs to
happen,” Smotherman said. “Then from there, just letting good speed
take over, and hopefully the hole gets in the way.”
Echavarria shot 63 in the morning half of the draw. No one else who
started in the morning shot better than 67, with Taylor Moore and
Jackson Suber coming in with those scores. Potus Nyholm, Kristoffer
Reitan, Daniel Berger and Kevin Roy had 67s in the afternoon, but
nobody got close to Smotherman.
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