The first round of the Florida swing produced a little bit of everything. A number of players attempted to shoot from water hazards, one of the game’s favorites made an alarming withdrawal, and even a pre-tournament favorite had a bird blocked. One person unaffected by it all was none other than Austin Smotherman. He started the 2026 Cognizant Classic with a sensational 9-under 62 to take the first round lead by one stroke over Nico Echavarria.
“It’s been two weeks off, but I’m here today excited to play,” Smotherman said. “I’m glad I was able to get to my tee time early today. I didn’t have to wait and maybe I could watch other players play. But I just wanted to be on the golf course. I felt like I was in a good spot for the game.”
“To be honest, I didn’t play much when I was home. My wife is due to give birth to our third child on March 23rd, so I was trying to play as many weeks as possible, so I just rested when I could. I figured things out this week with a solo road and the match just kind of followed suit. It was a pretty easy round on a golf course that shouldn’t be this easy. I felt pretty good.”
Smotherman started the tournament with a few birdies in his first five holes, but caught fire near the turn. He made six consecutive birdies from No. 7 to No. 12 and jumped into a share of the lead. A birdie on the par-5 gave him the lone lead finish on Thursday.
While Smotherman and some of his teammates enjoyed calm conditions in the morning, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka and others faced a different challenge in the afternoon. As the day progressed, the winds picked up and the players were tasked with navigating a more difficult PGA National event, even though it was still a relatively calm event historically.
After two disappointing tournaments on the West Coast with serious putting issues, Koepka entered the Cognizant Classic with renewed enthusiasm on the greens. However, I continued to get the same results when I continued using the TaylorMade Spider putter.
The Florida native finished the round at 3 over, hampered by both his play on the greens and the way he finished. Koepka’s most notable connection came from 36 feet on the par-4 sixth, the first of two birdies. Unfortunately, his second-longest putt, a 5-foot-5-inch putt on the par-3 17th, resulted in a double-bogey 5 and was sandwiched between two other 5s on the scorecard.
“I don’t think he played his best game because he shot three over,” Daniel Berger said of Koepka. “Obviously No. 17 has had a difficult time, but if there’s one thing I know, it’s that he can turn things around in a split second. I expect him to come out tomorrow and play well.”
leader
1. Austin Smotherman (-9): If you’re going to shoot a 62 at PGA National, you’re going to have to make some decent putts. Smotherman did just that. The 31-year-old made a 132-foot putt, extending over three strokes with a flat stick in hand, and accomplished it during the regulation 17 greens. The latter will be most important on Friday, as he will depart in the afternoon when conditions are expected to improve.
“All day long I wanted to hit the high line and make good putts and it was very freeing,” Smotherman said. “This week was the first time in a while that I didn’t line the golf ball, and I felt like it helped me on the greens. There was so much movement and pace, and with the wind, I didn’t have to adjust my line or be aware of it, so it felt a lot freer.”
“I was happy to see the length of the putts, but I also felt like I hit a lot of good putts. I saved par on the 15th and kind of got going, and I saved par on the 6th after a bad lag putt and started feeling better. So those things happen, and then you get a long putt, you steal it, you hit one more, and you just keep building the hole. Before you know it, it’s over, and here we are.” ”
contestant
2. Nico Echavarria (-8)
T3. Taylor Moore, Jackson Suber, Daniel Berger, Kevin Roy, Christopher Reitan (-4)
T8. Keith Mitchell, Joel Dahmen, Michael Brennan, Aaron Rye, and 9 others (-3)
It was Echavarria, not Smotherman, who led in strokes gained putting on Thursday. The two-time PGA Tour winner has missed the cut four times in five starts heading into the 2026 season, with his only weekend appearance coming in the top 10 at Pebble Beach. Despite the volatility, Echavarria insists his match was close, and he proved it Thursday by going around PGA National without a drop shot.
“I didn’t have the best start this year, but I played very well at Pebble. These signature events give you a lot of points, so I’m happy with that,” Echavarria said. “Golf wasn’t that far away. Today we felt the key to the day was to be patient and just have fun, and that’s what we did.”
Player reactions to PGA National
From 2006 to 2023, 11 golfers shot 10 under or better at PGA National. In 2025, 38 players achieved this feat, including Jake Knapp, who hit 59. There have been several changes between the two periods, including the golf course now being overseeded, the par 4 on the 10th being changed to a par 5, and players’ scores being adjusted to par.
Still, if last year (and Thursday) were any indication of the difficulty of this golf course, it might be fair to say that this isn’t officially your father’s PGA National. So why is that? Just ask Billy Horschel, a Florida native who has been vocal about what happened at the venue.
“As I said last year, this is a really good golf course. It’s a very fair golf course. When it’s windy, it’s a challenge, but when it’s calm like today, it works,” Horschel explained. “A few years ago, the rough was longer, but then they started cutting back on the rough and then overseeding golf courses. Listen, I think the Tour gets a bad rap, but that’s not against the owners of PGA National. I understand where they want to overseed. … This applies to a lot of the courses that we’ve played over the years, not just PGA National.”
There are concerns about the departure of Will Zalatoris.
Well, at least it’s not on his back, but withdrawing just before tee time for round 1 does raise some concerns for Zalatoris. The PGA Tour said Zalatoriz’s absence was due to a left ankle injury the lanky right-hander suffered while preparing for the first round at PGA National’s practice facility before leaving his name on the tee sheet.
Zalatoris started the season with a top-20 finish at the American Express, but missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open. Once a perennial major championship contender, Zalatoris has fallen to 252nd in the Official World Golf Rankings and is ineligible for any of the four major championships for the 2026 season.
2026 Cognizant Classic odds and picks updated
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
- Nico Echavarria: 9/2
- Austin Smotherman: 5-1
- Daniel Berger: 12-1
- Christopher Reitan: 12-1
- Keith Mitchell: 20-1
- Rasmus Heugaard: 24-1
- Kevin Roy: 24-1
Morning play should get easier again on Friday, giving players like Michael Brennan a chance to gradually move closer to the lead. The PGA Tour rookie has a record of 35-1 after hitting 12 of 14 fairways with an opening 68 and making up for an incredible length off the tee. Our short game was a little sloppy, but if we can iron that out we’ll have a chance heading into the weekend.
