The PGA TOUR’s first stop in Florida gave us a first-time winner as Joe Highsmith ($7,000; 138 FPTS) surged from eighth place at the start of the day to get the win at the Cognizant Classic after a second seven-under round in a row. Highsmith made seven birdies and no bogeys to finish the tournament at -19.
Joe Highsmith wins the Cognizant Classic after making the cut on the number. First guy to do that on the PGA Tour in 9 years. 64-64 weekend at PGA National is nasty work.
It’s also the first PGA Tour win for his caddie, Joe LaCava Jr., whose dad has won just a few. pic.twitter.com/swChKjkfFS
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) March 2, 2025
Highsmith’s first win came as a longshot since he opened the week on DraftKings Sportsbook at +11000. He was only owned in 2.6% of entries in the PGA TOUR $750K SAND TRAP [$200K TO 1ST], which was this week’s biggest GPP on DraftKings.
To get the win, he surged past Jake Knapp ($7,300; 105.5 FPTS), who finished T6 after leading the tournament after each of the first three rounds. Knapp’s round fell apart on him at No. 11, where he ended up with a triple-bogey. He made par for the rest of the round and finished T6.
Winning is hard.
Jake Knapp has been leading throughout the week.
This triple bogey moves him from co-leader to T5, 3 back @The_Cognizant. pic.twitter.com/OSU3xg7LpR
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 2, 2025
He finished four shots back of Highsmith, who had a two-stroke margin of victory over Jacob Bridgeman ($7,000; 118 FPTS) and J.J. Spaun ($7,800; 111 FPTS), while Max McGreevy ($6,700; 108.5 FPTS) and Ben Griffin ($8,500; 111.5 FPTS) finished T4 three strokes off Highsmith’s pace, Knapp finished T6 along with popular fantasy plays Russell Henley ($10,700; 105 FPTS) and Michael Kim ($8,400; 99 FPTS).
Highsmith was coming off a T17 last week at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, but he had missed the cut in three of his four starts on the PGA Tour earlier this season. The lefty finished in the top five at last fall’s World Wide Technology Championship for the best finish of his PGA TOUR rookie season. For claiming his first career victory at the Cognizant Classic, he secures a spot in next week’s Arnold Palmer InvitationaI and all remaining Signature Events, along with a trip to the Masters and the PGA Championship.
Highsmith was part of the winning entry in the PGA TOUR $750K SAND TRAP [$200K TO 1ST], which was from adelia702. Here’s what the top lineup looked like:
