Large-Field GPP Breakdown: Cognizant Classic

The PGA Tour is throwing out a pretty weak field this week, as the two players above $10K both withdrew from the tournament (Ben Griffin and Jacob Bridgeman), leaving us with only $9K players to choose from. That’s going to make this a very interesting week, and one that will require us to think about our lineups from a different lens. Before we move to that, however, let’s talk about the week that was. 

Genesis Invitational – Recap

It was a tough week for me in classic, as a chalk Bridgeman in the $6K range winning the tournament will basically put you in the grave if you’re underweight, which I was. It was a very interesting week when the cards flipped, as Scottie Scheffler came up in ownership all the way to 25%, Rory McIlroy came DOWN in ownership to 16.5%, and Tommy Fleetwood came up to 20%. Ownership movement is one of the most interesting things to track when it comes to DFS, because if you can get it right, you have one leg up on the field. Had I known Rory would come down, I may have slammed him as a direct response to Scheffler coming up. Alas, it was not meant to be, though. Let’s take a look at the winning lineup:

• It featured a stars-and-scrubs build of Fleetwood and Rory up top, with both guys over $10K. This forced two $6K players into the lineup, as ~$8K Jake Knapp was also in the lineup, meaning there was only one $7K player present. Typically, I tend to stay away from stars-and-scrubs builds that get me on multiple $6K players, but hey, it worked out. 
• The lineup came in at 78% cumulative ownership, within the 70-90% range that I specified before the tournament in these signature events. We have seen enough GPPs to know that the winning lineups almost always feature a mix of chalk and contrarian plays, falling into that range depending on the slate.

The Genesis will be a very different tournament from the Cognizant Classic upcoming, as there basically is no star power to play, and we are going to see highly condensed ownership. Let’s check it out. 

Cognizant Classic – Preview

The Cognizant Classic officially kicks off the Florida swing of the PGA Tour schedule, before we get to The Players and The Masters over the next couple of months. There’s nothing like a 6:00 a.m. start time, so you’re sweating just as the day begins on a Thursday. The Cognizant has been played at PGA National for the past 18 years, and there has been a lot of talk about how it has gotten easier over time. Here’s a look at the past five winners of this tournament:

• 2025: Joe Highsmith (-19) def. Jacob Bridgeman and J.J. Spaun by two strokes

• 2024: Austin Eckroat (-17) def. Min Woo Lee and Erik Van Rooyen by three strokes

• 2023: Chris Kirk (-14) def. Eric Cole in a playoff

• 2022: Sepp Straka (-10) def. Shane Lowry by one stroke

• 2021: Matt Jones (-12) def. Brandon Hagy by five strokes 

The past two years here at PGA National have been higher on the scoring side, and it’ll be interesting to see how the course plays this time around. Will the PGA Tour make adjustments, or keep it the same? It doesn’t matter much for us from a scoring environment perspective, but of course, it will have an impact on R4 when we get to it (where I’ve called it wrong four straight weeks).