Course Profiles / Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches
Course Profile · Updated 2026-08-16

PGA National Resort (The Champion Course):
what wins here.

Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches · Derived from round-level strokes gained, 2022–2023–2024–2025 · ~72 players per field

Course-fit weights
OTT 24% / 25%
APP 29% / 28%
ARG 13% / 9%
PUTT 34% / 37%
Model — the weights Divot Lab uses for this venue (data blended with course judgment, recalibrated August 2026). Pure data — derived from the historical rounds alone (top-10 vs. field strokes-gained gap per category).

What the data says

Across 4 recent editions (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025), the players who finished top-10 at PGA National Resort (The Champion Course) separated from the field most through putting (37% of the total separation), with approach play second at 28%. Around the green mattered least — 9% — which is worth knowing when the broadcast narrative says otherwise.

The winners tell their own version: in 2 of the last 4 editions, the champion's best category for the week was putting. That matches what separates the top-10 from the field — this venue rewards one skill consistently, all the way up the leaderboard.

Course notes: PGA National — Champion course, putting on slow bermuda.

How the winners won

Strokes gained per round for each recent champion, by category. The green number is that winner's best skill for the week.

YearWinnerTo ParOTTAPPARGPUTTTotal
2025Joe Highsmith-19+0.74+0.67+0.23+1.49+3.13
2024Austin Eckroat-17+0.88+1.46-0.09+0.91+3.16
2023Chris Kirk-14+0.56+1.58+0.18+1.39+3.71
2022Sepp Straka-10+1.26+0.83+0.20+1.50+3.80
Method. Weights are derived from DataGolf round-level strokes gained: for each season, the gap between the top-10 finishers' per-category average and the field's, recency-weighted across 4 editions with a 10% floor per category, then normalized. Winner rows show per-round strokes gained for the week. The model blends these derived weights with course judgment — both numbers are shown above, and every change to the model is logged publicly in the changelog. Full methodology: how the model works.

This field, ranked for this course.

Every tournament week we score the full field against the venue's weights. The free pick lands Wednesday — by email, before tee times.

Free every week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

More: all course profiles · live tournament stats · the research series