The Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, formerly the Honda Classic, welcomed the PGA Tour's return to the Sunshine State for the first time in 2025 as this year's Florida swing got underway. A tournament contested at the well-respected PGA National, known for historically providing a stern test of golf, proved the exact opposite in the early going of this year's championship.
With golf fans anticipating more of the same at this year's Cognizant Classic, one of the more well-respected venues on the PGA Tour schedule was brought to its knees during the first round as records were set and scoring was off the charts, leaving the majority of fans stunned and some even irate. With the field averaging over two strokes under par, a plethora of players got off to exceptional starts, none more so than Jake Knapp who broke the course record by posting the 15th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history with a 12-under 59.
With well over ninety players at 2-under par or better in the 144-man field at this year's Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, an unexpectedly low tally over the first two days would likely be required in order to make this year's cut at PGA National. But aside from the fact that there is a cut at the halfway point of this tournament in Florida, what are the exact cut rules and what has the historic cut line been at this event that has often tested its fields? What can golf fans expect this year's cut line to potentially be? Who could be in danger of missing out on the weekend? Let's take a look.
How many players make the cut at the Cognizant Classic?
As mentioned, this year's Cognizant Classic becomes the latest event on the 2025 schedule to implement a cut at the halfway point with the 144-man field being cut down to the Top 65 players and ties after 36 holes at PGA National.
Unlike the signature events this year, the Cognizant Classic will implement standard cut rules for its event, matching the Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express, Farmers Insurance Open, WM Phoenix Open, and last week's Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. While some signature events, such as the Genesis Invitational two weeks ago, do have cuts, there is often a difference in the cut rules with their smaller fields.
What has the cut line previously been at the Cognizant Classic?
The cut line at last year's Cognizant Classic, won by Austin Eckroat following a Monday finish, was -2. Here is a look at the last five editions of the event and some of the historic cut lines at PGA National in recent years.
Year of Tournament | Cut Line |
|---|---|
2024 Cognizant Classic | -2 |
2023 Honda Classic | +1 |
2022 Honda Classic | +2 |
2021 Honda Classic | +1 |
2020 Honda Classic | +3 |
Looking back at previous editions of this event, it's interesting to note that only once in the last five years has the cut line been under par, that came in last year's event. The previous four editions at PGA National saw the cut line hovering around a couple of strokes over par, further illustrating the type of test golfers have faced when they have teed it up in this tournament in the past. With the incredible scoring during round one of this year's Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, it's likely that we will see the cut line come in under par for just the second time in the last six years, and for a second year in a row after the -2 mark at last year's tournament.
Cognizant Classic cut line projection: What will the cut be in 2025?
With the incredible scoring at this year's Cognizant Classic, Data Golf is projecting a -5 cut line and giving it around a 40% chance of coming to fruition. That would not only mark the second year in a row that the cut line at PGA National has fallen under par, but it would smash the cut lines at this event in the last five years, with the cut rarely coming in under par as previously mentioned. Additionally, looking further back, it would be far and away the lowest cut in this event in the last decade with none of the events from 2015 - 2019 witnessing a cut line that surpassed even par. As things stand, the current projections are not anticipating any fight back from the course before the halfway point with the cut moving to -6 being given a greater probability than it falling back to -4 at around 30% and 19%, respectively.
The projected -5 cut line could spell bad news for players including the 2020 winner at PGA National Sungjae Im, Cameron Young, Taylor Pendrith, last week's Mexico Open Champion Brian Campbell, and Davis Thompson, to name a few, all of whom would have work left to be done if they wanted to stick around for the weekend as things currently stand.