{"id":437692,"date":"2026-02-28T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437692"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:20:00","slug":"cognizant-classic-withdrawals-spark-rumors-about-events-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/cognizant-classic-withdrawals-spark-rumors-about-events-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognizant Classic Withdrawals Spark Rumors About Events Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to the Cognizant Classic, there has been a minor hiccup that has led to speculation about the event.\u00a0 Some star players decided to skip the event, including Ben Griffin and Scottie Scheffler.\u00a0 With some top players out for the event, fans are wondering if the event will be on the chopping block for future seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cognizant Classic Withdrawals<\/span><\/h2>\n

Before the withdrawals took place, Scottie Scheffler<\/a> had already decided to sit out during the Classic to get some rest between events.\u00a0 In the lead-up to the event, as mentioned before, Ben Griffin stepped out, but also Adam Scott and Jacob Bridgeman.\u00a0 The withdrawals have left only one player in the top 30 in the event, that being Ryan Gerard.\u00a0 There was a late withdrawal with Will Zalatoris, but that was due to an injury he sustained on the field.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rumors About The Classic<\/span><\/h2>\n

With the withdrawals and the recent meetings of the PGA Future Competition Committee (FCC), fans and players are speculating that the Cognizant is on the chopping block.\u00a0 The speculation also assumes that the players who withdrew or skipped the event have insider knowledge of the recent meetings.\u00a0 It\u2019s all part of Brian Rolapp\u2019s plan to shorten the season<\/a> to \u201cown the summer,\u201d and to not worry about competing with other sports like the NFL for viewership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Players do get the sense that the Cognizant\u2019s days are numbered, especially with where it sits on the calendar.\u00a0 Leaving the event overshadowed by The Players Championship<\/a> later in March.\u00a0 During the TGL, Billy Horschel lamented the state of the Cognizant in an interview<\/a>.\u00a0 He went on to state the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough with any tournament on the PGA TOUR schedule, outside of Signature Events, due to a multitude of reasons,\u201d Horschel said. \u201cWe had this issue before the Signature Events were around. We\u2019ve always had this issue. A decade ago, this event was unbelievable with the field, but where it fell in the schedule was really good for a lot of the guys that lived here. \u2026 This field has sort of been up and down the last couple years. When you\u2019ve got so many events on the PGA Tour schedule, and you\u2019ve got guys trying to figure out where they\u2019re going to fit, it\u2019s tough to fill a field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Justin Thomas expresses a similar view, calling the situation a \u201cbummer\u201d.\u00a0 He believes that the Cognizant’s place in the schedule is mostly to blame for its decline.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Future<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Cognizant Classic has existed in some form since 1972 and has often been the first for the Florida events.\u00a0 However, since 2019, schedule changes and LIV Golf forcing the PGA\u2019s hand have left the event completely overshadowed on the schedule.\u00a0 The PGA Tour\u2019s FCC is still drafting plans for future seasons, and there will be some events that won\u2019t make it.\u00a0 There is already speculation that the Hawaii events won\u2019t make it,<\/a> but now the Cognizant Classic may be in that boat, too.\u00a0 For now, though, the Cognizant is underway, and the players on the field are still going for the gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to the Cognizant Classic, there has been a minor hiccup that has led to speculation about the event.\u00a0 Some star players decided to skip the event, including Ben Griffin and Scottie Scheffler.\u00a0 With some top players out for the event, fans are wondering if the event will be on the chopping block […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437694,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437692\/revisions\/437694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}