As winds picked up on Friday, PGA National started to show a bit more of its teeth, and the conditions that produced some incredibly low scores gave way to a greater challenge in the second round of the 2026 Cognizant Classic. Still sitting atop the leaderboard going into Saturday is Austin Smotherman, one of the few players who ended Thursday on the first page of the leaderboard.
Smotherman backed up his strong play with a quality round Friday, extending his lead from one to three shots thanks to a solid 69 that put him 11 under par. Few players were able to mount a real charge on a difficult day.
While it wasn’t as dynamic a round as his 62 on Thursday, Smotherman acquitted himself well in the tougher conditions on Friday afternoon. Most of the best scores of the day were posted in the morning, and Smotherman’s 69 was among the better rounds of the later wave. Unsurprisingly, his approach play was the first thing to falter in the wind, but the putter stayed warm with another day with more than 2 strokes gained on the field on the greens. This bomb for birdie on No. 17 did some of the heavy lifting.
With two excellent rounds in the books, Smotherman is in the driver’s seat to pick up the first win of his PGA Tour career going into the weekend. He’s been boom or bust to start the 2026 PGA Tour season, with just one made cut in his first four events, a T8 at The American Express. Now he looks poised to not only pick up a second top 10 of the season but also a potential career-changing victory.
While Smotherman was extending his lead at the top of the leaderboard, some of the biggest names in the field came into Friday’s second round needing serious improvement just to make the weekend. Brooks Koepka, Max Homa and Ryan Gerard all entered Friday over par and outside the projected cut, but each posted rounds in the mid-60s on Friday to punch their tickets to the final 36 holes.
Gerard entered the week in unfamiliar territory as the pre-tournament favorite, and while he struggled to produce his best on Thursday, a 67 on Friday got him into red figures at 2 under and two more rounds of golf this weekend. Homa and Koepka, meanwhile, shot matching 66s as they continue to try to create the spark that can help them capture past form.
For Homa, it was his iron play coming to life that led to his second-round surge, as he gained more than 3.3 strokes on the field approaching the green. Once a premier ball-striker on the PGA Tour, Homa has slipped significantly of late, but Friday brought a reminder of what he’s capable of achieving when he gets in a good swing rhythm.
Koepka, meanwhile, has been one of the worst putters on the PGA Tour this season in his return. He came into the week 171st in strokes gained putting and was 111th on Thursday on his way to a 74. His putting turned around in a major way on Friday, as he poured in 131 feet and 3 inches of putts in the second round — the most of anyone in the field — picking up nearly 4 strokes on the greens.
After his round, he credited a setup change he made after his first round struggles that turned around his fortunes, despite, in his mind, hitting the ball worse on Friday.
“Just may hand position at setup,” Koepka said. “I was just cheating it. Changed the stroke a little bit. I’m not getting as handsy, and I was cheating it by getting my hands back, and it just was creating an inconsistent feel. Where I thought it was taking off, it wasn’t.”
Replicating that exact kind of putting performance will be nearly impossible, but for a player who hasn’t been able to get anything to drop all year, having a day where the putter gets red-hot could be huge for his confidence on the greens — especially after putting a new putter in the bag this year.
Leader
1. Austin Smotherman (-12): The winds are supposed to settle down again on Saturday before picking back up on Sunday, and the field will be starting play early due to potential storms in the area. That means, if Smotherman is going to maintain a comfortable lead going into the final round, he’ll need to keep the pedal down on Moving Day in solid conditions. We’ve seen that low scores are available at PGA National since they’ve made some recent changes to the setup, and Smotherman will need to stay on the front foot with an eye on another round in the 60s rather than simply trying to hold on for 36 holes.
Contenders
2. Taylor Moore (-8)
T3. Nico Echavarria, A.J. Ewart (-7)
5. Joel Dahmen (-6)
T6. Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai and four others (-5)
T12. Daniel Berger and five others (-4)
T18. Max Homa and eight others (-3)
Ewart posted the round of the day on Friday to thrust himself into contention after starting the second set of 18 holes at even par. His 64 paced the field in scoring, and now, he finds himself in unfamiliar territory with a late tee time on the weekend for the first time in his young career. Echavarria started Friday one back of Smotherman, but he struggled in the more challenging conditions and moved backwards a spot on the leaderboard. Even with that minor setback, Echavarria is certainly a threat going into the weekend, particularly with the forecast for Saturday looking more like Thursday when he fired a 63.
Lurking a bit further back are some notable names like Joel Dahmen, Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai and Daniel Berger. Dahmen has put together consecutive rock-solid 68s, but if he’s going to contend, he’ll need to take it a bit deeper and find some more birdies to get in the mix. Lowry has made the cut at the Cognizant for nine straight starts and loves PGA National, so don’t count him out if he can get the putter warmed up and see some fall early on Saturday.
Players won’t have to look far to find a reason for optimism heading into the weekend trailing, as Joe Highsmith won last year after making the cut on the number. That required a pair of weekend 64s, and he was only eight shots off the lead, not 11, but everyone will know what’s possible, and we ought to see some extremely aggressive play early on Saturday with the winds down.
Notable players who missed the cut
- Luke Clanton (+1)
- Webb Simpson (+1)
- Michael Thorbjornsen (+1)
- Neal Shipley (+2)
- Gary Woodland (+2)
- Chris Kirk (+2)
- Stephan Jaeger (+2)
A late move on Friday afternoon shifted the cut line from +1 to Even, which dropped a huge group of players from the weekend. Some of the rising young stars of the game were included in that group, as Luke Clanton, Michael Thorbjornsen and Neal Shipley (who bogeyed his last, trying to make a birdie to get to the weekend) all narrowly missed out.
Updated 2026 Cognizant Classic odds, picks
Odds via Caesars Sportsbook
- Austin Smotherman (7/4)
- Taylor Moore (7-1)
- Nico Echavarria (19/2)
- Shane Lowry (12-1)
- A.J. Ewart (17-1)
- Joel Dahmen (18-1)
- Aaron Rai (20-1)
We’ll see how Smotherman handles the nerves of being the 36-hole leader in pursuit of his first career win. The nature of this course (with the current setup) is going to make it so someone from the chase pack reels him in. Echavarria, despite a rough Friday, has a good chance to post another low round on Saturday and get in position for a win, and Lowry’s comfort on this course should keep him in the mix all the way through Sunday afternoon.
