By shooting 64 in Cognizant, tour pro proved a 'horrible' range session doesn't doom a round

Joe Highsmith thought he had nothing. A day after he made the cut in the Cognizant Classic on the number—when he nearly three-putted from 26 feet on his final hole Friday—the second-year pro went to the range on Saturday ahead of the third round, and we can say it because Highsmith did: It was ugly.

“I hit it horribly on the range and putted OK on the practice tee,” he said. “But I felt like it kind of forced me to focus once the round started because I felt like I was going to hit it out-of-bounds on every hole, and it turned into one of my best rounds.”

OB on every hole. He sounds like us.

It takes a serious mental switch to overcome that, and Highsmith flipped his game so quickly that he made three birdies on the front nine, recorded an eagle at the 10th and went on to score a seven-under 64 early on Saturday that vaulted him into a tie for second at 12 under before the lead groups teed off at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

“I have no idea where I'll stack by the end of the day, but at a minimum, it's nice to play well and not have an early tee time hopefully tomorrow,” Highsmith, 24, said.

The Pepperdine grad wielded a hot putter for the first nine holes, making birdie putts of 14, 15 and 36 feet, with par saves of six and 16 feet.

‘I putted as good as I ever have before, and then some for sure. It was crazy to see all those putts drop,” he said.

Bad warm-ups are apparently nothing new to Highsmith, who says he’s turned plenty of rough range session into great rounds. “I think it just kind of proves that the game is pretty mental, and even if you don't feel good about your swing or about your stroke, if you get out there on the course and focus, you can still play well,” he said.

Highsmith was a rookie on the PGA Tour in 2024 and played 26 times, making half the cuts, while also notching three top-10 finishes, including two in the fall portion of the schedule. His most notable accomplishment was making three aces in the same season—a feat not previously accomplished since the tour started its modern record keeping in 1983. This season, he missed three of the first four cuts before tying for 17th last week in the Mexico Open.

He was frustrated early in the year by not seeing a lot of his offseason swing work pay off. “I felt like I had to go a different direction,” he said.

“I've kind of gone back to an approach that I feel like I played with in college. It's like a little more mental or kind of process and commitment focused. … It's kind of nice to feel like the stuff I'm doing is working.”