PGA Tour
Joe Highsmith did something that hadn't been done in 9 years in winning the Cognizant Classic
Ben Jared
He was mired in a sophomore slump, his offseason swing changes yielding nothing but missed cuts and mounting frustration. This week initially followed the same troubling script—barely surviving the cut and enduring a Saturday warm-up session so disastrous he questioned if he could keep the ball in play. Yet 36 holes and two 64s later, Joe Highsmith had completely rewritten his story, transforming his slump into job security and an invitation to Augusta National.
Riding a career-defining weekend performance and benefiting from his rivals' timely stumbles, Highsmith accomplished something truly remarkable—becoming the first PGA Tour player since Brandt Snedeker in 2016 to make the cut on the number then surge all the way to victory, claiming the Cognizant Classic trophy amid the palm-lined fairways of South Florida.
After graduating from Pepperdine in 2022, Highsmith's ascent through golf's ranks was fast, spending a single season on the Korn Ferry Tour before seizing his PGA Tour card with clutch performances (T-2 and T-3) during the pressure-cooker playoffs. His rookie campaign on tour initially unfolded like a nightmare—missing the weekend in a staggering 13 of his first 20 starts—before he salvaged his campaign with a gutsy fall surge, posting three top-11 finishes to preserve his tour privileges. Throughout this rollercoaster year, Highsmith etched his name in the record books by achieving something no modern player had ever done: drilling three holes-in-one in a single season, a statistical anomaly that showcased both his remarkable skill and uncanny fortune.
Despite reverting to a familiar swing pattern in the fall, Highsmith's 2025 campaign began in disarray. He failed to make the weekend in three of his first four starts, and his lone cut made—at the American Express—resulted in a forgettable T-66 finish, miles from contention. Only last week at the Mexico Open, where he posted four straight rounds of 68, did Highsmith finally glimpse signs of revival. Though Thursday's impressive 65 at the Cognizant Classic suggested continued progress, Friday's pedestrian 72—especially as competitors were dismantling the typically formidable PGA National—relegated Highsmith to afterthought status entering the weekend, with bookmakers assigning him astronomical 1000-to-1 odds. Saturday's pre-round practice session proved so catastrophic that he genuinely worried about keeping his ball in bounds during competition. Yet remarkably, Highsmith transformed this crisis of confidence into his greatest asset.
Mike Mulholland
“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,” Highsmith said.
He maintained his scorching momentum on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, his scorecard blossomed with 12 birdies and an eagle. Just as importantly he kept the big numbers at bay, recording just one bogey. His putter became fire—gaining almost six-and-a-half strokes on the field across the final two rounds on PGA National's demanding greens.
Highsmith benefited from his competitors' collective collapse. Saturday's leaderboard had been a logjam of contention, with over 20 players bunched within three shots of the lead. Yet Sunday brought an unexpected vacuum of challengers—nobody on the top page mounted a charge, while the frontrunner spectacularly imploded. That unfortunate soul was Jake Knapp, who after a historic opening-round 59 had spent the subsequent days desperately clinging to his advantage. His downfall came at the 11th hole, where his approach shot fell agonizingly short, striking the greenside slope before plunging into the hazard. Confronted with disaster, Knapp attempted a daring recovery directly from the water, only to watch his ball stubbornly remain submerged. The resulting triple-bogey as he trudged to the 12th tee not only cost him the lead but effectively eliminated him from championship contention.
“I just think in the moment, even now I don't take it back,” Knapp said. “It's just one of those shots you just have to end up hitting a little bit harder than I did.”
With the rest of the field failing to mount any serious challenge, Highsmith navigated the 18th hole with precision, clinching his improbable victory while trailing groups still had a full hour of play remaining. The historical significance of Highsmith's achievement cannot be overstated. Even the last such triumph—Snedeker's at Torrey Pines in 2016—carried contextual qualifications, as it occurred during a final round besieged by such brutal weather conditions that the field averaged a staggering 77.90.
Highsmith owes no apologies for his triumph. This victory delivers a treasure trove of rewards: guaranteed tour status for two full years, coveted access to this season's remaining signature events (including this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill), and most significantly, golden tickets to the Masters and the PGA Championship. His breakthrough follows just one week after journeyman Brian Campbell similarly transformed his career with a single stellar performance. This narrative represents the powerful current that sustains the tour's regular season—the tantalizing possibility that one week can fundamentally alter a professional's life and legacy. For Highsmith, just two spectacular days proved sufficient to completely rewrite his future.