2025 Cognizant Classic leaderboard, grades: Joe Highsmith grabs first PGA Tour win despite barely making cut

After making the 2025 Cognizant Classic cut on the number, Joe Highsmith made the most of his opportunity. Signing for a pair of 64s over the weekend at PGA National, Highsmith raced through the finish line carding a tournament total of 19 under and claiming a two-stroke victory over Jacob Bridgeman and J.J. Spaun. It is the first win of his PGA Tour career.

Highsmith is the first player since Brandt Snedeker at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open to make a cut on the number and go onto win a tournament. It’s the ninth time such a comeback has occurred on the PGA Tour in the last 50 years.

With his first trip to the winner’s circle, Highsmith locks up his status on the PGA Tour for the next two years and moves up 113 spots in the FedEx Cup standings to No. 10. Not only is he in a good position to make the postseason for the first time, but the PGA Tour sophomore also secured invitations into the Masters and PGA Championship. Highsmith’s lone major championship appearance came at the 2021 U.S. Open.

The 24-year-old has punched his ticket into the remaining signature events on the PGA Tour calendar starting at next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Should he wish, he also has the opportunity to kick off his 2026 campaign in Maui at The Sentry.

Highsmith started the weekend in South Florida eight strokes off the 36-hole pace. He cut this deficit in half thanks to a momentous Moving Day. But that wasn’t the end of his upward trajectory as Highsmith took advantage of the par-5 3rd, rolling in a 20-foot birdie bid on No. 4 to kick off his final round.

A flurry of pars preceded a pristine wedge shot into the par-4 9th to add another circle onto his scorecard before the turn; Highsmith hit all nine greens in regulation on the front. Another birdie on a par 5 came on the other side of the turn; it catapulted Highsmith’s name just one behind Bridgeman, who posted the clubhouse lead at 17 under thanks to a final-round 64.

One hole later, Highsmith pulled even with Bridgeman with a birdie connection from 20 feet as overnight leader Jake Knapp finished up his front nine. Knapp knocked in a birdie on No. 10 to push the lead out to 18 under where Highsmith was just about to reach with an aggressive roll up the hill on No. 13 from just outside 15 feet.

The two stood at 18 under before Knapp made a fatal mistake on the par-4 12th. Wielding a short iron in the middle of the fairway from 153 yards, Knapp dumped his approach into No. 12 into the water short of the putting surface. Choosing to play his third shot from the penalty area, the smooth-swinging right hander compounded his error and carded a triple bogey to drop out of the lead and out of tournament contention.

As players like Michael Kim, Russell Henley and Ben Griffin all struggled to keep their heads above water, Highsmith surged. A nifty up-and-down on No. 14 set the stage for his final stroll around the Bear Trap where he hit all three greens in regulation and capped it off with 22-foot birdie.

With plenty of breathing room to spare, Highsmith hightailed it down the par-5 finisher and put the finishing touches on his second straight 64. His total of 128 over weekend set a new tournament record to boot. Grade: A+

Here are the grades for the rest of the notable names on the leaderboard at the 2025 Cognizant Classic.

T6. Jake Knapp (-15): It was his tournament to win until it wasn’t. The 18-, 36- and 54-hole leader went into the final eight holes of the tournament in possession of the lead yet threw all his work away with a single decision. Hitting his second shot into No. 11 short and into the water, Knapp decided to take a swing at his partially submerged golf ball. It led to a triple-bogey 7 and dropped him from a share of the lead to three strokes off the pace. While Knapp this week became the 14th player to shoot a sub-60 round, he also became the fifth straight to do so and walk away from the tournament without a trophy. Grade: A

T9. Jordan Spieth (-14): A late addition to the field, Spieth made the most of his tournament debut. He carded four under-par rounds, ranked fifth in strokes gained off the tee, and perhaps most importantly, made a ton of putts. Spieth’s struggles the last two years can be tied to his wrist injury but also his inability to putt consistently. Wielding a new blade, he has made substantial strides in that department in the early stages of the season. While he did not play his way into next week’s tournament, he continued to show signs of life.

“I feel like I’m trending in the right direction,” Spieth said. “I feel like I played better than I did in Phoenix. Phoenix is a better fit for me. I just throw out Torrey Pines because I did what I always do there. It’s really not a great judge on where I’m at. I really do feel like I’m playing good golf at about 60% of the control tee to green that I’m capable of doing and still able to come to a very challenging golf course and hit nice shots and shoot under-par rounds.” Grade: A-

T18. Luke Clanton (-12): After narrowly missing out on his PGA Tour card at the WM Phoenix Open, Clanton made amends at PGA National. Making the cut with room to spare and securing his 20th point via the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, the Florida State junior locked up his full-time status on the PGA Tour. Clanton made a run at the title early on Sunday, but some late inaccuracy off the tee hindered his chances the title. 

“It’s just golf, at the end of the day,” Clanton said. “Again, I know we got up there pretty close at one point and we knew we had to finish strong. But again, it’s PGA National. The Bear Trap is hard, and I’m learning every step that I take. Again, I’m just blessed to be here. To be able to say I have my card now and — not really relax but to enjoy it for a couple days and to realize that, again, it was an awesome week. I did what I wanted to do and put myself kind of up there on the leaderboard going into the back nine, so it was awesome.” Grade: A

T18. Rickie Fowler (-12): It was a Sunday to forget for the 2017 champion. Entering the final round only three strokes off the lead, Fowler failed to get any momentum going and played his first 10 holes in even par. By then, the rest of the pack had past him, but that should do little to take away from an otherwise solid week. Fowler ranked inside the top 10 in driving and greens in regulation and overcame a shaky short-game performance. Grade: B-

MC. Sungjae Im: After a promising start to his season, Im has gone in reverse. A couple finishes outside the top 30 have preceded a couple missed cuts with the latest coming this week at a place where he had entered the winner’s circle before. The 26-year-old has lost strokes on approach in five of his last six tournaments and has been held winless since the fall of 2021. The good news is he returns to Bay Hill next week where he has finished no worse than T21 in six starts. Grade: F