The PGA Tour may have finished a wet-and-wild California swing. But the forecast for Florida looks a bit angry.
The Cognizant Classic kicks off the PGA Tour’s four-course swing through the Sunshine State, taking place at Palm Beach Gardens just off the Atlantic Coast. The pros are, no doubt, looking forward to the warmer Florida weather after the chilly conditions they just endured in California. However, forecasts suggest this weekend’s event could pose its own challenges.
Is a weather-delayed round in the cards for this weekend’s event?
The Four-Day Forecast at the Cognizant Classic
Thursday’s forecast is promising affable Round 1 conditions. The Weather Channel anticipates a low of 64 degrees and a high of 81, with mild 13-mph winds blowing in from the south.
Rounds 2 through 4 at the Cognizant Classic, however, could get a bit dicey. Scattered showers and thunderstorms are projected to hit Palm Beach Gardens in the afternoon and continue through Sunday. Plus, wind is expected to pick up early on Sunday and could reach 20 mph.
History of Thunderstorms at the Cognizant Classic
Not surprisingly, this wouldn’t be the first time electric weather has delayed play at PGA National in early March.
The final round of the 2024 Cognizant Classic had to be finished on Monday due to thunderstorms and heavy rain. According to the PGA Tour site, Sunday play was “suspended for 3 hours, 28 minutes, due to dangerous weather in the Palm Beach Gardens, Florida vicinity.”
And it isn’t just the Cognizant Classic that attracts Florida’s most un-golfable weather.
The 2025 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass was suspended due to a weather system that “battered areas of the south on Saturday with tornadoes and severe thunderstorms,” per The Florida Times-Union. In August, Round 2 of the 2025 Wyndham Championship was called for the day and resumed on Saturday morning due to thunderstorms.
Inclement Weather in the 2026 PGA Tour Schedule
This isn’t the first time Mother Nature has been a strong presence at a PGA Tour event this season. Pros like Max Homa already played through less-than-stellar weather during the California swing of the season.
Golfers faced momentous challenges at the tail end of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with wind gusts reaching 30 mph. The conditions were even worse at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, where the first round was postponed until the next morning due to wind and rain.
Cognizant Classic Betting Favorites
The field for this week’s event will be missing familiar names like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. But that doesn’t mean oddsmakers haven’t zeroed in on who they think will top the leaderboard on Sunday. (Or Monday, if there’s a weather delay.)
Ryan Gerard, who has two top-10 finishes on the season, is the +1800 favorite at DraftKings to win the Cognizant Classic this weekend. Shane Lowry, who finished T8 at Pebble Beach, is listed at +1900 odds. Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard are listed at +2150 and +2350, respectively, on the PGA odds boards. Michael Thorbjornsen, who finished T3 at the Phoenix Open, rounds out the top five at +2450 odds to win. Max Homa is in search of his first win of the season and is listed as a +5300 longshot.
Electric Weather Forecast for Cognizant Classic Final Rounds