Billy Horschel sounds off (again) on this key change made to PGA National
Raj Mehta
Billy Horschel sounded off on a key change made to PGA National. Again.
At last year's Cognizant Classic, Jake Knapp opened with a 12-under 59, just the 15th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history. This came as a shock to many who grew up in an era when single-digits under par would win you the "Honda" Classic. Now, double-digits was leading after Round 1.
Horschel, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, shot 66 that same day, but lamented the fact that prior to the 2024 edition of the tournament, PGA National overseeded the rough and the fairways with ryegrass. The entire property was once straight Bermuda, making for a classic Florida golf challenge, especially when it was hot and windy. See: the 2015 Honda, which Padraig Harrington won at six under.
One year later, Austin Smotherman began the 2026 Cognizant Classic with a nine-under 62. Horschel shot a two-under 69. He continued to bang the Bermuda drum, while making sure to couch it with some reasonable thoughts, too.
"I talked about it last year. This is a really good golf course. It's a very fair golf course," Horschel said Thursday. "When it blows hard, it's a challenge, and when it's sort of benign like it is today, it's gettable.
"A few years ago the rough was longer and then they started cutting it down and then they overseeded the golf course," he added. "Listen, I think the tour gets a bad rap, and it's not anything against the owners of PGA National. I understand where they would want to overseed. People want it to look pretty on TV, and if it looks pretty on TV, maybe people will want to come play it.
"But at the end of the day, as I've said for many years on the PGA Tour, I understand we are using a golf course that we don't own a lot of times, and sometimes we're at the discretion of what the owner wants to do. Obviously we give our opinion of what we think is best for the golf course and how they want to set it up and challenge it, but also, the owners have a say in it. But I think for me, as I said last year, born and raised in Florida, playing a Bermuda golf course, this far down south and playing overseed, it's going to be soft."
Horschel mentioned that PGA National is far from the only Florida golf course that has made a similar change, and it's not the only one that's done it on the tour schedule, either. TPC Sawgrass made a similar switch to rye overseed when the Players Championship moved to March, and that golf course still plays plenty difficult.
As for PGA National, without wind, it's not the same test as it once was. And you can check the data, Horschel says.
"I can pull it up on my phone, in '20, '21, '22, there were three times in a row where it was a top-10 hardest golf course," Horschel said. "I think it was like 4, 7, 6. Then it went to 12, and then the last two years it's been in the 30s.
"Some of it has to do with wind. There's no doubt about it. If this place doesn't blow, it's very gettable. As tour players have always talked about, it doesn't matter how long the golf course is; if it's no wind and it's soft, we're going to shoot a number."
Horschel remained adamant that the change had nothing to do with the PGA Tour, nor does he blame PGA National for doing it, a point he made on Twitter Wednesday before the tournament began.
On Thursday, Horschel stated it was "just his take on it."
"It's not a shot at anyone. It was just sort of commenting to someone who was taking a shot at the PGA Tour, and I sort of gave them a little more insight that it's not always in the PGA Tour's hands. If they want to try and do something, it's not always in their hands to set it up the way they want to."