Six straight birdies lift Austin Smotherman into the early lead at Cognizant Classic

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Austin Smotherman's one previous PGA Tour appearance at the tournament now known as the Cognizant Classic was in 2022 and it was unmemorable: He shot 70 in the first round, 76 in the second and missed the cut by four shots. Given that, he didn't see a round like Thursday's coming. Smotherman tied the best round of his career, shooting a 9-under 62 to take the early lead in the opening round of the Cognizant. Smotherman became the seventh player to shoot 62 or better at PGA National in this event. The others: Jake Knapp (59 in Round 1, 2025), Matt Jones (61 in Round 1, 2021), Brian Harman (61 in Round 2, 2012), Chris Kirk (62 in Round 2, 2023), Brandon Hagy (62 in Round 2, 2021) and Tiger Woods (62 in the final round, 2012). "It was a pretty easy round," Smotherman said, "on a golf course that shouldn't be this easy." And that is a talking point at PGA National. The course is overseeded, which means rye has been added to the Bermuda grass. The advantages are many, including the grass looks greener, which means PGA National looks prettier on television. Not just that, but the course plays softer as well. Put in simplest terms, an overseeded PGA National isn't as daunting to get around as the PGA National of a few years ago. Mark Wilson won in the tournament's first year on this course with a score of 5 under, and 11 of the first 14 winners at PGA National finished less than 10-under par. The winning scores in the last five years: 12 under, 10 under, 14 under, 17 under and 19 under. "This is a really good golf course," said Billy Horschel, who shot a 2-under 69 on Thursday. "It's a very fair golf course. 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. "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." Horschel created a bit of a buzz on Wednesday when he weighed in on X to discuss the overseeding issue. On Thursday, he didn't rant and rave — but made clear that he preferred the PGA National that had some more teeth than this version. "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," Horschel said. "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. This isn't just PGA National; it goes to a lot of courses that we play throughout the years." Smotherman — fueled by six consecutive birdies on holes 7 through 12 — tapped in for a birdie on the par-5 finishing hole for the second 62 in his PGA Tour career. He also shot 62 in the first round of the Bermuda Championship in October 2022. He held a first-round lead once before this week, the 2023 Mexico Open, and hasn't won any of his first 81 starts on tour. He's also playing without a line on the ball this week, seeing what that does for his putting. So far, so good. "Trying to just be a little bit more freeing with the stroke, be an artist on the greens, see the line, kind of let it just be external, look at the hole, see where I want it to go in and just trust that I'm pretty good at just aiming in the general vicinity that needs to happen," Smotherman said. "Then from there, just letting good speed take over, and hopefully the hole gets in the way." Nico Echavarria shot 63 in the morning half of the draw at PGA National. No one else from the morning wave shot better than 67, with Taylor Moore and Jackson Suber coming in with those scores. Wind was picking up in the afternoon at PGA National, meaning Smotherman's lead seemed likely to hold up.