Cognizant Classic odds, staff picks: Shane Lowry arrives as pre-tournament favorite
The PGA Tour’s ‘Florida Swing’ begins this week in Palm Beach Gardens. Here are the latest odds and our staff picks.
The PGA Tour is in South Florida, where PGA National and its famous ‘Bear Trap’ await. This three-hole stretch, which consists of the par-3 15th, par-4 16th, and par-3 17th holes, features plenty of trouble, with water all around. The tournament is decided here every year, making the Cognizant Classic one of the more entertaining stops of the Florida Swing.
Jordan Spieth will debut in the Cognizant Classic this week, hoping to get more reps in before the bulk of the major season kicks off at Augusta National in April. Spieth did not play competitively from August to early February — he had surgery on his wrist after the regular season concluded.
Other notables include Irishman Shane Lowry, who is the pre-tournament favorite, and amateur Luke Clanton, who will earn a PGA Tour card this week if he makes the cut.
Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches Odds:
Here are the latest odds for players to win the 2025 Cognizant Classic, courtesy of FanDuel:
Shane Lowry +2000
Russell Henley +2200
Sungjae Im +2200
Daniel Berger +2500
Taylor Pendrith +2800
Sepp Straka +2800
Min Woo Lee +3300
Kurt Kitayama +3500
Denny McCarthy +4000
Davis Thompson +4000
Ben Griffin +4000
Keith Mitchell +4000
Jordan Spieth +4500
Cameron Young +4500
J.J. Spaun +4500
Byeong Hun An +4500
Alex Smalley +5000
Michael Kim +5000
Andrew Novak +5000
Max Greyserman +5000
Austin Eckroat +5000
Patrick Rodgers +5500
Nicolai Højgaard +5500
Billy Horschel +5500
Rickie Fowler +5500
Luke Clanton (a) +5500
Gary Woodland +5500
Harry Hall +5500
Taylor Moore +5500
Lucas Glover +6000
Jhonattan Vegas +6000
Brian Harman +6500
Niklas Norgaard +7000
Beau Hossler +7000
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +7000
Seamus Power +7000
Bud Cauley +7500
Chris Kirk +7500
Lee Hodges +7500
Ryan Gerard +8000
Mackenzie Hughes +8000
Thorbjorn Olesen +8000
Eric Cole +8000
Kevin Roy +9000
Jake Knapp +9000
Brian Campbell +9000
C.T. Pan +9000
Doug Ghim +10000
Joe Highsmith +10000
Greyson Sigg +10000
Playing Through’s Picks:
Jack Milko — Staff Writer, Golf
With the PGA Tour returning to South Florida, picking a player who hails from the area makes sense. Daniel Berger, who grew up about an hour south of PGA National in Plantation, will snap a four-year winless drought this week.
His last win came at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he bested Maverick McNealy by pair. Part of why Berger has not won since then is because he missed more than 18 months due to a back injury, a setback he suffered after the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline. He did not play during the entire 2023 season. But that lengthy time away, in which he endured ‘the worst six months of his life,’ is a thing of the past.
Berger now arrives at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches trending in the right direction. He tied for second at the WM Phoenix Open and posted a solo 12th at the Genesis Invitational. He also ranks fourth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green, playing consistent, solid golf — the type of play that earned him a spot on the Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits in 2021.
His record at PGA National speaks for itself too. In his debut in 2015, he lost to Padraig Harrington in a playoff. Berger tied for fourth in 2020, shooting even par or better on all four days. Then, two years later, the former Florida State standout held the 54-hole lead by himself. But he fired a 4-over 74 as an early double-bogey on the par-5 3rd hole threw off his mojo. He ultimately finished three strokes behind Sepp Straka.
Berger most recently missed the cut in 2024, just weeks after he resumed teeing it up competitively. This year will be different, though, especially since he has plenty of playing experience since returning from injury. He looks solid, too, and perhaps this win puts him back into the Ryder Cup conversation for Bethpage.
FanDuel Odds: Berger to win at +2500
RJ Ochoa — Senior Producer, Blogging the Boys
One of the more underrated players going right now in my opinion is Billy Horschel. To be clear, what someone is “rated” is contextual, so underrated in this context means he is still better than you think.
It has been a while since we have seen Billy Ho seriously contend, but as things kick off in Florida, I trust him to get it done. I would not suggest that there is a connection between how a player is in TGL and how he is on Tour, but Horschel was really feeling himself on Monday night against Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common squad.
He put up some monster numbers in his last two outings, but let’s not forget that he had a top-10 finish at Pebble Beach. In a not-so-glamorous field in South Florida, give me the Gator back in his home territory.
FanDuel Odds: Horschel to win at +5500
Mark Schofield — Staff Writer, NFL and Formula 1
“Never wrong, just early.”
A few weeks ago, I picked Shane Lowry to win at the Genesis Invitational. His early run of form this season, and the fact that he was going off at +4000, made him an enticing long-shot selection.
And, if you have been following along with our staff picks so far this season at SB Nation, you know I’ve been leaning towards underdogs. Lowry finished that week at 2-over, salvaging his weekend with a final-round performance of 2-under. However, this week, he is one of the favorites! He is at +2000 right now, which puts him at the top of this... interesting field.
So we’re rolling with him again, now as a favorite.
Never wrong, just early.
FanDuel Odds: Lowry to win at +2000
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.