Cognizant Classic: 20 years at PGA National, its peaks and valleys

The Honda Classic started in 1972 as Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic in Lauderhill and moved around Broward County for 31 years before landing in Palm Beach County. The event benefited Mirasol, which used it to help sell real estate at first. Four years later, it was ready to move on from the tournament.

What better spot than an iconic course originally designed by George and Tom Fazio and redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 2000.

"The tournament was moving from a golf course that was not designed and built to handle a gallery, to a golf course that could handle any gallery," Nicklaus told The Palm Beach Post. "It made the golf and the whole event more logical, and it worked.

"Mirasol was a fine golf course, but it played around preserves and wetlands. At PGA National, you go from one hole to the next, one place to the other, with a clubhouse that is centrally located and a driving range easily accessible. Everything is just right there. That allows for an even more successful tournament. Not just for the golfers, but also for the fans."

Ken Kennerly took over as the executive director of the Honda Classic when the move was made and held that title through the 2022 tournament.

"Moving to PGA National really gave us an opportunity to grow the entire stage of the event," said Kennerly, now the executive director of the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational. "The resort was on site, the golf course and the opportunity to build around the golf course provided a larger stage. It just basically gave us a platform to grow.

"We knew we had to think outside of the box. We had to do something a little bit different."

Local PGA Tour event celebrating 20 years at PGA National

This year's tournament, which starts Feb. 26, marks the 20th anniversary since the move to PGA National. Now called the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches after American Honda ended the longest-running uninterrupted title sponsorship deal for a PGA Tour event following 2023, the tournament has had its peaks and valleys in those two decades.

Although it has lost much of its luster in recent years, the Honda Classic at one time was a must-attend/must-see event for fans on-site to television viewing experiences.

Part of that growth and reputation was due to its relationship with Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion whose home is less than seven miles from the resort.

The Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, founded by Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, is the primary charitable beneficiary of the event. Jack became the face of the tournament once it arrived at PGA National. He now appears on the television broadcast each year.

The foundation was established in 2004, one year after the Honda Classic moved from Broward to Palm Beach County.

"It wasn’t until the tournament got to PGA National that we started getting some real traction," Nicklaus said. "We were starting to lay down our roots, and the partnership with the tournament and PGA National assisted in our growth."

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy help make Honda Classic a main event

During the initial news conference to announce the move, literally, across the street, PGA National resort owner Llwyd Ecclestone said, "I think we're going to blow the socks off everybody here."

And soon they would.

The tournament had a gradual climb until the one man who could put it over the top arrived.

"I wanted Tiger year one," Kennerly said about Tiger Woods. "My biggest blessing was not getting Tiger year one, two, three or four, because we weren't ready for him."

By 2012, they were.

And so was Tiger, who moved to the area (Jupiter Island) in 2011.

Kennerly got emotional the day he announced Woods would be playing in the 2012 event. "It's like you finally have your baby," he said.

And it was just the start.

The Honda Classic truly arrived that year. Rory McIlroy, 22 at the time, held off a surging Woods in the final round for a two-shot victory. Woods' 62 that day is his lowest score in a final round in his career.

The victory pushed McIlroy to No. 1 in the world for the first time in what has become a Hall of Fame career.

"It was Christmas every day of the week because the people were coming out, the dreams that we had envisioned this to become were coming to reality," Kennerly said. "We had all the ingrdients to make this successful."

Kennerly cited the tournament's main partners — Nicklaus, Honda, PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach County — calling them "pillars."

"It wasn't just a golf tournament," Nicklaus said. "It was an event that Palm Beach County and the surrounding communities embraced and wanted to be involved in. The same thing applies today with the Cognizant Classic."

In 2014, seven of the top 10 golfers in the world, including Woods and McIlroy, teed it up as Northern Palm Beach County was establishing itself as the golf mecca of the world. Included were Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson and Sergio Garcia.

And for the next four years, Honda averaged 14 of the top 25 golfers in the world.

"Guys were moving to Jupiter, like crazy," said Paige, who works for Escalante Golf out of Fort Worth, Texas. "All the people that were playing before kind of got really, really big. Rory played a lot."

While Woods entered four times between 2012 and 2018, including 2014 when he withdrew after three rounds because of back spasms, McIlroy played eight straight years from 2009 to 2016. Perhaps McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, was scouting the area for a new home those early years. He moved to Palm Beach County in 2013.

Paige, who ran the PGA Tour event at Doral for 10 years before arriving at PGA National in 2006, said it had the vibe of the Phoenix Open, the gold standard on the PGA Tour when it comes to fan enhancement and a high-energy social scene.

"We were getting 200,000 people over the tournament after Tiger hit," he said. "The Bear Trap (grandstands) tripled in size and went to two or three levels. The vibe was just amazing. It was just the place to be."

And the golf version of the Bear Trap — the challenging three-hole stretch starting at No. 15 with two par 3s including the Champ's signature 17th hole — was gaining a reputation as one of the more difficult stretches on the Tour.

"The Bear Trap can embarrass anybody at the end and for a while it was a novelty," Paige said. "Then it got to be a little bit of a turn off."

Honda was becoming much more than a golf tournament. In its heyday, this was the place ... not just to be, but to be seen. Hanging out at the Bear Trap was about status and prestige, not unlike being spotted at the most popular nightclub in town.

And the lobby at PGA National turned into a (very) late-night party the weekend of the Honda.

"We created a fan-favorite event," Kennerly said. "We created the fun, the energy. Created a reason for people to go, whether you're a golf fan or not."

And the PGA Tour took notice, recognizing Honda as its "Most Fan First Event" in 2014 and 2019.

After 20 years at PGA National, local PGA Tour event has lost its buzz

More recently, the event has been at a crossroads for several years.

Now in its third year as the Cognizant Classic, the tournament recently has been in an unfavorable spot in the PGA Tour schedule, especially since the creation of Signature Events.

And the Tour, which took over the day-to-day operation of the tournament the year Cognizant became the title sponsor, has not offered much relief.

That, and complaints the course had become too difficult, led to declining interest from the Tour's best golfers, many of whom live within a 10-mile radius of the course.

The decline started in 2019; just six golfers ranked in the top 10 were in the field from 2019-2025. One fewer than 2014 alone. Honda bailed on the tournament after 42 years as title sponsor in part because it saw the quality of the field drastically decline.

Fewer marquee names means fewer fans.

"Early, all the guys that lived there, they just liked playing it. They would just play because it was a fun place to play," Paige said. "The field hasn't been as strong for a bunch of different reasons, going back to Signature Events and LIV. Some of the guys that live there … just didn't really love the course as much as they did the first four, five, or six years when all the excitement was there.

"I'll be curious to see where it goes from here."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PGA Tour event at PGA National was the place to be during its heyday