Tournament: Cognizant Classic In The Palm Beaches, February 29-March3, 2024

Course: Pga National, par 71, 7,147 yards. Played on the Champions Course, the PGA National resort is in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Just north of Boca and Ft. Lauderdale.

Purse: $9 million in total; $1,620,000 to the winner.

Defending Champ: Georgia’s own Chris Kirk. The Knoxville native and current Athens-area resident was at or near the top of the leaderboard all 4 days, and lead the tourney playing his 72nd hole. An untimely wash of an approach shot gave him bogey and led to a playoff with Eric Cole. But Kirk played to his strength, and was left with a 2 foot birdie kick-in to win it all.

Fun Fact: Back to 2018, a Bulldog has finished at least in the top 8 in this tournament, which includes 3 wins. And 4 former Bulldogs have won the tournament outright: Russell Henley (2014), Keith Mitchell (2019), Sepp Straka (2022), and Chris Kirk (2023).

TV Times: Thursday-Friday: 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (NBC). The network coverage switches over to NBC while CBS ramps up its basketball coverage until the Masters.

‘Dawgs in the Field: 8. Chris Kirk, Davis Thompson, Keith Mitchell, Kevin Kisner, Greyson Sigg, Brendon Todd, Russell Henley, Sepp Straka.

So the Honda Classic is out, and the Cognizant Classic is in. Honda was one of several corporate sponsors to notify the PGA Tour they would not be renewing naming rights obligations last year. But the Tour dug deep into the Rolodex and popped a few new names.

PGA National is a bear of a course. And considering Jack Nicklaus is the designer, plus he’s directing the majority of the charitable donations to a local Children’s Hospital with strong Nicklaus family ties. And there’s a late 3 hole stretch called “The Bear Trap” due to its tough playability.

None of our boys are showing any exceptional form, but its early yet and guys are just starting to ramp up their schedule. And based on the aforementioned prior success, you can’t count out any of these ‘Dawgs.

There will be competition for eyeballs. UGA Baseball has a big series with Georgia Tech, the Gym Dogs host Auburn Friday, and your top 5 ranked Georgia Softball heads across the country to play in a West Coast tourney. Not to mention it’s only 44 days until G-Day. Things are popping all over, but if you want to watch ‘Dawgs chasing little white balls, then flip it on over to Golf Channel and NBC. And as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!