2026 FGT Results - Cognizant Classic

Standing on the 16th tee - the start of the much hyped “Bear Trap” - Shane Lowry had a 3 shot lead over his nearest competitor and was estimated to have >96% chance to win the tournament. Just 30 minutes later it was all over, as Lowry found the water twice in two holes and Nico Echavarria had won by two shots instead. Heartbreaking stuff, but to his great credit Lowry talked to the media immediately afterwards; you could tell he was emotional as he talked about wanting to get the first win in front of his 4-year-old daughter since she’d never seen him win a tournament. He still takes home ~$726k for the T2 finish.

Meanwhile, Echavarria got his third PGA Tour win, and the $1.7+MM will definitely help pay for the new house that his wife was closing on while he was playing the round yesterday. That prize also means that Lowry’s Double-Double-Par finish cost him about $1MM! Ouch.

In our game, just two teams picked Nico Echavarria this year - they finished 5th and 6th this week, as neither of them had anyone else paired with him that made any money. Oops. However, there are still some teams who build lower-point lineups to target these JV tournaments. One of these - Hood It At The Top - had 12 guys make the cut this week, earning a total of $2,348,112…and took 2nd place. They finished about $140k behind Weezy’s Non-Profit Profiteers, who had 13 make the cut, lead by Austin Smotherman and Taylor Moore. The win moves Weezy up 10 places, to 210th overall.

Because this was an off week for most of the Tour’s stars and most of our teams are heavy on the high-point guys, there wasn’t a lot of movement at the top end of the board, but there was some. Always 3 Putting regains the overall lead over Windowlickers II by a very slim margin, thanks to Ryan Gerard’s T23 finish.

The stars return for a couple more high-dollar events over the next couple weeks, with the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week and The Players the week after. Could be some big changes coming with those large prize pots…