The third round of the 2026 Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches begins on Saturday, February 28, at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.a little earlier than usual, thanks to some severe weather expected Saturday afternoon in South Florida. You can find the complete Cognizant Classic Group Schedules for the third round on Saturday at the bottom of this post.
Separate training time for the 3rd round
Thirty-one-year-old Austin Smotherman has just one career top-5 on his PGA Tour resume — the 2023 Mexico Open at Vidanta — but thanks to a great start in Florida, the Southern Methodist alum can add to those numbers this weekend with something even better: a win.
Smotherman opened with a thrilling nine-under 62 on Thursday and followed that performance with a two-under 69 to move to 11 under overall. He now leads the field by three strokes heading into the weekend.
Smotherman’s closest competitor is Taylor Moore (-8), followed by AJ Ewart and Nico Echavarria (both -7) and Joel Dahmen (-6).
Smotherman will play alongside Moore and Ewart in Saturday’s final bracket at 9:40 a.m. ET.
You can watch Saturday’s third round of the 2026 Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches from 10-3pm ET on the Golf Channel. PGA Tour live on ESPN+ will offer exclusive early broadcast coverage beginning at 7:45 a.m. ET on Saturday, in addition to coverage of featured sets and featured holes.
Check out the full third round pool times and groupings for the Cognizant Classic below.
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2026 Cognizant Classic Saturday Group Times: Round 3 (ET)
Tea no. 1
07:28 – Zecheng Dou, Matthieu Pavon, Max McGreevy
7:40 – Mackenzie Hughes, Chan Kim, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
07:52 – Ryan Gerard, Brooks Koepka, Ben Silverman
08:04 – Steven Fisk, Ricky Castillo, Eric Cole
08:16 – Max Homa, Thorbjorn Olesen, Kevin Streelman
08:28 – Matti Schmid, Takumi Kanaya, Kevin Roy
08:40 – Seamus Power, Chad Ramey, Carson Young
08:52 – William Mouw, Michael Brennan, Daniel Berger
09:04 – Aaron Rai, Shane Lowry, Jimmy Stanger
9:16 – Kristoffer Reitan, Pontus Nyholm, Hank Lebioda
9:28 – Nico Echavarria, Joel Dahmen, Mark Hubbard
9:40 – Austin Smotherman, Taylor Moore, AJ Ewart
Tee no. 10
07:28 – Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Alex Smalley, Danny Walker
7:40 – Rasmus Hojgaard, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Dan Brown
7:52 – John Parry, Austin Eckroat, Beau Hossler
08:04 – Lee Hodges, Matt Wallace, Keith Mitchell
08:16 – Davis Thompson, Jackson Suber, Adrien Saddier
08:28 – Patrick Fishburn, Zach Bauchou, Dylan Wu
08:40 – Emiliano Grillo, Adam Schenk, Chandler Phillips
08:52 – Tom Kim, Patton Kizzire, Haotong Li
09:04 – David Ford, Billy Horschel, Garrick Higgo
9:16 – Joe Highsmith, Nicolai Hojgaard
9:28 – Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Jordan Smith
