One by one, the names started disappearing from the Cognizant Classic field. First it was Michael Kim, then Taylor Pendrith, and more followed. The field kept shrinking, and nobody was saying much about it until now. Justin Thomas, the former champion who still calls Palm Beach home, finally put a name to the problem.

“It’s a bummer. It’s one of those events that has fallen at an unfortunate time in the schedule,” he told the media. “I think it’s both a great thing and a bad thing about our schedule: the number of great golf courses that we go to. It’s a great problem to have, but it is; it’s just one of those things, the way that guys need to play certain events or feel like they give themselves the best opportunity to win and make as many points as possible. It’s just kind of where it falls, kind of thing.”

The PGA Tour visits approximately 40 great courses annually, some of which it has been associated with for decades. For instance, even JT pointed out that he loves playing the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, but he tends to miss out because he needs rest and cannot play 4-5 events in a row leading up to API or PLAYERS.

The Cognizant Classic sits in one of the most congested stretches on the PGA Tour calendar. It runs the week after the Genesis Invitational and a week before the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (March 5-8) and two weeks before The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass (March 12-15). For most golfers, skipping a mid-tier event to arrive fresh at a signature event is not a difficult decision.

The wider problem is structural. The 2026 PGA Tour schedule now features nine signature events, up from eight last year, with Trump National Doral returning to the lineup as the Miami Championship. Rather than creating more breathing room, the expansion has only further compressed an already congested calendar.

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Rex Hoggard of Golf Channel noted that signature events will again dominate the landscape in 2026 and that non-signature tournaments and their players will continue to scramble for relevancy. One stretch alone in spring features two majors and three signature events within six weeks. Players outside the top 50 in FedExCup points face a nine-week run from April to early June with just four full-field tournaments to work with.

And this week, withdrawals say it all. According to PGA Tour Communications, the field has seen Michael Kim, Taylor Pendrith, Ben Griffin, Jacob Bridgeman, Patrick Rodgers, and Adam Scott all withdraw. They’re being replaced by Sam Ryder, Daniel Berger, Jackson Suber, Lanto Griffin, Brandt Snedeker, and Harry Higgs (sponsor exemption). Additionally, the field was expanded to 123 players after Brooks Koepka, with alternates Frankie Capan III and Carson Young.

Jacob Bridgeman, fresh off winning the Genesis Invitational, also withdrew, probably to take a rest before teeing off at Bay Hill next week. Scott also said earlier this year that he likes to play frequently in January and early February to get a jump on things, instead of grinding hard when big events come up.

Similarly, the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, and the Charles Schwab Challenge suffer a similar fate of weak fields, as they happen between the PGA Championship and Jack Nicklaus’s signature event, the Memorial at Muirfield Village CC.

As the Cognizant Classic gets underway this week at PGA National Resort, Thomas himself is preparing for a different kind of comeback story.

Justin Thomas eyes a full return after months on the sidelines

The 2x major champion last competed at the Ryder Cup in September 2025. Shortly after, he underwent a microdiscectomy at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York to address a herniated disc that had been causing hip pain for months, missing the first four events of the 2026 PGA Tour season.

By January, he was posting on social media that “little victories and patience have been the biggest part of the process,” targeting the Florida Swing for his comeback. He was eventually cleared for all golf activity after follow-up imaging confirmed the surgery had healed well.

His return to competitive play came on February 23 at the SoFi Center, where he played TGL for Atlanta Drive after teammate Luke Bryan publicly called him out on social media. His PGA Tour season debut is set for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill the following week.

But getting back to tournament sharpness is a different challenge. “I’ll still run into situations I haven’t been in in a while,” he said, pointing to a fairway bunker shot during practice as something that caught him off guard after months away.