{"id":508795,"date":"2026-03-02T04:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508795\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:48:13","slug":"nico-echavarria-wins-cognizant-classic-in-the-palm-beaches-with-flawless-weekend-after-shane-lowry-melts-down-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508795\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Echavarria wins Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches with flawless weekend after Shane Lowry melts down late"},"content":{"rendered":"

5H AGO<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3 Min Read<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Daily Wrap Up<\/p>\n

<\/a>*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>\"Nico<\/p>\n

Nico Echavarria wins the 2026 Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n

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A<\/p>\n

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Written by Associated Press<\/p>\n

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Nico Echavarria didn’t make a bogey all weekend. Shane Lowry was on his way to doing the same, until the very end.<\/p>\n

And that’s what decided the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.<\/p>\n

Echavarria \u2014 who was three shots back with three holes left \u2014 shot a 5-under 66 on Sunday to win at PGA National, finishing at 17-under 267 and beating Lowry (69), Austin Smotherman (69) and Taylor Moore (68) by two shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to have good breaks,\u201d Echavarria said.<\/p>\n

He got them. Lowry didn’t.<\/p>\n

Lowry \u2014 who remains snakebit by PGA National, where he has now finished in the top 11 for five straight years without a victory \u2014 was undone by consecutive double bogeys at the par-4 16th and par-3 17th, both resulting from tee shots that drifted way right and into the water.<\/p>\n

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Shane Lowry falls from Cognizant Classic lead after finishing Bear Trap with double-double <\/p>\n

It was Echavarria’s third PGA TOUR win and first in the United States, and this one earned a second Masters invitation for the 31-year-old from Colombia. The $1.728 million winner’s check was the biggest of his career, about $200,000 more than what he got for winning the Baycurrent Championship in Japan in 2024.<\/p>\n

Lowry \u2014 who has been in contention at PGA National in each of the last five years and had late leads in 2022 and 2024 \u2014 was rolling along, chipping in for birdie on the par-4 ninth to start a run where he went 5 under in a five-hole stretch.<\/p>\n

And he had a three-shot lead over Echavarria going to the par-4 16th. That’s where his nightmare began.<\/p>\n

Lowry’s long iron off the tee was way right and found the water. After a penalty drop, he hit a wedge back to the fairway and his fourth shot found a greenside bunker. From an awkward stance, he blasted to 3 1\/2 feet and rolled in the putt for double bogey \u2014 trimming his lead to one.<\/p>\n

While all that was happening, Echavarria hit his approach on the par-3 17th to about 10 feet. He made the putt to pull into a tie, punching the air as he watched the ball roll into the hole.<\/p>\n

\"Nico<\/p>\n

Nico Echavarria hits 164-yard tee shot to 10 feet, sets up birdie on No. 17 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n

Lowry then made another double at 17 with an iron shot that was well short and right. He needed a miracle on the par-5 18th after playing his second shot into a greenside bunker. Lowry’s shot from nearly 30 yards skidded by, and Echavarria \u2014 in the scoring tent, watching the finish \u2014 knew he had won.<\/p>\n

Lowry was second in 2022, losing the lead after getting caught in a deluge on the final hole. He tied for fifth at PGA National a year later, had the solo lead going into the final round before finishing tied for fourth in 2024, then tied for 11th last year.<\/p>\n

This was, on paper, his best finish at PGA National. It just didn’t feel that way.<\/p>\n

Doubleheaders for Homa, Kim<\/p>\n

Max Homa (tied for 13th) and Tom Kim (59th) had a doubleheader Sunday. They were playing for Jupiter Links in a TGL match Sunday night<\/a>, just about 5 miles away from PGA National. Homa wasn’t sure if he\u2019d ever had two competitive events in one day before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt I have,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure when I was young I might have got close, but I can\u2019t think of it off the top of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka<\/a> and Ben Silverman played all four rounds together this week \u2014 and both holed out for birdie from the sand on the par-4 14th on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s tired of me now,\u201d Koepka said. \u201cHe\u2019s a good player. I\u2019ve known him for a long time.\u201d Koepka closed with a 65 to finish in a tie for ninth, by far his best finish since returning to the PGA TOUR. … Max McGreevy made an albatross on the par-5 third hole. It was the first at PGA National in the tournament\u2019s 20 years at the course, the TOUR said. … Defending champion Joe Highsmith finished 67th out of 67 players who made the cut. He finished at 6-over 290, 25 shots worse than a year ago.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max McGreevy’s incredible 246-yard albatross is the Shot of the Day<\/p>\n

*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-11jnzpa>img,.css-11jnzpa>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-11jnzpa::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}]]>\"Image<\/p>\n

Feb 28, 2026<\/p>\n

Daily Wrap Up<\/a>\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5H AGO 3 Min Read Daily Wrap Up *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Nico Echavarria wins the 2026 Cognizant Classic *:not(style)~*:not(style){margin-top:0.5rem;-webkit-margin-end:0px;margin-inline-end:0px;margin-bottom:0px;-webkit-margin-start:0px;margin-inline-start:0px;}]]> A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-508795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}