Daily Wrap Up<\/p>\n
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Austin Smotherman sinks 55-foot birdie putt on No. 17 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n
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Written by Associated Press<\/p>\n
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Brooks Koepka doesn’t aspire to simply make the weekends. Ben Silverman was merely hoping to play, period.<\/p>\n
They’ll return to PGA National on Saturday, after bouncing back in the second round of the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.<\/p>\n
Koepka shot a 5-under 66 on Friday<\/a>, trimming eight shots from his opening round score, and Silverman shaved six shots from his opening round with a 3-under 67. That got them well within the cut line, and both are at 2 under headed into the weekend \u2013 nine shots behind leader Austin Smotherman (69).<\/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-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Brooks Koepka pours in 33-foot birdie putt on No. 12 at Cognizant Classic<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m out here to try to make cuts, I\u2019m probably done,\u201d said Koepka, the five-time major championship winner who is a native of Palm Beach County and has a bit of a home-field edge this week. He has now made two of three cuts since returning to the PGA TOUR earlier this year.<\/p>\n Koepka only hit six of 14 fairways on Friday, but putted the ball far better and made six birdies \u2013 four more than he had in Round 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI hit it a lot worse today,\u201d Koepka said. \u201cDidn\u2019t drive it nearly as good. Iron play wasn\u2019t as good, but the putter was better. Made a few adjustments after the round yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n Smotherman stayed red-hot, with a 55-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th among the highlights as he took a three-shot lead into the weekend. Taylor Moore is second, solo at 8 under after his second consecutive 67. A.J Ewart (64, the round of the day) is at 7 under, tied for third with Nico Echavarria (72).<\/p>\n Ewart played his college golf at Barry University in Miami Shores, maybe a 90-minute drive or so from Palm Beach Gardens. He’s been to the Cognizant Classic before as a fan and remembers following Koepka around in the past \u2013 though confessed some of the memories are hazy. \u201cCouple too many drinks sitting in the Bear Trap,\u201d he said, referring to the stretch of holes 15 through 17 at PGA National.<\/p>\n A.J. Ewart hits 163-yard drive to 6 feet, sets up birdie on No. 15<\/p>\n \u201cComing into the week, I had never actually played the golf course, but I felt like I knew it just from watching it,\u201d Ewart said. \u201cSomewhat of a home game, yeah. It feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n Silverman \u2013 who lives in Jupiter, about a 15-minute drive from the course that the Cognizant Classic calls home \u2013 put together rounds of 73-67 to make the weekend. He missed the cut by four shots at PGA National last year in this event.<\/p>\n \u201cMy focus going into the week was I\u2019m taking a week off at home, and if I get in, great. I was 15th alternate Sunday. I moved to 13th Monday morning, then that moved to fourth Monday afternoon, and the three guys in front of me I knew were committed to Argentina, so once they pulled out Wednesday, then it was, \u2018Maybe I\u2019ve got a chance now,\u2019\u201d Silverman said. \u201cI was pretty excited when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n He was also pretty tired when the first two rounds were done. Back-to-back days of 4:30 a.m. alarms \u2013 with about 18 hours of being at the course in that span \u2013 will do that to someone. He went through two gym sessions and two warm-ups on Thursday morning even before getting the call that Zalatoris couldn’t play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Silverman said. \u201cHonestly, I would love to play in a group like that every day, major winners, multiple PGA TOUR winners. It\u2019s a different vibe, different energy amongst the players, amongst the crowd. I like that environment. That\u2019s where I want to be. Thanks to Will, unfortunately, but throwing me in that position was fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n Added Koepka: \u201cI think he\u2019ll enjoy his sleep tonight.\u201d<\/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%;}]]> Feb 28, 2026<\/p>\n Cognizant Classic: How to watch finale from PGA National<\/a>Latest<\/a>![\"Brooks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772235908_982_image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A.J.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772330474_219_image.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1D 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%;}]]> Austin Smotherman sinks 55-foot birdie putt on No. 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-451240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}