{"id":477069,"date":"2026-02-19T03:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477069\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:39:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-to-skip-cognizant-classic-set-for-augusta-return-after-genesis-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477069\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy to skip Cognizant Classic, set for Augusta return after Genesis Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cognizant Classic will have a little less star power next week in West Palm Beach.<\/p>\n<p>After playing in the last two events on the PGA Tour\u2019s West Coast swing, No. 2-ranked Rory McIlroy will skip the first of the Florida events and head directly to Augusta National Golf Club to prepare his title defense in April.<\/p>\n<p>Golf Channel\u2019s Todd Lewis reported Wednesday that McIlroy will play alongside his dad, Gerry McIlroy, and Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be his second trip to Augusta since completing the career Grand Slam there last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was able to walk up to the Champions Locker and see his name inside, and that experience made him very excited to defend his championship\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p>The Masters begins April 9.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"Link\" aria-label=\"Genesis Invitational 2026: First-round tee times, groupings and how to watch\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfchannel.com\/pga-tour\/news\/genesis-invitational-2026-first-round-tee-times-groupings-and-how-to-watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"The Genesis Invitational - Final Round\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771472348_427_.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tee times, groupings and how to watch the first round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy won the 2025 tournament in a playoff over Justin Rose, snapping an 11-year major championship drought. It was one of three PGA Tour events McIlroy won last year (2025 Players Championship and the AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am were the others).<\/p>\n<p>The full field for the Cognizant Classic will be revealed later this week. <\/p>\n<p>Before either event, McIlroy is slated to tee off at 12:08 p.m. ET on Thursday at Riviera Country Club as the Genesis Invitational makes its return to Pacific Palisades after being played at Torrey Pines South Course last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cognizant Classic will have a little less star power next week in West Palm Beach. After playing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-477069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}