Nicolas Echavarria wins 2026 Cognizant Classic

Nico Echavarria (YouTube)

Nicolas Echavarria of Medellin, Colombia has won the 2026 Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Echavarria posted a winning score of -17 for his third career PGA title.

Three golfers were tied for second place at -15. They were American Taylor Moore of San Angelo, Texas, American Austin Smotherman of Loomis, California and Ireland’s Shane Lowry, the 2019 British Open champion. Moore, Smotherman and Lowry were all at -15  and two strokes back of Echavarria.

Echavarria had a first round score of eight-under-par 63, a second round score of one-over-par 72, and then back-to-back rounds of five-under-par 66. On Thursday, Echavarria had eight birdies and zero bogeys. He had four birdies each on the front nine and back nine. On Friday, Echavarria did not finish well, as he bogeyed the 17th and 18th holes. On Saturday, Echavarria had his second round of the weekend without a single bogey, as he birdied the first, third, eighth, 10th and 18th holes. Then in round four on Sunday, Echavarria did not have a bogey again as he had five birdies. He birdied the third, fourth, eighth, 10th and 17th holes.

This was Echavarria’s third PGA Tour title. interestingly, this was Echavarria’s first PGA Tour title in the United States. He previously won the 2023 Puerto Rico Open and the 2024 Zozo Championship in Japan.

All-time, there have been three Colombians to win on the PGA Tour. The other two are Camillo Villegas and Sebastian Munoz. Villegas won the 2008 BMW Championship, the 2008 Tour Championship, the 2010 Honda Classic, 2014 Wyndham Championship, and the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Munoz won the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship.