When Jake Knapp came out and shot an opening-round 59 at the 2025 Cognizant Classic, many wondered if PGA National, one of the most fun non-signature event venues on the PGA Tour, had lost some of its teeth. Heading into the final round, though, it became clear that Thursday was an outlier. While Knapp held the 54-hole lead, he'd largely lost that advantage at the 36-hole mark and held just a one-stroke lead over Michael Kim. And with a good amount of money on the line, the stage was set for a great Sunday finish.
Kim played phenomenal golf, as did Knapp, down the stretch on a difficult Saturday. While others, like Jesper Svensson and Taylor Montgomery, faltered as they went through The Bear Trap, they held it together to go into Sunday. Having said that, the final round loomed large with guys like Russell Henley, Daniel Berger, Rickie Fowler and several others all within striking distance and threatening to take the winner's payout from the Cognizant Classic purse.
For one of the most chaotic venues, especially with the winds that whip around Palm Beach Gardens, the Cognizant Classic payout might feel better than at most other PGA Tour stops. But how much prize money is on the line? Let's first take a look at the total purse and the winner's share of the prize money before we go into the full payout distribution for all 68 players who made the cut at PGA National.
Cognizant Classic purse 2025: Winner's prize money, total purse
The winner of the 2025 Cognizant Classic will receive a $1.656 million payout for their victory at PGA National this week, which breaks down to the standard 18% that is given to the winner of the $9.2 million purse on the line this week at PGA National. We all know this isn't a signature event, but it's a phenomenal test of golf. Perhaps more importantly, though, a win at this tournament would vault the champion into next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational and the looming PLAYERS Championship as well — not to mention that all-important invite to The Masters.
Cognizant Classic payout distribution by finishing position in 2025
Here's a full look at the 2025 Cognizant Classic prize money and payout distribution for every finishing position among the 68 players who made the cut this week at PGA National.
Finishing Position | Cognizant Classic Prize Money |
|---|---|
Winner | $1.656 million |
2nd | $1,002,800 |
3rd | $634,800 |
4th | $450,800 |
5th | $377,200 |
6th | $333,500 |
7th | $310,500 |
8th | $287,500 |
9th | $269,100 |
10th | $250,700 |
11th | $232,300 |
12th | $213,900 |
13th | $195,500 |
14th | $177,100 |
15th | $167,900 |
16th | $158,700 |
17th | $149,500 |
18th | $140,300 |
19th | $131,100 |
20th | $121,900 |
21st | $112,700 |
22nd | $103,500 |
23rd | $96,140 |
24th | $88,780 |
25th | $81,420 |
26th | $74,060 |
27th | $71,300 |
28th | $68,540 |
29th | $65,780 |
30th | $63,020 |
31st | $60,260 |
32nd | $57,500 |
33rd | $54,740 |
34th | $52,440 |
35th | $50,140 |
36th | $47,840 |
37th | $45,540 |
38th | $43,700 |
39th | $41,860 |
40th | $40,020 |
41st | $38,180 |
42nd | $36,340 |
43rd | $34,500 |
44th | $32,660 |
45th | $30,820 |
46th | $28,980 |
47th | $27,140 |
48th | $25,668 |
49th | $24,380 |
50th | $23,644 |
51st | $23,092 |
52nd | $22,540 |
53rd | $22,172 |
54th | $21,804 |
55th | $21,620 |
56th | $21,436 |
57th | $21,252 |
58th | $21,068 |
59th | $20,884 |
60th | $20,700 |
61st | $20,516 |
62nd | $20,332 |
63rd | $20,148 |
64th | $19,964 |
65th | $19,780 |
66th | $19,596 |
67th | $19,412 |
68th | $19,228 |
While it's still not the payouts that we see at signature events on the PGA Tour, the Cognizant Classic is a clear step up from last week in Mexico. We obviously have a winner's payout at more than $1.6 million but the runner-up this week will also get seven figures to clear the $1 million mark, even if just barely. Beyond that, the Top 22 on the leaderboard clear six figures this week, which didn't even make it all the way through the Top 20 last week. So that's good to see and likely explains the better field this week.
In the future, though, it would be terrific fun for golf fans to see this purse increase and perhaps even have the Cognizant Classic flirt with signature event status. This is one of the best and most uniquely challenging courses in golf, so getting even better fields and players here will only make this a better stop for fans and the PGA Tour alike.