Lowry moves into the mix as Horschel suffers heckling at Cognizant Classic
Shane Lowry of Ireland reacts to his par save on the No. 16 green during the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Saturday, April 12, 2025.
Shane Lowry continued his Palm Beach love affair and avoided the heckling involving playing partner Billy Horschel to move into contention at the Cognizant Classic.
The Offalyman has a great record at PGA National, recording three top-fives in his last four starts, including a runner-up finish in 2022.
He now has a chance to end a three-and-a-half-year individual victory drought this week after firing a second-round 67 to go into the weekend tied for sixth on five under, just six shots behind leader Austin Smotherman.
Lowry birdied the second, third, ninth, 10th and 13th in breezy afternoon conditions to race to six under par.
While he bogeyed the 14th, he parred the 15th, where Horschel racked up a triple-bogey six as he got heckled by a fan for his comments on the course after round one.
The American went on to bogey the 17th and 18th to shoot 73 and scrape through the cut line on level par.
But Lowry kept his composure through the Bear Trap stretch, and while he failed to convert a 14-foot birdie chance at the 16th and three-putted the 17th for bogey, a birdie from 20 feet at the 18th put him in the mix again.
Overnight leader Smotherman added a 69 to his opening 62 to lead by three shots from Taylor Moore on 11 under, while Seamus Power was joint 13th, seven shots off the lead on four under after a fine 67.
But Horschel had to suffer some heckling by a fan at the 15th after firing his tee shot into the grandstand left of the green.
The former FedExCup winner took his drop before thinning his chip over the green and into the water en route to a triple-bogey six.
As he reached for a new ball, a fan who remarked on his comments on the golf course set up earlier in the week.
The heckle prompted Horschel to turn around and ask, “Who said that?”
“I mean, I guess you guys want to make yourselves feel good about yourselves with a comment like that, don’t you?” Horschel said to the fan who accused him of criticising the golf course.
“‘Overseed, overseed,’” Horschel said. “It wasn’t the first time I heard it today, but obviously, in that situation, I hit a bad golf shot, and they wanted to say it.”
Horschel was defending his course comments in his exchange with the fan, saying, “Complaints about your course? I said it’s been pretty good, my man. Maybe you should read the entire comments.”
After round one, Horschel had addressed the controversial switch from traditional Bermuda grass to ryegrass overseeding at PGA National in recent years, which has made the course less punishing.
It's now more playable in March with Jake Knapp shooting 59 and Joe Highsmith winning on 19 under last year.
“I think the tour gets a bad rap, and it’s not anything against the owners of PGA National,” Horschel said after the first round.
“I understand where they would want to overseed. People want it to look pretty on TV, and if it looks pretty on TV, maybe people will want to come play it.
“But at the end of the day, as I’ve said for many years on the PGA Tour, I understand we are using a golf course that we don’t own a lot of times, and sometimes we’re at the discretion of what the owner wants to do.”
Event officials had the fan ejected from the grounds by police, though not at Horschel’s request.
“I’ve praised this golf course for many, many years,” Horschel said. “If I didn’t like this golf course, I wouldn’t come here and play every year.
“I wanted to make sure I informed him on that…. I walked back to the drop area, hit a shot and walked off with a six. There was no more said.”
As for the fan getting kicked out, Horschel added: “I said, ‘I didn’t ask for him to be kicked out’.”
Horschel added, “I think I can interact with a crowd as much or as little as anybody out here. But I just think it should be respectful. That’s all I ask for. It’s not like I’m going to their job sniping off to them a little bit.
“But like I said, it’s fine. I don’t care.
“A fan affecting me out on the golf course will never happen. I affect myself enough.”
