Ryan Gerard appears to be like for his second profession win on the PGA Tour when he competes at this week’s Cognizant Basic at Palm Seaside Gardens, Fla. He enters as the favourite at +1600, with Shane Lowry at +1700 from FanDuel Sportsbook. Gerard, 26, has three skilled wins, together with his lone PGA Tour victory at Barracuda Championship final July. Final week on the Genesis Invitational, Gerard tied for twenty eighth, 12 strokes again.
This 12 months’s Cognizant Basic will get underway at 6:45 a.m. ET on Thursday from the PGA Nationwide – Champion Course at Palm Seaside Gardens, Fla. The match with a $9.6 million purse will probably be performed on a par-71 course measuring 7,223 yards. Apart from Gerard and Lowry, different favorites embody Nicolai Hojgaard (+1900), Rasmus Hojgaard (+2200), Michael Thorbjornsen (+2200) and Keith Mitchell (+2700). Joe Highsmith is the defending match champion, successful the 2025 occasion by two strokes over Jacob Bridgeman and J.J. Spaun. Highsmith is +15000 this 12 months within the PGA odds.
Earlier than making any 2026 Cognizant Basic picks or coming into any Cognizant Basic one and executed picks, that you must see the 2026 PGA Cognizant Basic predictions and finest bets from golf professional Brady Kannon.
Kannon is an elite {golfing} betting handicapper with greater than 30 years of expertise within the trade. He is hit eight main outright winners since 2013, and hit six PGA winners, together with 110-1 longshot Harris English on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open, in 2025. Within the fall of 2022, he hit outright winners in three consecutive weeks: Russell Henley (40-1), Tony Finau (18-1) and Adam Svensson (150-1).
Final season, he hit Hideki Matsuyama (22-1), Harris English (110-1), Ludvig Aberg (25-1), Ben Griffin/Andrew Novak (25-1) in New Orleans, Tommy Fleetwood on the Tour Championship (14-1) and Hideki Matsuyama (20-1) on the Hero World Problem. Moreover, he is 25-17-4 on head-to-head bets since becoming a member of SportsLine.
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Now, Kannon has targeted his consideration on the 2026 Cognizant Basic subject and locked in his finest bets sleepers and golfers to keep away from. You possibly can solely see them right here.
Prime 2026 Cognizant Basic professional picks
One in all Kannon’s 2026 Cognizant Basic predictions: He is utterly fading Gerard, the favourite, avoiding him in outright bets and advises to go towards him in head-to-head bets as nicely.
“We noticed a 26-year previous born within the latter half of 1999 win final week at Riviera however I’m not banking on yet one more ‘Get together prefer it’s 1999’ occurring once more for a second straight 26-year previous this week in Palm Seaside Gardens,” Kannon advised SportsLine. “Gerard is an excellent participant who notched his first PGA Tour win in his rookie 12 months final season. He started this 12 months red-hot, with two straight runner-up finishes however now on this watered-down subject, he’s on the very high of the board because the betting favourite — being priced the identical if not decrease than Shane Lowry. It’s a very completely different world, going from 30-40-50-to-1 longshot to lone favourite and now being “anticipated” to win the golf match.” See who Kannon is backing at SportsLine.
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Easy methods to make 2026 PGA Cognizant Basic picks
Kannon has revealed his finest bets, and his high outright decide is a shocking golfer going off at greater than 45-1. He is an ideal course match, and anybody who backs him might hit it massive. You possibly can solely see who it’s at SportsLine.
What are the very best bets for the 2026 PGA Cognizant Basic, and which ignored golfer shoulder you goal? Try the 2026 PGA Cognizant Basic odds beneath, then go to SportsLine to see Brady Kannon’s high picks for the 2026 PGA Cognizant Basic, all from the professional who nailed 4 outright winners final season.
2026 PGA Cognizant Basic odds, subject
See the total PGA Cognizant Basic picks, finest bets and predictions right here.
(odds from FanDuel and topic to vary)
Ryan Gerard +1600
Shane Lowry +1700
Nicolai Højgaard +1900
Rasmus Højgaard +2200
Michael Thorbjornsen +2200
Keith Mitchell +2700
Daniel Berger +2700
Brooks Koepka +3000
Aaron Rai +3300
Alex Smalley +3300
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +3300
Davis Thompson +3300
Will Zalatoris +3500
Max McGreevy +3500
Richard Hoey +4000
Johnny Keefer +4000
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +4000
Haotong Li +4000
Thorbjørn Olesen +4000
Nico Echavarria +4000
Max Homa +4500
Kristoffer Reitan +4500
Michael Brennan +4500
Jordan Smith +4500
Mac Meissner +4500
Mackenzie Hughes +4500
Chris Kirk +4500
Sami Valimaki +5000
John Parry +5500
Tom Kim +5500
Stephan Jaeger +5500
Ricky Castillo +5500
Seamus Energy +6000
Garrick Higgo +6000
Matt Wallace +6000
Doug Ghim +7000
Kris Ventura +7000
Jesper Svensson +7000
Kevin Yu +7000
Zecheng Dou +7500
Austin Eckroat +7500
S.H. Kim +7500
Joel Dahmen +7500
Kevin Roy +7500
Eric Cole +7500
Gary Woodland +7500
David Ford +8000
Dan Brown +8000
Billy Horschel +8000
Adrien Dumont de Chassart +8000
Dylan Wu +8000
Luke Clanton +8000
Emiliano Grill +8000
Vince Whaley +8000
David Lipsky +10000
Mark Hubbard +10000
Chandler Blanchet +10000
Davis Riley +10000
Keita Nakajima +10000
Sudarshan Yellamaraju +10000
Takumi Kanaya +10000
Beau Hossler +10000
Taylor Moore +10000
Austin Smotherman +10000
Lee Hodges +10000
Erik van Rooyen +10000
Matt Kuchar +10000
Karl Vilips +10000
Isaiah Salinda +10000
Blades Brown +10000
Steven Fisk +10000
Andrew Putnam +10000
Matti Schmid +10000
Chad Ramey +10000
Adrien Saddier +10000
Sam Ryder +10000
Adam Hadwin +10000
Jackson Suber +10000
Chan Kim +10000
