David Ford’s final score on Thursday at the 2026 Cognizant Classic, a 72, was not surprising, though perhaps a little higher than he would have liked. His scorecard from Day 1 at PGA National, however, tells a much different story.
That’s because Ford’s score conceals the fact that in the opening round he made eight pars, four bogeys, three birdies, two eagle hole-outs and an ugly quadruple-bogey.
Here’s exactly what happened in one of the wildest rounds of the year, as well as video highlights of Ford’s rollercoaster day at PGA National.
David Ford shoots 72 in most unlikely way at Cognizant Classic
Ford is a 23-year-old who is fresh out of college and just setting out on his pro golf career. He made 13 PGA Tour starts last season, making four cuts, including a T3-finish at the Bank of Utah Championship in October.
More importantly, Ford finished first the 2025 PGA Tour University rankings while starring at the University of North Carolina. That earned him his PGA Tour card for 2026.
In three starts before this week’s Cognizant Classic, Ford has fared well, making two of three cuts and earning a T13 at the American Express, won by Scottie Scheffler.
But even though his PGA Tour career is just beginning, it’s possible he’ll never again experience a round like he did on Thursday at PGA National.
Ford got his day started on the Champion Course’s back-nine at 1:35 p.m. ET on Thursday, and quickly made birdie at 10 to start out in red numbers.
When he dropped a second birdie at 12 to move to two under, things started looking good for the young pro. But just five holes later Ford sat at five over after dropping seven shots.
His first bogey came at 13, but it was the infamous Bear Trap — the difficult stretch from 15-17 — that truly got the best of Ford.
He stayed dry at 15 but still made bogey. At 16, he hit his tee shot into the water and made another bogey.
But the real disaster struck at the watery par-3 17th. Ford’s first tee shot ended up just in the water short and right of the green. With his ball only have-submerged, he decided to try and hit it from there rather than take a penalty.
Ford splashed down with his second shot, sending his ball halfway up the steep bank in front of him before it trundled back down into the water. He decided to try and hit the same shot with his third, and he got the same result.
At that point, Ford made the wise choice to take a penalty stroke and hit his fifth shot from the drop area.
Two putts later and he had a quadruple-bogey 7, falling to five over on the round.
But the David Ford rollercoaster was about to take a dramatic climb up the tracks.
David Ford rebounds from quad with back-to-back, hole-out eagles at Cognizant Classic
In the opening round of the 2026 Cognizant Classic, 2025 PGA Tour University No. 1 David Ford experiences a crazy sequence of events. Ford makes a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 17th hole in the treacherous Bear Trap after being unable to get the ball out of the hazard area. Then, Ford cards back-to-back hole-out eagles on Nos. 2-3.
At 18, Ford made birdie to finish his first nine at four over. After a par at 1, Ford hit his drive at the par-4 2nd into the fairway, then holed out from 144 yards for an eagle.
Suddenly his score had improved to two over. But Ford was far from done. He laid up with his second shot at the par-5 3rd, leaving 90 feet for his third shot. Incredibly, Ford dunked that wedge too for a second-straight eagle hole-out.
And just like that, in a matter of four holes Ford had erased his quadruple-bogey and improved from four over to even par.
The rest of his round was far less volatile, with Ford making five pars and one bogey to close out his one-over 72.
That left him in the middle of the pack on the leaderboard, just short of the projected cutline heading into Round 2. Despite the mess he made over his first eight holes, Ford has a fighting chance to make the cut at PGA National.
You can watch video highlights of Ford’s wild opening round at the Cognizant Classic above.
