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Jake Knapp falls apart late at the Cognizant Classic after opening-round 59

Knapp became just the 15th player in PGA Tour history to card a 59 or better this week in Florida

ryan young
Staff writer
·4-min read

Jake Knapp was on pace to back up one of the best rounds in golf history on Sunday afternoon.

But just like that, he saw his chance at a victory completely slip away down the stretch at PGA National.

Knapp, who fired a historic 59 to open the week in Palm Beach Gardens, stumbled down the stretch and ended up finishing T6 at the Cognizant Classic on Sunday. He shot a final-round 72, which dropped him to 15-under overall.

Joe Highsmith, who carded a bogey-free 64 on Sunday, ended up taking a two-shot win. It was first career win on the PGA Tour, and made him the first golfer since 2016 to win an event after making the cut on the number. That earned him a spot in next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Masters and all remaining Signature Events this season.

Knapp’s biggest issue on Sunday came at the 11th, when he landed just barely in the water near the green on his approach shot. Instead of taking a drop, Knapp took off his right shoe and rolled up his pant leg in order to try and hit the ball out of the water successfully. That strategy didn’t work, and resulted in him carding a triple bogey and dropping him out of contention almost immediately.

“I just think in the moment, even now I don't take it back,” Knapp said when asked if he talked about taking a drop instead. “It's just one of those shots you just have to end up hitting a little bit harder than I did.”

Knapp came just a shot shy of matching the PGA Tour’s all-time record in the first round on Thursday. He started his round off with five straight birdies to propel him to the 12-under 59. He just barely missed a birdie putt at the 17th, too, and then narrowly missed an eagle putt at the last.

Knapp is just the 15th player in Tour history to card a 59 or better in a round, and the first since Hayden Springer did so at the John Deere Classic last summer. Jim Furyk set the PGA Tour record with a 58 at the Travelers Championship in 2016.

That gave Knapp a three-shot lead when he hit the clubhouse. His lead dwindled to one after he posted a 70 on Friday, which included a double-bogey, and then he rallied back from a three-shot hole on Saturday to regain the one-shot lead after a chaotic moving day that saw 10 different players hold at least a share of the lead.

Knapp made the turn at 1-under on Sunday, which kept him in the lead. But after the 11th, it was all over. He closed out the day with seven straight pars to card his 1-over 72.

“The 59 the first day, those don't happen very often. So obviously that'll hold a special place in my heart,” Knapp said. “But that being said, the whole goal at the beginning of the week is always just to put yourself in position going into the weekend, and I was happy I was able to do that. Then like I said, I think today I played super solid outside of that one hole.”

Knapp picked up his inaugural win on Tour at the Mexico Open last year — one of four top-10 finishes the 30-year-old had on the season. Before this weekend, Knapp’s best finish on Tour this season was a T17 run at The Genesis Invitational last month in San Diego.

Despite his incredible start, Knapp insists that it wasn’t on his mind the rest of the way. His stumble on Sunday was just that.

“I think if I would have [shot a 59] on Saturday, maybe it would have felt different,” Knapp said. “But on Thursday we were kind of joking about it, it's like, it would have been different if it was one of those where you have an eight-shot lead after the first round, but it's really the same thing as just somebody goes and shoots 65 and the next score is 70 or 71 or 69 or something like that. It really wasn't in my head at all after the first day.”