The 2024 season has a chance to be one of more prolific for rookie winners in a while.
So far in 2024 on the PGA Tour, there are four rookie winners.
That eclipses the number of rookie champs for all of last season, when Ludvig Aberg (RSM Classic), Vincent Norrman (Barbasol Championship) and Nico Echavarria (Puerto Rico Open) found victory lane.
Two of those 2023 wins were opposite-field events. The first three in 2024 were “regular” Tour stops, with the fourth a FedEx Fall series tournament.
There were just two rookie winners in 2022 and one each during the 2021 and 2020 seasons. There were six in 2017, so 2024 has a chance to be one of more prolific years for rookies in a while.
Knapp’s time is now, and he’s not sleeping on any of the opportunities.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Ever since Jake Knapp won the Mexico Open at Vidanta last month, his life has changed. Instead of hearing fans say, “hey, player, will you come and sign this,” he said they actually know his name, and he has been recognized in the grocery store and restaurants, even last night.
“This lady asked me if I was Rickie Fowler,” Knapp recalled, though not a ringing endorsement for his new-found popularity. “I said, ‘No,’ and then it sunk in and she was like, ‘Wait, you won Mexico. My husband and I were watching. We were so excited.’ I was like, all right, that changed a lot from Rickie Fowler.”
A lot has changed for Knapp, who played his college golf at UCLA, since he claimed his maiden victory on the PGA Tour as a 29-year-old rookie and cashed a seven-figure check. Now, he’s making his debut appearance at the 2024 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.
Knapp surprised even himself the way he controlled his emotions down the stretch in Mexico, noting his face tingled on the 18th green. He took a deep breath and asked his caddie how many putts he could take and still win.
“Just go hit your first putt,” his caddie said. “You’re going to be fine.”
Jake Knapp of the United States speaks to the media during the First Timers Press Conference prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 13, 2024 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Fellow Bruin Patrick Cantlay remembers playing with Knapp when he was a high school senior and Knapp a freshman in the California high school state championship, and said, “He didn’t hit it as far as he does now.”
Knapp took a long and winding road to the Tour, bottoming out two years when he lost his Korn Ferry Tour status. His hard work finally began paying dividends last season as he recorded 13 top-10 finishes and earned his PGA Tour card for the first time.
“If you’re good, really, really good, you’re going to make it out here eventually and have success,” Cantlay said. “From relatively unknown to winning and then top-10ing a couple times on Tour, I mean that’s what’s so great about our game.”
The story of Knapp working as a bouncer to make ends meet during his lean year grabbed headlines when he won but he said that narrative has been overplayed.
“Just slightly,” he said. “People love to talk about how I was a bouncer but I’m not a bouncer that decided to play golf. I’ve been playing golf since I’m 3 years old. I’ve been a pretty good junior, a pretty good amateur and a decent pro. It feels like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
That has included a featured-group pairing with Rory McIlroy at the Cognizant Classic in which he more than held his own.
Jake Knapp’s first day of Players board includes his goal to win at least twice as a rookie. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
“It feels very normal-ish,” he said of being admitted into the higher ranks of the game, including a spot in last week’s limited-field, signature event at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But he conceded that getting an email that his invitation to the Masters has been delivered – he’s been on the road four straight weeks and won’t get to open it until next week – booking a practice round for next week at Augusta National and lining up a lunch with Jack Nicklaus to pick his brain on how to play the Masters venue qualifies as surreal.
“Stuff like that doesn’t feel very real,” he said.
Knapp played in The Jake, the Golden Bear’s charity event at the Bear’s Club, and went over and shook his hand, smiled for pictures and then said, “I’d love to ask for some tips if you have any.”
Said Knapp: “I want to let him rant and take notes. He told me there are only six tough shots. You’re saying there’s not a single other tough shot on the golf course? Sounds good. I’m only going to prepare for those six.”
Knapp’s time is now, and he’s not sleeping on any of the opportunities.
The hole claimed another player on Saturday: recent PGA Tour winner Jake Knapp.
The smooth-swinging Knapp stepped to the tee and blasted his first two balls in the water, and his third didn’t find the water but was still too far right and went out of bounds. On his fourth tee shot, he finally put one in play, but it took him three more shots to get on the green.
Jake Knapp’s shot tracer on the par-5 sixth hole at Bay Hill. (Photo: PGA Tour)
Knapp went from even on the day to 7 over in the span of one hole. Fortunately for Knapp, his 12 isn’t even close to the highest score on the hole. John Daly famously had an 18 in 1998.
We have a clustered leaderboard heading into moving day.
The first two rounds of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, are in the books and we have a clustered leaderboard heading into moving day.
The name leading the way, however, is Bud Cauley, who is making just his second PGA Tour start since returning to action after a three-plus-year absence thanks to multiple injuries, including some from a car accident.
Cauley, who made the cut at the WM Phoenix Open last month, signed for a 6-under 65 on Friday, good enough to get him to 11-under total and the 36-hole lead all to himself, one clear of Garrick Higgo and Austin Eckroat at 10 under.
“I gave myself enough time to prepare at home before I started playing again,” Cauley told the media. “My expectation was to come out and compete, and I felt like my game was in a good spot.
“Saying it is one thing, doing it is another. I’m really happy with how I’ve played. I feel like my game has been trending in the right way. I’ve been hitting the ball well and just needed some scoring things to start.”
He kept the card clean, tacked on five birdies and is now in position to complete one of the best Tour stories of the last decade.
“There were a lot of times where I thought that my career was over. To be back here playing and playing well, it’s nice. It just makes me that much more happy that I kept after it and didn’t stop trying.”
Round 2 was suspended due to darkness – 14 players didn’t finish, but there will be 13 returning because Chandler Phillips withdrew – so third-round tee times are unavailable until play finishes Saturday morning.
If you missed any of Friday’s action, no worries, we have you covered. Here’s everything you need to know from the second day at the Cognizant Classic.
One of the perks of winning on the PGA Tour is better tee times.
One of the perks of winning on the PGA Tour is better tee times. Just ask Jake Knapp, who went from the outhouse to the penthouse in one week.
Knapp, a 29-year-old rookie who was working as a bouncer at a bar-restaurant in Southern California just two years ago to make ends meet, teed off in the third-to-last group of his wave last week in the opening rounds at the Mexico Open at Vidanta. That’s when the greens are bumpier and riddled with spike marks and the wind blows its hardest. None of that bothered Knapp, who won the tournament.
Along with the seven-figure check and a berth in the Masters, Knapp received primo tee times for the first two rounds of the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches alongside former world No. 1 and 2012 Cognizant Classic winner Rory McIlroy and defending Cognizant Classic champion Chris Kirk.
How did Knapp feel playing in one of the featured groups in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, alongside McIlroy, one of the game’s biggest stars?
Jake Knapp prepares to hit his approach shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches at PGA National. (Photo: Jeff Romance/Palm Beach Post)
“Not nearly as nerve-racking as I thought it was going to be, to be honest,” Knapp said. “I met him this morning in dining and had some casual conversation, and he’s a super, super nice guy. So is Chris. It was just a good easy morning.”
Indeed, it was for Knapp, a UCLA product, who opened with a solid 3-under 68 at PGA National Resort’s Champion Course on Thursday, one stroke more than Kirk and McIlroy, who said of playing with Knapp that he “likes to put people at ease,” and four back of the co-leaders Chad Ramey and S.H. Kim.
Like many of today’s current crop of players, Knapp grew up idolizing Tiger Woods. He also admired the game of former world No. 1’s Luke Donald and Dustin Johnson. Knapp, who grew to become one of the longer hitters in the game, was short in stature as a kid and tried to emulate Donald’s wizardry with a wedge and putter until hitting his growth spurt as a junior in high school.
“Then as I started to hit it farther, started to transition more into the DJ category,” Knapp said. “Obviously over the last few years, a lot of people have tried to emulate Rory and just all the things he does on and off the course.”
McIlroy and Knapp shared a mutual admiration. While the Northern Irishman outdrove him on this day – an average of 327 yards for McIlroy to 319 yards for Knapp on the two measured driving holes – he couldn’t say enough good things about Knapp – an example of game recognizing game.
“He could definitely be a star. It looks like he’s got the full package. He’s obviously got the speed. He can control that speed pretty well. He hit some beautiful shots out there today,” McIlroy said. “He could be a superstar out here, for sure.”
“It’s really only the piece of sports memorabilia that I have that I really cherish.”
Tucked in Jake Knapp’s personal bio in the PGA Tour online media guide are a few assorted personal nuggets meant to give a bit of flavor for his personality: he can solve a Rubik’s Cube, if he didn’t play golf he would pursue a career in the fitness industry, and he spent roughly nine months as a security guard at a night club in fall 2021 through spring 2022.
And then there’s this: His earliest golf memory is watching Tiger Woods beat Stephen Ames, 9 and 8, at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and having Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams, toss him one of the balls Woods used during the match.
As Knapp recalled, his dad took him and his brother to the WGC Match Play at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, about an hour from his home in Costa Mesa, and they followed Tiger and Williams, his former caddie.
“I was just hounding Stevie all day to give me a ball, give me a ball, give me a ball, and he kept on telling me after the round,” Knapp said. “Then Tiger finally closed out Stephen Ames 9 and 8 on the 10th hole. I was standing back by the 10th tee. They walked right by and I asked him for a ball and neither of them really did anything. They walked into the locker room and I was like, dang, like there they go.
“Then 10 seconds later Stevie walked out and he was like, ‘Hey, kid,’ tossed me his ball. It was pretty awesome. It’s really only the piece of sports memorabilia that I have that I really cherish.”
The 29-year-old rookie from California won the 2024 Mexico Open at Vidanta in Vallarta, Mexico, after an even-par 71 on Sunday to claim his first PGA Tour victory at 19 under in just his ninth start. For his efforts, Knapp will take home the top prize of $1,458,000.
Sami Valimaki, who was aiming to become the first player from Finland to win on the Tour, finished two shots back at 17 under and earned $882,900 as a consolation prize. Stephan Jaeger, Justin Lower and C.T. Pan finished T-3 at 14 under and each bagged $429,300.
With $8.1 million up for grabs, check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2024 Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Just a few years separated from working as a bouncer and doing security at weddings, Knapp is headed to the Masters.
When Jake Knapp texts his grandfather, as he does after every round, he can report that he did it, holding on to win his first PGA Tour title at the Mexico Open at Vidanta at Vallarta, Mexico.
It wasn’t always pretty in the final round on Sunday at Vidanta Vallarta as Knapp closed with an even-par 71 for a two-stroke victory over Sami Valimaki.
Knapp’s grandfather, Gordon Bowley, died of colon cancer in April after a two-year battle, and Knapp and his cousin both got matching tattoos with the initials GSFB – for their grandpa’s full name of Gordon Sydney Frederick Bowley – just below his left bicep so that it would be visible during his swing. Asked what his grandfather would think of his victory, Knapp said, “He would be pumped. He’d probably say, ‘Yo, dude, good playing. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.’ So, Papa, thank you.”
Knapp appeared to put a sleeper hold on the tournament in the third round with birdies on seven of his first nine holes on Saturday en route to shooting 63 and grabbing a four-stroke lead entering the final round.
Jake Knapp plays a shot on the 12th hole during the final round of the Mexico Open at Vidanta. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
But Sundays are payday and Knapp, a 29-year-old rookie who played his college golf at UCLA, had never held the lead on the Tour let alone the Korn Ferry Tour, where he graduated to the big leagues after recording 10 top-10s last season. Knapp is a late bloomer, having turned pro in 2016 but lost Korn Ferry Tour status in 2021 and was mired outside the top thousand in the world as recently as May of 2022 (No. 1476).
Two years ago, he was out of money and worked as a bouncer for roughly nine months at a restaurant/bar in his hometown of Costa Mesa, and also did a stint as security at weddings, which is where he met his sports psychologist.
He was making just his ninth career Tour start and fifth this season, which included a T-3 at the Farmers Insurance Open last month.
The final round turned into a two-man race between a pair of rookies and fellow hockey fans seeking their first Tour title. Knapp sports the logo of the Anaheim Ducks on the right sleeve of his shirt while Finland’s Sami Valimaki has a cousin, Juuso, who is a defenseman for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, and when asked to describe his skating skills, claimed, “I think still better than him.”
On Sunday, Knapp struggled off the tee, hitting just two fairways, the fewest fairways hit by a Tour winner in the last 40 years. That included snap-hooking his drive into the water at the third, leading to his second bogey in his first three holes. After shooting 28 on the front nine on Saturday, he shot eight strokes higher a day later. After making 23 birdies in the first three rounds, he’d make just two on Sunday.
Fewest fairways hit in final round of PGA Tour win, last 40 years:
When Valimaki, 25 and already a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, drove the seventh green to 6 feet and rolled in the eagle putt, Knapp’s overnight advantage, the largest 54-hole lead of the season, was gone. Knapp noted that his grandpa never would let him get down.
“He would just kind of whack me on the back of the head and be like, ‘C’mon, get to work,'” Knapp said.
That he did. It didn’t hurt that Valimaki made two bogeys on the final nine and managed just one birdie while Knapp followed his own advice, settling in and pitching to 2 feet for birdie at the par-5 14th and keeping his card clean to finish with a 72-hole total of 19-under 265.
“I feel like I have the game to win over here, it just wasn’t this Sunday,” said Valimaki, who closed with 69. “I mean, I was four behind, yesterday was Jake’s day and he kept it going on the back nine so I feel like I didn’t lose it today.”
Knapp choked up recounting how he spent family Sunday dinners with his grandfather and that he was the person he talked to after every single round. Asked what he would be texting him after Saturday’s stellar performance that sent him on his way to victory, Knapp said, “Wish he could see it. It was always like my dream and his dream as well for me to get out here.”
But there was no doubting the response on Sunday after becoming a Tour champion: Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Knapp had a historic start Saturday during the third round of the 2024 Mexico Open at Vidanta, making seven birdies on the front nine for a 7-under 28, the lowest nine-hole score in course history. He shot 63, tied for the lowest round of the week, on Moving Day and leads by four heading to Sunday at Vidanta Vallarta in search of his first PGA Tour win in only his ninth start.
“Struck it very similar to how I did the last couple days when I was able to get some more putts to fall,” Knapp said. “Would like to clean up a few of those bogeys on the back nine, but it was a great day.”
Knapp started with birdies on Nos. 1-2, and after a par at 3 made four straight from 4-7. Another par at 8, then Knapp added a seventh circle to the card on the ninth for a 7-under front nine.
The back nine had plenty more excitement, most of it thanks to some struggles around the greens. Knapp had three bogeys but offset that with four birdies, including on his final two holes. He sits at 19 under with 18 holes to play.
For the week, Knapp is first in Strokes Gained: Approach, gaining nearly nine shots on the field. He’s fourth Off the Tee. But around the green, he’s losing more than a stroke.
However, his power off the tee and accuracy from the fairway is making up for the couple of shortcomings around the putting surfaces. And he’s 18 holes away from a life-changing victory.
“Just a lot of the same,” Knapp said of his routine Saturday night. “Go back, shower, go to the gym tonight, do my preparation for tomorrow morning and get ready to go for tomorrow afternoon.”
Here are four more things to know about the third round of the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
