PGA National got its revenge on Jake Knapp on Sunday.
After Knapp fired a sparkling opening-round 59 on Thursday amid grumblings from other players at the Cognizant Classic that the famed Florida course was playing too easy, the 30-year-old saw his chances of winning the tournament disappear on the 11th hole in the final round.
Knapp, who was threatening to win the tournament wire-to-wire, mis-hit his approach to the green and the ball ended up muddily submerged in the water down a bank in front of the green.
He could have taken a penalty and dropped further back — as the NBC broadcasters were imploring him to do as he made his decision — and try to save bogey the safe way.
Instead, he attempted to hit the ball out of the water with one shoe on and it ended up right back in it.
His second shot from the water got halfway up the bank and luckily rested there.
Knapp failed to get up and down from there and settled for a triple-bogey that pushed him down to a tie for fifth.
“Could see kind of the top quarter of the ball, figured I could just kind of blast it out for the most part, and didn’t hit any of them really hard enough, unfortunately,” Knapp, described as composted after the round, told Golfweek. “I just think in the moment, even now, I don’t take it back. It’s just one of those shots you just have to end up hitting a little bit harder than I did.”
It was the iron shot that put him in that position that frustrated Knapp, who won the Mexico Open last year.
“I think I played super solid. I mis-hit the one shot on 11 and that was kind of the only thing I’d really take back. It would have been nice to make some more putts, but the pins were more challenging today,” Knapp told the website.
Knapp was not alone in his struggles as the wind finally picked up Sunday and the final groups all failed to make a run, allowing Joe Highsmith to complete a stunning weekend run with consecutive 64s to earn the first tournament win of his career.
Highsmith had to make a 5-foot putt on 18 on Friday just to make the cut.
“Winning was the last thing on my mind,” Highsmith, 24, told reporters afterward. “It’s incredible to come out on top. I played probably the best round of my life.”
Highsmith charged to the top of a crowded leaderboard with three straight birdies starting on nine and all but sealed the win with another on 17.
It allowed him to play safely on the par-5 18th, making an easy par as the players behind him were all trailing by three shots or more.
Along with earning a place in the Masters and PGA Championship, Highsmith is in the remaining five signature events, starting next week at Bay Hill.
“Did you say the Masters?” he said. “I went last year to the tournament just as a spectator because any chance that I can get to walk out there, I’m going to take advantage of that. But to be playing in that tournament is going to be very special and, obviously, something you work towards your whole life.”
— With AP
