Rookie Jake Knapp held on to claim his maiden PGA Tour title, despite seeing his four-shot overnight lead wiped out early in the final round of the Mexico Open.
“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet simply because I haven’t looked at the schedule and all the events that I’m into now. Obviously I know the Masters and everything like that. Yeah, it feels pretty amazing.”
The 29-year-old American’s level-par 71 was enough to hold off the challenge of Finland’s Sami Välimäki, who hit a closing 69 to finish two shots back.
Knapp saw his four-shot buffer halved as he bogeyed two of the first three holes, Välimäki moving within one with a birdie on the fourth.
“It was one of those where we kind of tried to not leaderboard watch and just focus on my game. We knew the course was set up a little bit tougher today, there weren’t going to be any super crazy low scores, especially on the back nine. Just kind of felt it was one of those if I could have a lead going into the back nine that if I just kind of make a bunch of pars and force guys to make birdies, it’s going to be tough.
“After that start wasn’t super ideal and we just said it’s kind of the three worst holes I could have played and we still have a two-shot lead, we’ve got a free tee shot right here, get this swing out of the way, make some pars, give ourselves some birdie chances and we’ll be just fine.
The Finn eagled the short par four seventh to draw level as Knapp claimed his first birdie of the day.
He added just one more on the 14th, but Välimäki had dropped three shots by then and could not close the gap again.
“Walking off 17 [Knapp] told Mike, let’s have a conversation because I know that there’s some guys that play it left of that fairway into the opposite hole. I was like, let’s have a conversation even though I’ve never done it, never seen it in the practice round or anything like that. Only place you can’t go is out-of-bounds right. But I hadn’t driven it that well all day and felt like if anything, I was either missing it left or kind of overcutting, so I had a bit of a two-way miss going.
“I was like let’s just aim just left of the bunker, hit our fade. If it goes in the bunker, fine; if I overcut it, it’s in the fairway. He said he loved it. So yeah, just trusted that, trusted our game plan and went about business.”
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre finished six shots back in a tie for sixth after a closing 69, but England’s Matt Wallace – who shared the halfway lead – slipped to tied 33rd with a 74.
Knapp’s win earns him a place at the US Masters, PGA Championship and the five signature events remaining on the PGA Tour.
