Jake Knapp torches PGA National with opening 59 at Cognizant Classic
This is not your father’s PGA National.
As gettable as it’s ever been, with light winds, soft greens and overseeded fairways, one of the Tour’s toughest courses was defenseless Thursday as Jake Knapp posted a 12-under 59 to lead a barrage of low scoring.
Knapp’s sub-60 round – the 15th in Tour history, and first since last summer – could have been even lower if not for a 12-foot lip-out on his 17th hole. At the 547-yard 18th, he blasted a 335-yard tee shot and easily reached the closing par 5 in two.
“I knew I was hitting it well,” he said, “and just tried to birdie everything today.”
As stunning as Knapp’s opening round was for those accustomed to seeing the Bear Trap bite back, the rest of the leaderboard nearly kept pace.
Russell Henley, Daniel Berger and Jesper Svensson were all at 8 under as they played their opening rounds on the Champion Course, and just seven of 72 players in the morning wave were over par by the time Knapp signed his card. The scoring average for the early starters was a shade under 68.
“I thought I played well,” Berger said after his 63, “but then someone shot 59. Clearly, the course was not the old Bear Trap that we’re used to.”
In an effort to improve the conditioning of PGA National throughout the year, the club overseeded the typically gnarly Bermuda rough a few years ago. This year, for the first time since 2014, both the tees and fairways were overseeded. The Palm Beach area also experienced recent rains that have slowed and softened the track that used to rank as one of the most difficult on Tour.
Austin Eckroat won last year’s Cognizant at 17 under, the fourth consecutive year that the winner was double-digits under par. Prior to that, it happened just once in an eight-year span. The previous low score in tournament history was 61.
Knapp, whose lone PGA Tour victory came at last year’s Mexico Open, missed just two fairways and two greens and needed only 25 putts, his round as stress-free as it comes – his longest par putt was a 2 1/2-footer.
“I was pretty aware coming into this week that my game was trending the right way,” he said.