Jake Knapp says the shot that led to muddy triple bogey is not 'going to haunt me'

USA Today

03-03-2025

Jake Knapp says the shot that led to muddy triple bogey is not 'going to haunt me'
He shot 59 on Thursday. He was just 1 under on his round Friday but still led the tournament. After 54 holes, he was leading and angling to be the first wire-to-wire winner at PGA National since 1996.
But on Sunday, Jake Knapp's "only bad swing of the day" led to a sloppy mess of a triple bogey on the 11th hole at the 2025 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches and knocked him down off his perch atop the leaderboard. Hitting his second over water on the par-4 hole, Knapp came up short, his ball ending up half-submerged in the lake fronting the green. From there, he needed three shots to get on the putting surface, where he then two-putted for a 7.
Knapp would par his final seven holes to end up in a tie for sixth at 15 under, four back of tournament winner Joe Highsmith.
"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," a composed Knapp said after his round. "We had the goal of just fairways and greens and two-putt the heck out of it, birdie all the par-5s and figured that would be enough, and if I did that, I would have been tied. Just bummed about 11. It was really the only bad swing of the day."
He then explained his thinking ahead of trying to hit out of the water's edge.
"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," he said, admitting that he never really considered going back and dropping to hit his fourth. "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."
Knapp said his historic Thursday round will "hold a special place in my heart," but it's that second shot on 11 that'll also be what he remembers about his week.
"I'll think about the 59, obviously, but it's not that that shot is going to haunt me or anything like that, but for the most part I'm really happy with how I hit it and felt like I just played super solid today except for just one hole."