VALLARTA, Mexico — Rookie Jake Knapp held on to claim his maiden PGA Tour title, despite seeing his four-shot lead wiped out early in the final round of the Mexico golf Open.
The 29-year-old American’s level-par 71 was enough to hold off the challenge of Finland’s Sami Valimaki, who hit a closing 69 to finish two shots back.
Knapp said he still sends a text after each round to his grandfather, who died last year, and this message might require a lot of detail.
He didn’t hit a fairway until the eighth hole and found only two the entire round. He never lost the lead, but twice allowed Sami Valimaki of Finland to catch him.
They were tied with six holes to play until Knapp took over, getting up-and-down on four of the next five holes, one of them for birdie.
“I woke up in the middle of the night and I could feel my heart racing,” he said according to AP.
“I was more excited to get things going. I wasn’t worried about performing – maybe I should have been.”
Tee-to-green, Knapp had his worst performance. But he spent extra time Saturday night on his short game, and it won the day for him.
“We talked about it last night … if the ball-striking is off; we’re going to have to trust our hands. And we did that, grinding out some pretty tough pars,” he said.
Knapp saw his four-shot buffer halved as he bogeyed two of the first three holes, Valimaki moving within one with a birdie on the fourth.
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 Valimaki had dropped three shots by then and could not close the gap again.
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.
“I had a little conversation with him this morning and talked about the day, and wished he could be here to watch it and experience it,” Knapp said after the round.
“He’s one of those guys who, if I got down on myself or got nervous, he’s the kind that would whack me on the back of the head and say, ‘Get to work.'”
Knapp began the final round with a four-shot lead but lost it through the first seven holes, plagued by a balky driver.
He hit only two fairways, the fewest in the final round by a PGA Tour winner in the past 40 years, according to golf statistician Justin Ray.
But Knapp pulled two shots ahead of Sami Valimaki of Finland with a birdie on 14 and his clutch short game helped him maintain the lead.
Knapp, who finished third at last month’s Farmers Insurance Open, zipped up to eighth in the FedExCup standings. He’s also in the season’s remaining Signature Events and will make his Masters debut in April.
