Knapp time: From Bear Trap to Honey Pot?
PGA National loses its fangs and yields a 59; Stray Shots: On Fitz and in-Justice
Jake Knapp walked off 18 with the first-ever Florida Swing 59 (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
So now PGA National has turned into a pitch-and-putt course?
When did that happen?
What started early as a very accommodating Thursday became a groundswell of assaults on par as the first round of the Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches progressed. It was a virtual tsunami of low scoring on a golf course that historically has been one of the most challenging stops on the PGA Tour.
Then Jake Knapp stuck a dagger in the vaunted Champion course’s heart by shooting a tournament-record 12-under 59.
“I knew obviously I had it going really early, but at the same time, that can happen and then it can kind of fizzle out pretty quick,” Knapp said of the bogey-free round on the hazard-saturated course. “I thought I did a good job of just trying to focus on shot by shot and not letting what happened or what could happen affect anything.”
Knapp started with five consecutive birdies and turned in 29 when he birdied the ninth hole. When he made five more birdies over the next six holes including the first step of the 15-16-17 stretch known as “The Bear Trap,” his 59 shot was very much in reach.
“Once I made the long putt on 15, it was like, ‘Okay, now this is kind of here,” Knapp said. “But at the same time, didn’t let it affect the gameplan or anything like that. I tried to hit an aggressive shot into 16, 17 and 18, and just tried to … knew I was hitting it well, so I tried to birdie everything today.”
The magic number was secured when Knapp two-putted from 20 feet on the par-5 18th, recording the 15th 59 in PGA Tour history.
It’s true that 59 is not quite the accomplishment it used to be as scoring averages have gone down, but such a score in the Jack Nicklaus-designed torture chamber that often causes professional players (and every resort guest who endures it) is astounding.
The tournament’s scoring average has been 71.291 and 7.93-over par (for 72 holes) the last 15 years, making it the most challenging course over the same period. On Thursday, 42 players recorded 4-under 67 or better.
Knapp’s first-round score of 12-under would have WON in 12 of the last 18 years and been good enough to reach playoffs in three others.
For context, the PGA National that players face this week is not the same as they’ve dealt with in recent times. In a effort to stem player attrition due to such a brutally difficult test, par was changed from 70 to 71 last year. The rough isn’t as brutally thick as it has been and the for the first time in the tournament’s history there, the fairways were overseeded with rye grass, making them softer and more accessible than its previous dormant conditions.
Add in the fact that the reliably difficult winds that usually buffet the course this time of year were non-existent on Thursday.
All this underscores the extremely low first-round scoring and the first 59 ever recorded in Florida on the PGA Tour.
“It’s just golf,” said Knapp, who a year ago earned his first PGA Tour win in the Mexico Championship the week before the 2024 Cognizant Classic. “It’s one of those things where you can be hitting it really well and not scoring or you can be hitting it bad and scoring. Just doing my best right now to get the scores down a little bit, but overall feel like I’ve been playing a lot better.”
“Playing a lot better” is an understatement.
Stray Shots: Falling Fitz and deal injustice
By Peter Kaufman
1. Matt Fitzpatrick. Don’t look now but what the heck has happened to the 2022 U.S. Open champion? Less than three years removed from Fitzpatrick’s breakthrough major win at Brookline and reaching world No. 6, he is stuck.
Fitz had a W and T5 in two majors in 2022, a T10 at Augusta along with a pair of wins (on PGA Tour and DP World Tour) in 2023, but it has been diminishing returns ever since. Last year he missed a cut and failed to post better than a lone T22 in a major.
Heading to last year’s Masters, Fitzpatrick was still No. 10 in the world. A month ahead of this year’s Masters, he’s plummeted to No. 60 with results so far in 2025 that aren’t trending well for a turnaround — T24 (Sentry), T48 (Pebble), MC (Phoenix) and 49th (Genesis).
Everything with the Englishman seems awry — driving, putting, the works. His stats across the board are desultory at best.
At only 30, he desperately needs to find his way and reboot his performance. It’s a very cruel game.
2. DOJ and LIV. There has been a lot of chatter for many months about the Department of Justice and the potential for a “merger” of sorts between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. It makes little legal (or business) sense for Justice to be so interested. How can a combo be anti-competitive when no one watches LIV on TV today?
Now its true, seemingly, that LIV attendance appears to be somewhat robust these days in certain golf-starved markets (not Riyadh). But still, if LIV goes away or melds with the PGA Tour, will anyone really notice?
Then why does the DOJ care? Because at least during the Biden administration, Justice cared that a venerable American institution — the PGA Tour — was going to be used by the Saudis for “sportswashing” purposes.