Jake Knapp Shoots Amazing 59 At Cognizant Classic

Jake Knapp produced a stunning round of 59 at the Cognizant Classic to become the 15th player to shoot a sub-60 round on the PGA Tour.

The 30-year-old, who was working as a security guard even as recently as 2022, produced a flawless round of 12 under at the par-71 Champions Course at PGA National.

And it could have been even better as a 12-foot putt lipped out on 17 and then Knapp missed an 18 footer on the last that would have seen him tie Jim Furyk as the only players to shoot 58 on the PGA Tour.

Still, Knapp was able to simply tap in his 12th birdie of the day to hit the magical 59 number and also obviously break the course record as well.

"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. 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." he said.

"Then once I made the long putt on 15, it was like, okay, now this is kind of here. But at the same time, didn't let it affect the game plan or anything like that.

"Tried to hit an aggressive shot into 16, 17 and 18, and knew I was hitting it well, so tried to just birdie everything today."

The previous course record at PGA National was 61 and jointly held by Brian Harman and Matt Jones who achieved the feat in the 2012 and 2021 Honda Classic renewels respectively.

The course is usually regarded as one of the more difficult on the PGA Tour, earning that reputation in part because of the daunting three-hole stretch between the 15th and 17th named The Bear Trap, named after Golden Bear Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the original course in 1990.

After starting the day with five straight birdies and adding three more around the turn, Knapp completed another hat-trick on 15, had a outside look for birdie on 16 and then looked to have found another on 17 only to suffer the lip-out.

Al Geiberger shot the first PGA Tour 59 back in 1977 with the most recent, the 14th, coming from Hayden Springer at the 2024 John Deere Classic.

That was one of two 59s scored in 2024 on the PGA Tour alongside Cameron Young's effort at the Travelers Championship.

And globally it was a stunning year for low scorers as nine players shot sub-60 rounds in the world of golf.

Had those two late putts rolled in Knapp could have quite easily walked away with the PGA Tour's first ever 57, and he was pretty close to joining Furyk in the 58 club.

Joining the elite club of shooting 59 on the PGA Tour is still a huge deal though.