Jake Knapp Suffers Painful Finish at PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic
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Jake Knapp once again experienced the ups and downs that have characterized his PGA Tour season at the Rocket Classic. Despite firing a second-round 61, a new course record at Detroit Golf Club, he couldn’t quite seal the deal, ending with a painful finish.
A birdie on the 18th hole would have given him a chance to enter the playoff to decide the event’s title. Knapp played aggressively, hitting the fairway with his 328-yard tee shot and reaching the green with an excellent second shot. The ball settled for a 14-foot-9 birdie putt.
But the golf gods denied him, as his shot broke slightly to the right, landing just 12 inches from the edge of the cup. That miss cemented his final result at the Rocket Classic: tied for fourth at 21-under.
It’s fair to say Knapp left several putts on the course that could have led to an even better finish. He missed two other attempts inside 15 feet, including a 13-foot eagle putt on the 17th and a 14-foot birdie try on the 13th.
His overall performance for the round included six birdies and four bogeys (4-under).
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It Wasn’t All Bad for Jake Knapp in Detroit
Despite the disappointing ending, it was a solid weekend for the 31-year-old. It marked his third top-10 finish of the season (T6 at the Cognizant Classic and T3 at the Zurich Classic), allowing him to climb six spots in the FedEx Cup rankings (from 60th to 54th).
He also moved up seven places in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), from 97th to 85th.
Knapp has had numerous ups and downs throughout the season. This has led him, on one hand, to post a sub-60 round (a first-round 59 at the Cognizant Classic), and on the other, to notch only three top-10 finishes in 18 tournaments played (13 cuts made).
He has carded 27 rounds with scores in the 60s or better; however, Kanpp hasn’t been able to string them together in a way that would have translated into a stronger overall result this season.
Aldrich Potgieter ultimately won the Rocket Classic, defeating Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk in a five-hole playoff. Kirk was eliminated on the second hole, while Potgieter took the title with a birdie on the fifth, something Greyserman couldn’t match.
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