Eric Cole Vs. Jake Knapp | The #PXG Speed Golf Challenge: Episode 1

@PGATOUR Pros Eric Cole & Jake Knapp take on the PXG Speed Golf Challenge. Who will win the day?

Tune in every Wednesday to watch PGATour and @LPGA Tour Pros take on one of the toughest par 3 courses in the world – the Bad Little Nine at Scottsdale National – for the ultimate test of speed, stamina, short game, and focus 💪

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[Applause] Hi, I’m Kate Shepard and welcome to Scottsdale National. Today, our PXG, PGA, and LPGA Tour pros are going head-to-head in a speed golf challenge on one of the toughest par three courses in the world, the Bad Little Nine. This is a test of speed, stamina, short game, and focus, and they’ll have to answer a few of my questions along the way. This is the PXG Speed Golf Challenge. Let’s get it started with Eric Cole versus Jake Nap. Let’s take it away. Love it. There’s already a sense of urgency. Look at that shot. Okay, not bad. All right. Um, your path to PJ Tour has been super inspirational. What initially sparked that interest in golf for you? Yeah, I’d say it was my parents. Um, both of them being in professional golf kind of let me be around golf a lot when I was at a young age and that kind of sparked my interest watching them play uh, professional golf on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. How have you developed your game and what are you working on right now? I mean, I would say some of the main things overall just become more consistent. I was always kind of just kind of hit it far and that was about it. And I feel like I’ve tried to show that I’m a more well-rounded player just to myself. Are there any mental strategies that you kind of use that you can kind of share with the folks at home? Yeah, I try and stay uh calm and just think like, hey, you know, this kind of stuff happens. It’s not the end of the world and life goes on. Uh-oh. Oh no. Oh boy. [Music] Yep. That’s enough for that hole. So adapting to kind of course conditions, other things that you kind of, you know, work on and Oh, hell, we’re going downhill fast. Oh yeah. Yeah. Adjusting to course conditions and all that. That’s just such a big part of the job. Like you just have to get used to and get comfortable on Bermuda grass. It’s not something I see a lot. It’s also part of the reason why I wanted to come to Arizona. You get to see it a little bit more often at certain places. So comfortable using that. And that is a way better result than we deserve for that golf shot. But welcome to the bad little nine. Can’t miss these. Don’t miss those. All right, we’re in. Wasn’t going to do much better than that with that one. Man, this was not a very good break. Well, better than the last hole. So, when you’re setting up for like various conditions, obviously we’re playing desert golf today. Um, how do you kind of approach that when you’re, you know, tackling different types of courses every, you know, week in week out at the start of the week, like in a tournament? You got to kind of pay attention to how the ball’s bouncing and how far it’s going. And part of the professional golf side of things that people probably don’t see as much. God, these greens are so good. Oh my god. Golf is easy. Come on. [Music] Oh no. Oh no. Stay there, please. I talked myself into that one, I think. Look at it go. I should just take it. Well, that’s going to end up in the same spot. [Music] Oh my god. Bogey. Kidding me. A lot of players talk about like being in the zone when they’re playing. What does that feel like to you? Do you get there? It kind of happened to me in Mexico for a few rounds where it was just I knew I was playing well. I knew I was doing the right things and I just needed to get out of my own way. So like yeah, I mean resilience is something that you really kind of worked on, I think. And you have to kind of rely on a couple of your best assets when you’re playing. So what do you think are some of the best assets and aspects to your game? I’d say my short game is normally pretty good. Hasn’t really been on display today, but for when I’m having a bad day, I can kind of lean on that a little bit, which is nice. More of those holes would help my time. Oh, that would have been so lucky. All right, we kind of knew after that T-OT. You looked a little afraid on this one. Yeah, I mean, I didn’t want to go long. Oh, see, we have the cameraman now messing with our messing with our speed. Here we go. So, talking about I mean there’s no better riskreward kind of course than this. How do you balance that when you’re when you’re playing on tour? I’ve always been somebody that’s never really afraid of a golf shot on a speed round like this. You just have to accept the fact that you’re going to have some have some shots you can’t afford to go for. How do you think fitting does come into the game, especially for amateurs kind of joining the game at this stage? Yeah, it’s really important. I mean, it’s not necessarily the right shaft because there’s so many different uh types of them and you’re trying to fine-tune it. But just even having clubs that are the right length for you that aren’t too heavy um really kind of help you make small improvements in golf. Heads up. [Music] Go. Wow, that’s that’s so much better than we expected. All right. Oh my gosh, that should have went in. Uh-oh. Left. Go left. Go left. Okay. Little deep maybe. I think it’s in the bunker. Okay. Oh, great shot, Eric. Done. Finish. Woo. 16 minutes and 12 seconds. Let’s see what we got. 16 minutes. 16 minutes on the nose. Any advice for the next tour player that’s taking this on? Play fast. Like just run.