Jake Knapp details road to first PGA Tour victory at Mexico Open | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Jake Knapp speaks with the Golf Central crew about his victory at the 2024 Mexico Open at Vidanta, where he reflects on collecting himself after an uneven start and earning his first PGA Tour win. #GolfChannel #PGATour #MexicoOpenAtVidanta
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Jake Knapp details road to first PGA Tour victory at Mexico Open | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the Paradigm AI smoke woods and irons from Callaway hi there I’m top Lewis time now for this golf Central update interesting day for Jake nap he started the day in the final round of the Mexico open at theant with a four-shot advantage over

Sammy balamaki but by the time he walked to the at he was tied with balamaki but nap pulled it together in the closing nine valami faded and an even part round of 7 was good enough to get the win and after signing his card he joined me and

Jim Gallagher on the set to talk about this day Jake congratulations don’t know what your schedule was looking like but it seems like it’s going to be altered now it was a it was a fun show to watch I want to talk about how you were able to

Collect yourself after what was a little bit of a squirly start and ultimately get the job done what were you saying to yourself internally yeah um kind of like I I I told my after the first three holes um you know we just played the the

Three worst holes and hit some of the worst shots we could possibly hit and we still have a two shot lead so just kind of hunker down you know I didn’t have didn’t have my timing and and uh things were just off today but um you know I

Mean nerves and all those things are definitely a factor you know being in this scenario knowing all of those things that I can earn um and trying to put that in the in the back of my mind and just go out there and execute golf

Shots and uh and did a good job of you know even some things just kind of didn’t go my way on the front line but did a good job of just giving myself opportunities and tried to hit good putts hit good shots and and just grinded out when I needed to when you

Look back at your journey and we documented the things you’ve gone through and it’s taken a while that you know the things to get out here what did you learn about yourself in this journey now you know this is something we all dream about you I’m sure as a kid

Dreamed about dreamt about it but you look at it now you’re PJ tour winner where did you learn about yourself on that Journey you know just just work hard and good things will happen you know I mean I think think uh I think it’s pretty easy to get out here turn

Professional and think that you’re missing like all these certain things um and that you’re just missing that it sort of deal and uh and for me I just felt like you know if I just keep on working hard I keep on doing the right things eventually things are going to

Get slowly better and and now when I look back on my game over the last 3 four years it’s not like I’ve made any crazy leaps necessarily it’s just you know certain things have gotten a little bit tighter distance control has gotten a little bit better feel like I I putt

The ball better now so um um yeah just all those little things just just the fact that wake up every morning try to get better and let it happen chip Beck at the ryer C told us the will to win will beat mechanical breakdown every

Time and you had that will to win was there ever a time when your mind kind of wandered like when did you think I got it now not until I hit the green with my we shot I told you that yeah um it’s just you know and the finishing stretch is

Just hard and and we talked about it this morning when I was going over the pins and and looking at everything and um Mike and I were talking and it was just there were no easy pins on that back nine you know and and uh that finishing stretch is brutal when it’s

All into the win 16 and 17 are are two really really tough golf holes um and so we talked about it last night we were like we chipped a little bit last night to get more comfortable didn’t chip it well the last couple days so um and we

Just kind of said tomorrow if ball striking is off we’re just going to have to trust our hands and uh you know was able to do that today and and just kind of tough out some some tough bars Jake I’ve talked to a lot of players who’ve had pretty significant leads and they

Said the night before and the morning of the final round although you try to stay in the moment it is tough to not think about winning how did you manage those emotions yeah I mean I woke up I woke up in the middle of the night last night I

Mean I usually wake up in the middle of the night anyway but woke up and I could just kind of feel my heart racing you know it’s like I’m just I’m more excited to get things going you know I’m not felt like I was playing Super well everything was going great wasn’t

Nervous about performing or anything like that which apparently maybe I should have been but uh but you know I was more just excited to to get into the moment you know I mean this is why I practice and and this is uh this is what

I live for you know this is the moment I want all right let’s go through your round want you to walk us through this uh we begin you begin with a with a bogey on the first you’re able to par the second we’re going to pick it up on

The third here and and this is your t- what happened to you yeah you know it’s I’d love to watch this one um you know I’ve been just playing this like kind of Fairway finder cut shot most of the week and uh I mean yeah now that I see it it

Was just a you know my left knee tends to get me in trouble sometimes I kind of get a little buckly with it and stays soft and and everything kind of drops down and left and I hit it off the toe and it was just a just an overall bad

Golf swing and uh yeah moved to the seventh you hit you hit your t-ball here this is a great bunker shot yeah bunkers are somewhere I always feel comfortable felt like it was a it was a pretty easy bunker shot had kind of had one of those

Shots the shorter you land it the more it kicks so just need to land it somewhere around the edge of the green and give myself a little yeah babaki eagled here and you guys were tied at that point jumped to the 10th hle and his t- shot finds the water and

Here’s your t- shot following him yeah I uh decided to go with mini driver figured if I spun it up to the right it had a chance to stay short of the lake and thought I hit it pretty good just kind of kept moving right and kept

Moving right and was going to fall on the edge and luckily got it to land very soft I mean there’s not a lot of Bounce in these Fairways regardless but yeah that was just kind of a little more strategy than anything um yeah CU you hit it left and yesterday

With an eye right and it was a back pin so we wanted to get it up there a little bit farther and this your short game was Stellar here you are uh your third from the green side rough on 10 yeah this was you know a tough pitch back into the

Wind and just kind of have to hit it farther than you think which isn’t always the most comfortable when the green slops away from you and um yeah I was able to judge that one really really well all right going to jump ahead to the 13th hole you missed the green here

But again I you know you you said you worked on your your short game some chips after your round yesterday it looked like it paid off today yeah yeah we just talked about the fact that like my ball striking has been pretty much perfect the first three days and it was

Like I don’t want to have to rely on that tomorrow so let’s go hit some chips make sure that that feels solid I didn’t like how I chipped it the last two days so um yeah that was a pretty easy one I felt like I had some some good makeable

Chips today how about this one 14 yeah this was one we talked about just laying up and then when I saw the lie I had it was pretty good um figured I could just kind of start something in between bunkers kind at the left edge of the

Green and just Chase it up to the front it’s kind of a tough tougher pin to hit a wedge two into the wind like that um hit a good one right there just short at the bunker now valami did not hit a great third and this is where you took

Advantage with your short game once again and we able to get up and down Walker suit this yeah once I the LI was pretty packed down it was really firm and and kind of Dusty so decided to kind of go down after it a little bit land it

A little bit shorter didn’t think I was going to be able to spin it and sure enough was able to just kind of Trickle down there yeah great birdie only Birdie on the back nine but it was a key one you’re two up now on balamaki want to

Move to the par 3 17 this may have been the biggest putt on the round in my opinion you needed this for par yeah I told myself two shot lead is a lot better than one and uh you know it’s just it was a pretty simple like up pill

Right to left right de side to play it right Edge trust the fact that it’s going to move and would have liked to hit a little bit harder but yeah that was a big putts you go in yeah two of them Alam macki he hits it up against

The boundary has to take a drop and so that offered you an opportunity to play conservatively and here’s your third yeah this is uh as soon as we talked about what number we wanted to hit Mike and I both know that that’s my least favorite number um and uh I decided to

Go with the Lesser and kind of basically trust the fact that a little adrenaline might carried a couple more yards than it did and worked out well we we don’t care about the putt I want to know what you were thinking about when you were

Walking up to the green yeah um I mean a lot of different things you mean I was trying my best to sustain the moment I mean cuz he can still make that putt from the green I still have two putts still need two putts so um I took a lot

Of deep breaths you know I was thinking about everything I mean in moments like that you know you’re thinking about family and coaches and friends and everybody it’s t to get here you know this isn’t a oneman show 29 years old so it’s been a big uh family and Team

Battle to get to this point so thinking of all of them but you give that a thought and you take a deep breath and you get back to work uh how would you describe your journey from junior golf through with your family UCLA winning in Washington yeah Canadian tour corn fairy

Tour now a winner on the PGA tour I mean bumpy to say the least um but I wouldn’t have it any other way you know I think uh if if I look back at my career as a whole I always kind of struggled that first jump up whether it was from high

School to college golf College to professional golf I always kind of struggled that first little bit so um now that I kind of feel like I have my feet under me and and kind of know myself and know what I’m doing it it uh feels like the right time for me