Jake Knapp | Playing Lessons | GolfPass

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PGA Tour winner Jake Knapp joins Jim “Bones” Mackay on the course for Part 1 of a 2-part series. Jake shares his tips and strategies that led him to an impressive rookie year on the PGA Tour, including playing different types of shots off the tee and handling long lag putts. Plus, Bones catches up with Jake about his path to the top level of professional golf and his relationship with his caddie.

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Jake Knapp | Playing Lessons | GolfPass

You might not know it from looking at him, but Jake Knap can absolutely crush it. That was beautiful. Wow, is that pretty. It’s almost an effortless power being exhibited by Jake Knap. And the rest of his game isn’t too shabby either. Excellent. To have the kind of power that he does off the tea and to be able to control little shots like that into the green, he is the full package. Jake grew up in Southern California, excelling in multiple sports before discovering his passion for golf. In high school, he realized golf was where he truly thrived, dedicating himself to the game and earning a spot on UCLA’s golf team. As an amateur, Jake showcased his potential on the national stage by finishing third in stroke play at the US Amateur and qualifying for the 2015 US Open. He left college a semester early to turn professional in 2016, kicking off his career on PGA Tour Canada where he won three times. He graduated to the Cornferry Tour and eventually earned a PGA Tour card for the 2024 season. In just his ninth PGA Tour start, Jake claimed his first victory at the Mexico Open. And it is indeed nap time in Mexico. He maintained impressive form throughout his rookie season, securing three additional top 10 finishes. Known for his smooth, efficient swing and unmatched driving power, Jake Knap is here to share his insights on course strategy. Let’s get started on this two-part series with Jake Nap on playing lessons. [Music] [Music] All right, Jake, we are in some kind of pickle here. We’re in the rough. We’ve got a tree in front of us with limbs going every single direction. We’ve got no green to work with. We’ve got a lot of pitch on the green. What are we going to do from here? Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely uh there’s definitely a few different options. Um, you know, depending on your your skill level and how aggressive you want to be, you have a few different things you can do. Um, and I think that’s a good way you can look at like every single golf shot, even in the middle of the fairway. You know, you can draw it, fade it, high, low. To me, you have an option to go right, you have a little bit of an option to go through it, and then an option kind of go down here left into this collection area. So, you know what I would think in in terms of, let’s say you get here, and even if it’s in three shots, when you’re out of position, you really just want to get it back into position for your next shot. So, for something like this, you could take, you know, an eight iron or 9 iron, pitch it down here into this collection area. You can putt it or chip it from there. Ideally, get it up and down. Um, from here I’d take like a 60 or 56. There’s a ridge, so you can kind of hit it off the ridge, let it collect down there, have about 30 feet or, you know, get really aggressive. You can try to fit it in between this window, land it on something about the size of a shoe box, get it to land soft, and maybe have a have an easier chance to make the putt for a par for a birdie. Um, so I’ll kind of kind of walk them through and and see which option ends up kind of kind of being the best. So, I’m going to take, let’s see, I’m going to take a pitching wedge. Um, you know, the goal for this one’s just to like keep it under this branch, keep it kind of down in this collection area. Um, even if it land or it’s going to land in this down slope and in the rough and then just trickle down into that low area. But, you know, not a super difficult shot. Um, you know, really just going to put it back in my stance. Can even take a a putting grip really. And we’re just going to, at least for me, I’m going to imagine it kind of landing halfway down this this down slope and just getting into into that low area. All right. Well played. Option number one’s worked out nicely for you. Let’s talk about option two. So option two would probably be I’d say probably a 56. So, if we go from about that same spot, um it’s going to be more of a shot out to the right here. Little bit of a down slope working onto the green as well. So, even if it lands short, totally fine. And the main goal, I think, for shots like this is just understanding like the general area where we want the ball to end up. So, we have some slope out there to the right. Pretty much going to hit it towards, you know, just under kind of the apex of that slope and just allow the ridge to help me out and and just give myself a putt at it. So 56 going to land it ideally kind of just short of the green and just let it uh let it trickle down the ridge from there. All right. Did exactly as you said. Got a bank there that the ball will come back off of. Yeah. So still putting, you know, relatively flat putt. 30 35 ft. Not too bad. All right. Everybody wants to see option number three. All right. Option three. So, the toughest part about this is just the fact that if uh if you hit it a little bit too far, a little bit too much pace, it’s just going to go right down the other side. You’re going to be chipping again. So, it’s not the end of the world, but this is one where you really just don’t have any uh any room for air. So, I’m going to take out 60. It looks like we have about maybe two two and a half feet to land this in. And um ideally you’re going to land it, you know, just on the green, get it to land soft, trickle down the ridge, and you know, make a hoham up and down. Oh boy. It’s still got to sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit. Is it going to stay? I mean, that’s about as good as you could ever do. Yeah. I mean, that even landed just shorter than I wanted. We’re still flirting with it, but that’s that’s pretty good. I’ll take that. Great shot. So, let’s talk about situational golf. If this was the third hole on Thursday, would you be less likely to do it as if it was the, you know, the last hole on Sunday and you had to get the ball up and down to win the tournament ultimately? I think so. Yeah. I think personally I would probably pick this one right here. Um, I would hit it down to the left. Gives me the shortest distance from from the ball to the pin. And then also it’s like even if I’m just off, you know, it’s a relatively easy pitch from fairway. And then, you know, you try to leave the hero shots to when you really really need them. You know, I I try to make it as easy on myself and and really just less stressful. So, um you know, hitting a shot like that, trying to go through a tree, even that went a little bit higher than I wanted. So, um yeah, trying to stay away from that kind of stuff and really just trying not to hit a perfect shot when you don’t need to. Okay, great stuff. Well, let’s head back to the tea and see if we can avoid this tree when we play the hole. Sounds like a plan. All right, if we got us a par five here, it’s 581 total. 305 to the right fairway bunker, 328 over it. Talk us through your process here if you would. Are you going to reach back for a little more and try and take that bunker out of play? I’d say so. I mean, it seems like it’s a little bit downwind at the moment as well. Um, obviously in the desert, ball goes a couple yards farther than than kind of coastal golf. Um, usually I’m like in the high teens, low 20s carry with driver. So, feel like this is one if I, you know, aim just left of it, hit a solid one, I shouldn’t have to worry about it too much. All right, let’s see. That feels like the wind’s maybe like a touch off our right side and down, there’s a tree just to the left of it, I would say, seems kind of where the center of my dispersion would be. I would say I’d aim pretty much right at that tree. And I’m somebody personally who, you know, I like to think that I hit nice pretty fades all the time, but I know that uh with driver, when I’m driving it, well, it’s usually kind of a slight push and then goes pretty straight. So, um, I’m going to pretty much aim at that tree, make my normal swing. Shouldn’t have a ton of movement on it downwind. So, as long as I hit it solid, bunker shouldn’t be in play. All right, let’s see if we can take care of that bunker. Consider it done. Great shot. Slight push. We’ll take it. Yeah, we’ll take it. So, if the ball had finished in the bunker, is that something that, you know, you’re going to be really disappointed in relative to, you know, how you go about playing the hole, or do you, you know, are you content to lay the ball up? Should it go in there? You going to feel a need to kind of go for it in two? I think with par fives personally, it’s so important to get in and play off the tea. That’s something I realized in my past that it’s like my par five scoring average wasn’t very good, and I realized it wasn’t a matter of not hitting good second shots, it was being out of play off the tea. So, even if it’s usually on a par five, I like to feel like I can let it loose and just hammer it. But at the same time, if if the width isn’t right or some of the carries aren’t right, I try to make sure I’m in position to go for the green and two first. So, even if that means I choke down and hit kind of more of a fairway finder, I just want to be able to make sure I have an opportunity to go for it. So, if that bunker was 10 or 12 yards farther, I might think about aiming a little bit more out to left, taking out of play, and then going from there. And for the folks at home, will you take us through your fairway finder? I mean, what changes do you make in your swing to ultimately do that? Um, right now I’m actually working on teeing it a lot lower to kind of help me start start it a little bit lower and get it on the ground. Um, it’s usually a shot that 99% of the time should go left to right. Uh, I should be able to aim like 3 four yards into left rough and just hit it and not have to worry. And then my swing thought with it always been really like hitting like a 70 yard wedge shot with a 60°ree. So my stance usually gets a little bit more narrow, set up a little bit more open. and I’ll choke down a little bit. And then overall, I’m really trying to keep my center like just a little bit more towards my left side. Um, with a normal drive like that one, I’m kind of behind it, letting myself hit up on it. And then with that ferry finder, it’s like more on the left side, finishing nice and low, and just letting it kind of launch low and just get in play. You mind hitting one for us? Yeah, of course. Let’s see that. So, like that bunker. Let’s say for some reason like I can’t cover it and it’s a little bit too far. I would aim a lot farther left. So, there’s some some rocks down the left hand side kind of between that lighter and darker tree. I kind of aim out there. Um, and just allow myself to know that like I can aim at that and everything should just kind of squeeze off to the right a little bit. I’m also going to tee off a little bit farther on the right side of the tea box um to allow kind of that ball to move a little bit more. If I were to hit that shot and aim down the left, it just kind of already starts my ball down the right side and makes it tougher to hold the fairway. So, I’m going to choke up a little bit. It’s usually a little bit of a slower swing overall, a little bit more control, and then stance is a little bit more narrow. And ideally, hit a little cut. There it is. Little peeler off those rock. So, it’ll run a little bit, still get out there decently far, but just something that, you know, kind of gets me in play in some of those tighter holes. Wow, that’s impressive. Yeah. Tell us about your decision to leave college early. You know, what went into that? How how did it go over with mom and dad? Yeah. Things like that. I uh so I decided to do Q school um kind of the I guess whenever that would have been kind of at the end of my junior year, beginning of my senior year, and I had a good junior summer. played in a bunch of the, you know, played decent in like the Western AM and the US AM and all that stuff. I went to Q school. I got through first stage and then missed second stage by like a shot to get the finals and like my parents could see how bummed I was cuz I knew if I got the finals that that was kind of they would potentially let me leave. Um, and then, you know, I just I just knew I wanted to play golf. Like ever since I don’t know, when I was a little kid, I just wanted to play. Like school was never really my thing. UCLA was really really tough academically so it didn’t allow me to practice as much as I wanted to. And you know, it took some convincing for sure, but I think they overall the overall thing was like they knew that I enjoyed playing golf. I loved it and they just wanted me to be happy. So, they allowed me to to go out and start pursuing it. So, it didn’t go as well as you would have liked there at times, you know. Tell us about that period of your professional life and, you know, things that you had to do to kind of support yourself. Yeah, I mean, I I went out to Canada kind of as soon as I turned pro after missing it. I missed it at Canadian Q school um as well. And so I went up to Canada that summer, did some Mondays, got into a few events, um, and then probably played like three or four times or something like that. And then came back down. I missed at Cornferry Q school again. Then I went back to Canada Q school. I won in 2017 Canadian Q school. And then had full status, played up there. Um, played up there again in 18. And then 18 I lost my status. Had to go back to Canadian Q school again in 19. I won Q school again. Went back up there. And then that’s when I started to have some success. I won two of the first three events. played really well and then went on to cornfair during that cornferry season. It was just tough. Didn’t play well and you know after those kind of two years out there I just kind of I I ran out of my you know kind of sponsor money in terms of some people helping me out and whatnot and realized that I was like man now it’s September. I just missed a cornfair Q school again. I need to do something to make sure I’m not just bleeding out cash until Canada starts in in six seven months. So ended up getting a job. Um, I originally wanted to just be like a barback, just something where I could just like do work for a few hours, make some tips and like call it good. Wouldn’t interfere with my practice. And they were like, you know, that’s a lot of work. Why don’t you just be a bouncer? You just have to stand around with the flashlight. And I was like, okay, sounds sounds better to me. So did that for did that for quite a while and then started back up in Canada and played well again. And luckily haven’t had to go back. That’s amazing. And so you you you get on this amazing trajectory in terms of how you’re obviously feeling about your game and the success that you’re having and it culminates last year with a win in Mexico. Can you just tell us about that week about how you felt going into it and did was it not a surprise to you ultimately that that you won the tournament? Yeah, I mean I think I I knew going in that that was a course that fit me well. I looked at the beginning of the year at some courses that I felt fit my game really well. Tory Pines is one that I love. The grass type’s what I grew up on, so I’m really comfortable. And then Mexico I’ve, you know, I saw Tony, I kind of looked at all the events that Tony Fen now played well in and I was like, you know, I saw Tony won there. So I’m like, all right, this is obviously going to be a good setup for me. So every night before I went to sleep for probably weeks, probably almost a month, I’d watch his, you know, every shot played sort of thing that week. And I just felt like once I got to the tournament, I felt like I was having like deja vu cuz I watched it so many times. And then going out there, I knew I was hitting it well. I hit it really well on Thursday, didn’t putt great. And then on Friday, maybe like halfway through, Mike and I were talking about it. And I was like, “Hey, like we’re aiming at all this stuff.” And like my balls ended up right there. So, I’m going to start shifting the target a little bit closer to the pin. And I just kind of told myself like just don’t get in my own way. Just get out of my own way. Go out there, aim at the target, let it happen. And, you know, I hit it really well again on Friday and then was able to to hoop some putts. And you know, Sunday wasn’t super pretty. But, you know, I was nervous and excited and, you know, you start getting ahead of yourself a little bit, but did a good job of kind of kind of reeling it in and, you know, and relying on other parts of my game that I didn’t really have to earlier in the week. And, yeah, just did a really good job of staying in the moment kind of one shot at a time and and just kind of dealing with it as stuff came. All right, Jake, great drive here. We’ve got 219 left to an elevated green, a bunker that’s 191 to carry, and some rock formations to deal with. walk us through this second shot which is made that much tougher by the fact that you have a sidehill lie. Yeah, it’s uh not a super ideal lie to hit like a long iron off of. It’s always kind of tough to get it to not turn over too much or sometimes you kind of overcompensate, lean into it and leave it a good amount out to the right. So, um usually anytime I get on uneven lies, I try to hit a little bit more club, choke down, not overswath and face and all that sort of stuff. So 219, it’s a few yards uphill. It’s kind of right at my top end of a five iron. So I’d have to hit that pretty good to get there. Obviously we can land it a few short with the pin being uh you know around seven or eight on or something like that. Um but yeah, I mean usually this is something where we we definitely my caddy and I you know Mike would be talking a lot about like do you want to hit the five? Does it feel good to hit stock or do you think you want to hit four? Four is obviously going to come in a little bit lower and not land as soft. So, um I think I think that’s the main thing, just kind of deciding in between those two. If it was a few yards shorter or farther, it’ be an easy decision, but that’s just kind of how golf goes. It’s not always just kind of stock shots. So, I think for this one, in this in this particular case, like we have some room around the green to miss. Um it’s a little bit downwind. I think five iron’s going to get there no problem. So, just going to go ahead and hit a hit a solid five iron. Um and then in terms of sidehill lies, like something like this, you know, I personally don’t want to see it turn too much. it’s going to want to turn already. Um, you know, I’ll pretty much always kind of come in and judge like how severe it really is, where my body kind of naturally wants to line up. I’m most likely going to give this, I would say, at least two flags to the to the right of it. Um, it’s going to start farther right than that, but it’s kind of just for my eyes. I need to see myself have some room. If not, I feel like I’m going to aim too far left. I’m going to fight it off too much. And you know, in situations like this, you want to you don’t really want to fight the slope when it’s this severe. You want to just allow your body to kind of contour with it. And then, you know, there’s going to be a decent amount of right to left shape on it. Um, so just kind of allowing that to happen. And same thing, just try not to not to fight it too much. So, there’s a few uh, you know, kind of like darker rocks that are facing us. There’s like a crack in the middle. I’m going to go ahead and kind of allow my eyes to look out there and allow it to move. And also knowing that if it stays out to the right a little bit, it’s not the end of the world. And then for a lie like this as well, like I’m going to choke up a decent amount, allow my weight to be forward. I don’t want to hang back too much, even though it is uphill. And then the flag’s going pretty good right to left. So just going to go ahead and choke up and allow myself to do that. Turning into the center of the green. Sit a little bit. Sit a little bit. Yeah, that’s a good shot. Well done. Thank you. You’ve got this incredible length, Jake. Is there a number on a par five for your second shot where you you say, “Okay, even I can’t get there in two, I’m going to lay this one up.” Um, I’d like to say yes. I mean, yeah, there’s definitely, you know, when I start getting over like 290, something like that, especially to the front edge. If if I can’t carry it on, then that’s where we start talking about like, okay, well, what’s short of the green? You know, like 3-wood, I can carry like right around 280, 286, like pretty much all day off the ground. So, it’s like once you get to that 285, 290 number, it’s like, okay, well, if there’s any trouble short now, we start having that talk. If there’s, you know, in this situation, if there’s a bunker that’s 20 yards short of the front edge, that’s not a very good place to be. So, making sure you can cover those things, then it’s like, okay, now we can get it up around the green. But, yeah, if you start getting too far, maybe it might be start start time to think about, let’s get it to 60 yards and wedge it close. Gotcha. Let’s talk about expectations. I mean, tough shot, tough lie, 219, you know, what’s a good shot for you here on the green or are you quite happy if you end up with a chip from 10 or 15 feet left to right of the green? Yeah, I think I’m okay with a chip. You know, I think uh you know, depending on kind of what’s around the green, like I consider myself a good bunker player. So, if it’s in a bunker where it’s not a crazy lie, then like that’s an okay place for me. And you know, when you have a bad lie like this, it’s it’s really just like making sure you give yourself an opportunity for a four. So, it’s like not trying to force the eagle. Like, those are going to happen off the good lies and the easier shots and easier pins, but when you get kind of an awkward lie like this, it’s more just about like how do we just make a good kind of effortless four. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. One of the great features of Whisper Rock Golf Club is the contours in the greens here. And boy, you’ve got to dodge quite a few to get this Eagle putt anywhere near the hole. Talk us through this if you will. Yeah, I mean a putt like this, I think it’s super important to kind of look at from from all angles and really get a good sense of where the slopes are and and where just in general the ball is going to want to roll. Um, for something like this, we’re putting down a ridge over to the left. If I hit it too far left, it’s going to bank off another ridge. you know, there’s like nice slope going down off the front of the green just past the pin. So, um, definitely one you want to be really mindful of having good speed. And I think on putts this length, too, it’s important to understand like where it’s best to putt from on your next putt. So, if I was putting really severe uphill, I don’t really want to smash it four feet by and leave myself a quick downhill putt. So, kind of a similar situation here, like this ends up short right or something like that, that’s a really nice kind of like uphill into the wind like three, four footer and I’m good with that all day. But a putt like this, it’s almost one where it’s like, you know, you want to just play out there and let it move, but if I hit it too far left, it’s going to pick up more speed and more break from that ridge. So, trying to make sure I kind of just kiss the bottom of that slope. It’s realistically going to be tough to hit it high enough and have it go in. So, really just trying to make sure I nestle it up there close and don’t have to work too hard for a for a four. So, making this an absolute bonus, but you’re going to be happy within three, four, five feet. Exactly. Yeah. Pace is going to be the main thing. Like sometimes on on longer putts, I what I’ll actually do is is I’ll get a good idea of like on the high side of the hole, where’s like an okay part like putt from the high side of the hole? So, let’s say it’s like I don’t really want to hit from more than like two or three feet on the high side. I’ll kind of let my eyes look there and I’ll be like, okay, for for that to be kind of the max end left, like how much left of that can I aim? So that to me, I mean, it’s kind of a funky way of describing it, but that to me just kind of allows my brain to to really see the putt and really understand like how much it’s really going to break. And you know, I’ve played golf for such a long time. Like sometimes you’ll see me like going like this with my hand and it’s literally me just imagining like rolling a ball. Like if I were to stand behind and just kind of drop it and roll it down, like where do I really see it um see it going and see it ended up? All right, I’m going to tend this one for you. All right. Beautiful. Well done. Thank you. And for our viewers at home with a putt like this, do you tend to use a little pace in terms of taking some break out of it or do you like to max it out? How are you on these fourfunders? I’m kind of I’m 50/50. It depends on how much break. if there’s if there’s enough break where I have to play it outside the hole, then I’m a little bit more on the die speed side. Um, you know, sometimes I take some break out, but at the same time, the harder you hit it, kind of the smaller you make the hole. So, if it’s if it’s a lot more if it’s a lot straighter or if it’s straight uphill, yeah, obviously I’ll give it a little bit more. But, you know, I’m somebody who I’ve always been I’ve always liked seeing the ball kind of like drip in last last roll. And um you know I just think personally over the course of a round as well like even from 20 ft like I don’t want to hit a bunch of 4footers in a day it just gets exhausting. So it’s like if I can give myself a bunch of tapins and I’m in. Um but yeah something like this like this is going to be a a putt where I’m going to hit with pretty medium speed whereas like if there wasn’t a hole there it would probably only go about a foot to a foot and a half pass. Nice birdie. Thank you. And we saw you that you there at one point reading the slope with your feet. Yeah. Uh for the folks at home, you know, who who are seeing a lot of professionals on television do that these days, you know, tell us about that a little bit and how long you’ve been doing it. I uh Yeah, I learned it for the first time when I was in college in like 2015. So, I’ve been using it for a really long time. It’s not something that I use as like, oh, the putt needs to start here in order to go in. But, I do use it to to just, you know, I’ve used it for so long now, I know the difference really well between one, two, three, 4% slopes. So, for me, it just kind of helps me understand if it’s something that I’m going to start inside the hole, on the edge, just outside the hole. Um, and I think it helps me get into like a gen general area. So, like when I go up and do that, you know, potentially in a tournament, if this had a little bit more break, I’d stand back here, you know, I’d hold up one finger, two fingers, and that gives me an idea of whether it’s, you know, just outside the edge, if it’s like a ball or two outside the edge. And, um, you know, it just helps kind of like confirm my what my eyes are seeing behind the ball as well. All right. Well, let’s go make another birdie. Let’s do it. [Music] All right, Jake, it’s time for Caddy Q&A. First off, what do you miss the most when you’re at home without your Caddy that he does for you tournament weeks? I think all the dirty work. I think cleaning the ball, cleaning the clubs, doing all that good stuff. I mean, I kind of enjoy talking through shots, but you know, I still talk to myself when I’m on the course. But being able to have him, you know, when I get on the green, mark it, just toss my ball. Sometimes I’ll just throw it into space just thinking he’s going to be there. But, uh, but yeah, I think having him there to to kind of do all my dirty work for me is always pretty nice. and tell us about the conversations that you and your caddy have that the players, you know, at home should be having with themselves in terms of playing better golf. Yeah, I mean, I think I think trying to kind of be the lead in the conversation. So, trying to make sure you’re talking through where you want to land it, where the wind is, what the lie is doing, how far is it, like really talking through kind of all those steps. And, you know, at the start, you can even write them down a little postcard and just have like six six little steps of things to ask on every single shot. But, um, yeah, we talk about everything. And you know, once we get it done, it’s we have a good target, we have a good landing number, and that’s that’s all we’re going for. And do those conversations change? Are they different on Sunday in contention than they are Thursday on in your AM round? Try not to. You know, I think um I think the only thing is I’m somebody who really likes to know where we are in the leaderboard and all that sort of stuff. So, if you have a one shot lead or a two shot lead, that can sort of maybe change the uh the situation or the shot that you might hit. But for the most part, really trying to make sure that those conversations stay the same on the T- shot on Thursday to the final, you know, approach shot on Sunday. And on those rare occasions where you you talk it over with your caddy, but you still don’t feel comfortable over shot, what do you do then to fix it? Um, I think just really making sure we kind of go through everything one more time. And then if we really don’t like it, it’s it’s okay to maybe not attack every single pin. It’s okay to play a more conservative shot. Just kind of working your way down that checklist until you do get comfortable. So, even if it’s a certain T-shot, not hitting driver, or if it’s hitting a club that, you know, maybe just gets on the front of the green, whatever it might be, making sure you’re comfortable over every single approach shot and every T- shot is the most important thing. God forbid there’s a time where your caddy can’t work, he ate something bad the night before, what’s that experience going to be like for you when he’s not there? That’s going to be tough, not going to lie. He’s uh, you know, we’ve been together for a couple years now, and he’s a good friend of mine. That’s how it all kind of started out. So, uh, Mike, I need you, uh, happy and healthy, but, you know, maybe I’ll give my, uh, maybe I’ll give my brother a call or one of my other buddies, and I’m sure they’d be they’d be stoked to come in for a week. Nice. We got spectacular visuals on this drivable par4. What a what a hole this is to look at and to play. Ultimately, 300 yards total. There’s 267 over a bunker that’s a little bit short of the green. Walk us through how you’re going to go about picking this hole apart. Obviously, we know you can get there. You got a little bit of a tailwind. is driver too much club. Where do you want to miss this? So much to talk about here, of course. Yeah. I mean, obviously on a hole like this, you know, you you talk about holes where you’re like, “Yeah, this is definitely a birdie opportunity. Here’s one of them.” Um, so getting it around the green is obviously priority number one. Picking the right club is so important because there are some places you can get into. There’s rocks just behind the green. If you leave it too far short, you can leave yourself a tough kind of downwind chip shot. So, trying to make sure I kind of get it to the hole or even left of the hole. making sure I’m chipping more uphill into the wind, making that second shot a little bit easier on myself. Um, driver is definitely going to be too much. We got a pretty good tailwind today. You know, it’s in that like mid 280s to the front. That’s probably playing closer to around 270 high, mid two, even like mid 260s is probably going to be fine. So, probably making sure we carry that to I think you said it was 267 to cover the bunker. That’s right. Pretty much making sure we carry that is going to be priority number one. So, you know, for me, I can I can hit fivewood downwind. should be able to cover that. At the same time, if I mis hit fivewood, it could potentially not cover. So, it’s going to be more of like a 3-wood mini driver for me. Um, so for something like this, you know, kind of similar to uh to that approach shot we hit in the par five where the ball’s above my feet, I really don’t want to see this move too much right to left. If it starts doing that, it’s going to start running away from me too much. So, I’m going to hit more of a shot that gets into the wind. So trying to hit a fade that, you know, ideally gets to spin up and land a little bit softer. Um, you know, even a full one of these is going to be too much. So trying to take a little bit off, you know, choking up a little bit, even setting up to face a little open and allowing it to, you know, to kind of get out there a little bit softer and ideally land soft and and grave ourselves a a nice chance at making an easy three. Okay, so this is one, you know, we got wind down off our right. It’s pretty strong. We really just want to make sure we cover, I would say, right around like 280. And with this much wind, it’s probably playing, you know, high 60s, low 70s. So, I’m going to keep that number in my mind. Usually, I try to get to like one specific number, you know, like 272, whatever it is. And, you know, with all the guys we practice on Trackman these days, so try to imagine what that shot would would feel like to hit. Um, and then in terms of target, like I try to get as specific as I can. And I mean I think for something like this kind of the finger in the bunker um on the left edge of that finger. So it’s basically like a flag or two right of the pin flag and a half or so. I’m going to see it kind of dropping on that ideally. I know this green wants to roll kind of right to left a little bit. So I think trying to pitch it just right of it um is ideal. So I’m going to try to end it on that. And then because of that, I’m going to aim a little bit more like left edge of green, just inside of that. And then, you know, let that fade kind of fight into the wind and then ideally kind of hold that line and and allow it to uh to drop in right there. So, let’s see. 272. See if we can uh hit our spot. Right on your line. See if that trend’s up there. I don’t see it popping up yet. Might just be short, but boy, but that’s a good shot. Oh, there it is. Peeking through. All right, there we go. We’ll try to put it eagle. All right, well done. Great shot. And and for the folks at home, it sure sounds like you’re playing with the specifics you’re talking about, you’re playing this T-shot almost like an approach shot in terms of, you know, taking things out of play and maxing things out along those lines. For sure. Yeah. I think um, you know, with my length, there’s some some situations where par can be irrelevant on a scorecard. You know, it’s really about like what that hole is playing. There’s some par fours that play really difficult and a four or five is maybe even okay. Um, and then in this situation, I I’m imagining more of like a long par three. So, I’m trying to get really specific with landing numbers, understanding what’s around the green, the good places to chip and putt from, all that sort of stuff. And, you know, obviously, you’re still 300 yards away. It’s it’s, you know, you’re going to have a bigger dispersion on where the ball can end up, but really trying to narrow it down and get as specific as I can and allowing myself to just try and, you know, create that shot that’s going to fit the hole. Okay. So, let’s talk about our 15 handicap friends. Yeah. Let’s just say they can max it out at 240. Okay. How would you suggest they play the hole and let’s play the hole as if you were that? Yeah. So, I mean, max 240. I mean, I’m pretty much going to take, you know, something like this. I’m going to probably double check kind of the length of that bunker on the left. Make sure that’s kind of not in play. Um, and even just from looking at the hole, like fairway slopes a lot from right to left. So, favoring a little bit more down the right hand side. Um, kind of actually where those like cart tracks are through the fairway or kind of the just inside the left edge of that right bunker. Um, and you know, for me when I’m hitting this shot, obviously it’s a little bit more difficult to do for a higher handicap. Like anytime I’m hitting something less in driver off the tea, I’m usually just I’m hitting it low. You know, like you watch Tiger, a lot of guys who who just kind of get it and play off the tee, it’s just kind of more of a stinger type. Just get it in play, get it on the ground. 37 feet apex. You know how hard that is to do. This is such a cool shot to use. And you know, this hole sets up perfect for a little descending fade. You see how he took some turf with a mini driver there? It’s pretty cool. Like look at that golf ball. I mean, it’s not only 15 ft off the ground and it’s 50 yards off the face. I don’t need to hit some high 200 foot in the air draw, whatever. So, um, this is really just a placement shot. You know, you’re just trying to, you know, same time you’re still trying to pick like a specific target and end it in a good spot. Um, but, you know, it doesn’t need to be super pretty or anything like that. just needs to get in play and it’s all it’s all about setting up the next shot. So, um, for something like this for me, I mean, we still got the same wind. It’s going to be downwind a good amount. Um, I’m going to take, you know, kind of trying to end it on the pin line basically. So, knowing that the wind’s down off my right, I’m going to aim just left of it, just inside the edge of the green and kind of allow ball position and all that sort of stuff to launch it out to the right. Should fall left a little bit with the wind. Um, but ideally just kind of ending it on that pin line right around 240. Oh, beautiful. Flighted just as you asked it to be. Couldn’t be in a better spot. We can play from there. Good shot. How do you feel when you hear people talk about that don’t play at the same level you do about playing to a left or a right side of the fairway? Do you uh you buy into that or you you would you rather that you just hear they get it anywhere in the fairway to start with? I think anything in the fairway is a good start. Um I think obviously if you’re good enough to pick sides and that’s great. I mean for us I mean there’s some holes where you can do that but our fairways are pretty narrow. So I mean even for me I’m still getting used to that and it’s just give me the short grass and I’ll figure it out from there. But you definitely want to be mindful of like which side um you know in terms of rough is might be better to play from. If you have a dog leg left, you don’t want to hit it in the left trees or in the left rough because you’re going to have to hit through 80 trees to get to the green. Whereas, if you hit it in the right rough, you might just have to dodge one tree, you know, because you’re on that wider angle and you can run it up the fairway. So, kind of on a hole like this, you know, there’s a fairway bunker on that left hand side that’s kind of the shortest distance. That would really be what we’re trying to avoid primarily. You know, you don’t want to have a 90 or 100 yard wedge shot hitting out of a fairway bunker 60 yards. That’s just Nobody wants that golf shot. Thank you. Perfect layup. We’ll get to your eagle putt in a little bit here, but for this shot here that you ultimately played uh conservatively into the fairway. Talk us through it. You’ve got 61 yards to the flag, 48 to the front edge. That helping wind, I assume, is going to make it tougher to stop this ball. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, from this close, ideally, we’d like to have a little bit farther in just to get a little bit more spin, get it to stop quicker. Um, and you know, there’s a little drop off behind the pin, so we don’t really want to mess with anything past it. So being a couple yards short is is a good thing. Um you know obviously in a perfect world love to just land everything right on its mark and not move and everything’s perfect. But with this much downwind, you know, the green slopes a good amount from right to left. These are ones you have to be really careful about understanding like what the ball’s going to do when it gets on the ground and how the wind and slopes and everything are play into that. So, you know, for me, I could even use my ball that up there already to to kind of aim off of. You want to see something land, you know, a little past it and to the right kind of on that dark stripe. allow it to check up, release a little bit down to the left. Um, it’s going to be, I think, a little bit tougher to get it to just bounce, stop right away. So, I’m going to allow, you know, kind of in my pre-shot to to a little bit of space basically for that ball if it does have some roll out where it’s not going to go over the green and go long. Okay, let’s see this shot. And so for something like this, you know, like a usual, so we have 61, you know, gonna ideally put like a 55 to 56 number in my head in terms of where we want to land it. And then figure out what that’s playing with the wind. From this short, it’s not going to play as much of a factor, but you know, ideally right around that 52 53 number in my head should be right about right about it. Oh, nice hands. Really good shot. Pretty nice. Jake, everybody at home when they watch golf on television, myself included, we love to see the pros hit the one hop and stop shot. Yeah. How do you guys do that? What can we practice, you know, on the range to to help create a little bit more spin? Yeah, I mean, a lot of it just I mean, I think the one thing to understand is a lot of it has to do with the lie. you know, like usually the lie has to be pretty darn good in order to do that. And we we’re fortunate enough where we play on some nice fairways and, you know, have fresh grooves and all that sort of stuff. So, number one, making sure the grooves are clean. If your grooves aren’t clean, even I can’t hit that shot. So, that’s number one. Um, and then in terms of what you can practice, I mean, it’s really it’s really about obviously contact. You need to hit it well and then making sure you have a nice downward angle of attack. So, a lot of the times you see amateurs, you know, kind of throw their hands at it and they end up creating a lot of loft on the club and that’s like not what you need for that shot. It’s more about, you know, feeling like you’re going to drive that club into the ground. It’s going to feel like it’s going to launch lower, but you’re just letting the club do the work. I see. Thank you. You got a great look again here for Eagle. talk us through this putt if you would, but let’s let’s also talk about your putting stroke and you know what you use as triggers to kind of get things going and what you’re thinking about over the ball. For sure. Um, so I mean, yeah, initial initial read it’s breaking pretty good right to left. When I’m looking at stuff like this, I think like one of the funny things that people always talk about is like when you have like eagle putt or a birdie putt, it’s like, do you focus more? Do you do that? And it’s like, well, in a golf tournament, like one shot’s one shot, whether it’s for double or for eagle, like you need to try to put the same attention into into everything. So, this thing’s kind of no different. Obviously, it’d be nice to make a two here, but at the same time, just making sure we go through our process and give ourselves a good look and and just feel like we give it a good roll. But, yeah, in terms of, you know, my process over the ball, I always kind of have the same routine. Um, you know, I usually like stand behind it. I I put my putter in my left hand. I usually rub the face right before I step in with putter in my right hand. And then I pretty much always take two practice swings. Every once in a while it might be one if it’s from really short distance or it might be three from really long distance. But um once I get over it for the most part, you know, I set up with my right hand only, I feel like I get kind of really nice and centered, a good base into the ground. Left hand goes on, and then from there, like I I really like kind of constant motion or like relieving tension. So same thing when I’m hitting a normal shot, I’m always kind of waggling. I’m always kind of moving. It just helps me stay nice and relaxed. Um, I think it’s important not to get super rigid and stiff over the ball. So, um, yeah, that’s that’s kind of my thing. So, you might see like the putter kind of lightly tap on the ground. Something I used to use um kind of as a trigger is I would do like a drill where you kind of tap the putter like one, two, three, and then take it back on the third tap. So, I feel like because I did that, that’s kind of why I uh I do those little mini taps now. But um yeah, we’ll see if we can uh if we can run through that and maybe make it two. Let’s see it. Little short low side, but good speed. Easy birdie. Easy birdie. We don’t We don’t hate those. All right. Nice 30. Thank you. All right, Jake. Great way to finish this hole, but we are not done yet. We’ve got a lot more to learn. Make sure you check out part two of playing lessons with Jake Knap, available now on Golf Pass.