PGA Tour rookie Jake Knapp is now a PGA Tour winner, taking home the Mexican Open on Sunday after shooting 19 under par during the week, edging fellow rookie Sami Valimaki by two strokes.
Knapp began the round with a four-shot lead, but let it slip when his driver, the foundation of his first three rounds, betrayed him. Knapp hit two fairways in 18 holes on Sunday and is the first PGA Tour player since 1983 to hit two or fewer fairways in his final round and win. Knapp hit 33 of 39 fairways from Thursday to Saturday.
Still, he secured the victory after hitting his drive on the 18th into a left fairway bunker. Valimaki, needing an eagle to force a jump-off, went for it and missed: his monstrous momentum hit the cart path on the right and went under a fence. Valimaki immediately started asking how much margin he had over the trio in third place. A few moments later, Knapp did a tap-in and raised his arms in triumph.
“Just working,” Knapp told NBC of his final round.
Knapp, 29, is just that: a professional golfer. The ability was always there: During high school, he shot a 58 on his home course and then a 61 during US Open qualifying, and he eventually enrolled at UCLA, but struggled to gain traction upon turning pro in 2016.
Three years ago I had no tour status and was working as a security guard at a nightclub. But he used conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour to finish 13th in the season standings in 2023 and claim his PGA Tour card for this season.
He tied for third at the Farmers Insurance Open last month and placed T28 at the WM Phoenix Open. He then followed up his first-round 67 at Vidanta with a 64 on Friday and a 63 on Saturday, taking a four-stroke lead over Valimaki into the final round. Only three players were within seven shots of the lead.
Knapp, No. 125 in the world by DataGolf.com, came out of the gate with bogeys on Nos. 1 and 3, however, and quickly found himself tied with Valimaki, who had a birdie and an eagle on the front nine.
Knapp finally steadied himself, gaining a stroke on his playing partner when he parried No. 13 and Valimaki made bogey, and then gave himself another when he birdied the par-5 14th and Valimaki settled for par.
Knapp takes home $1.458 million for the victory. He will be at the Masters and the PGA Championship, as well as The Players Championship next month. He is now also fully exempt through the 2026 PGA Tour season and will be at all signing events for the remainder of this year.
(Photo by Jake Knapp: Héctor Vivas/Getty Images)
