Jake Knapp’s bother was simply getting began when he hit his 2nd tee shot.
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Whenever you’re hitting your SEVENTH shot from the tee field, it’s clear one thing has gone severely fallacious. But if there’s a person gap on the PGA Tour that may make that occur — a particular tee field the place gamers may discover this destiny — it’s the sixth tee at Bay Hill in the course of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Best evidenced by Bryson DeChambeau in 2021, the longest gamers on Tour can earn an unimaginable benefit on the sixth by carrying a tee shot 300-plus yards in the air, all the best way over the lake that the 551-yard par-5 winds round. The longer the tee pictures fly, the extra execs can minimize the nook, the extra of a bonus they’ll get…as long as they clear the hazard.
Best evidenced by John Daly in 1998, even the longest gamers can implode by this singular pursuit. It was Daly who stored launching tee pictures on the identical line, hopeful one would cross the lake, time and again, Tin Cup fashion. Six water-balls later, Daly made an 18.
All of this brings us to Jake Knapp, latest winner of the Mexico Open and at the moment the Seventh-longest participant on Tour this season, averaging 310 yards off the tee. On Friday, Knapp made the sixth gap look tiny, crushing a 344-yard drive, smoothing a mid-iron in to 7 ft and making the eagle putt. Simple stuff. But Saturday’s situations at Bay Hill have been a lot windier. It wouldn’t be fairly the identical. But even in these situations, Knapp was enjoying solidly, even par by way of 5 holes.
Knapp took an analogous line Saturday, hoping to chop the nook as soon as once more, however his first tee ball traveled 300 yards when it wanted to go about 302. His ball splashed a yard or two in need of land, which simply meant he must re-tee, getting no enhance in yardage as he takes a penalty. From the identical spot, he launched one other drive, and whereas this one traveled these two further yards, it now flew a number of yards left. He knew it immediately, bailing on his swing pose, dropping his proper hand off the membership, staring lengthy sufficient to look at a second straight splash, and simply as excruciatingly in need of the land.
That’s the place issues get a bit complicated. For his subsequent trick, Knapp averted the water by lacking to this point proper of it that, in response to the PGA Tour’s Shotlink, he ended up out of bounds and compelled to take one other penalty stroke earlier than placing the driving force away and enjoying much less membership off the tee for his seventh stroke. At this level, Knapp hadn’t simply surrendered his benefit, however he missed far sufficient proper that he could be grinding to make a ten.
From the appropriate tough, Knapp hacked his manner again into the golf green, then left his method shot about 60 yards in need of the opening, pitched on and two-putted for a 12. A snug dozen strokes added to his scorecard, the final of which was a little bit of a grindy 4-footer to lastly see his ball into the cup. Unsurprisingly, all the ordeal solidified Knapp’s place on the backside of the leaderboard.
Shotlink
All the whereas, Knapp’s enjoying accomplice Ludvig Aberg made the sixth look straightforward. He smoothed his tee ball 307 yards into the golf green, performed an extended iron up onto the sting of the inexperienced and casually two-putted for a birdie, eight strokes higher than Knapp.
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