How Jake Knapp used his Monday pro-am to prepare for big week

For PGA Tour rookie Jake Knapp, this week’s WM Phoenix Open is form of a big deal. For one factor, Knapp is an area. After rising up within the Southern California seashore city of Costa Mesa and attending UCLA, Knapp moved to Scottsdale in November, and he’s made TPC Scottsdale, host of this week’s match, his dwelling observe.

Another cause this week could possibly be a big one for Knapp is his present PGA Tour standing. Two weeks in the past, Knapp posted the very best end of his profession: T3 at Torrey Pines. The efficiency launched him to forty second on the FedEx Cup Points listing and to the cusp of the Top 100 within the OWGR, at 106th. But extra importantly, Knapp is at present No. 6 on the Aon Swing 5 rating — a lifeline for gamers who aren’t already certified for the limited-field, no-cut, guaranteed-money Signature Events. If Knapp can claw his approach up yet another spot, he’ll earn a berth on the Genesis Invitational at Riviera and its $20 million purse — that’s a fairly big deal for a 30-year outdated embarking on his first lap across the Big Show.

On Monday at TPC Scottsdale, I had the respect of caddying for my GOLF colleague Michael Bamberger within the Carlisle Pro-Am. We have been fortunate sufficient to draw Knapp as our professional, and it was a deal with to watch him dissect the course. As I watched him prepare for every shot — typically beneath the watchful eye of his swing coach, Top 100 Teacher Dana Dahlquist, who walked with him for most of our first 9, I questioned: How does a younger professional, who’s beneath quite a lot of stress to carry out, make sure that a five-hour pro-am spherical is time well-spent? Unlike an everyday observe spherical, professionals on this format have to play their very own ball as a part of the workforce rating, and don’t typically have the luxurious of do-overs or dropping additional balls to really feel out tough chips or putts. So I requested Knapp: How do be sure to get worth out of a spherical like this?

“Today is mainly about tee shots and approach shots,” Knapp mentioned. “So, ensuring I’m getting distances and people types of issues dialed in. Whether it’s a pro-am or not, you’ll be able to at all times work on that stuff. Putting, and issues like that, I’m not as frightened about right now, as a result of we’ll by no means see these pins in these places. I’m not likely attempting to learn the inexperienced an excessive amount of, simply get a common really feel for tempo and the whole lot else after which go away my observe for after I putt on the placing inexperienced on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“But yeah, in pro-ams like this, just focus on lines on tee shots and then distance control and that sort of stuff.”

Dahlquist’s presence is generally in regards to the consolation of getting a second set of eyes, Knapp mentioned.

“It’s a little bit of confirmation, knowing that things you’re doing are going in the correct direction,” he mentioned. “And then, after having a very good week at Torrey, we haven’t seen one another since then. So simply ensuring we form of bounce backwards and forwards about what I used to be doing nicely, and what I would like to enhance on. So, yeah, it’s simply good to have one other set of eyes, somebody who is aware of after I’m hitting it nicely, or after I’m doing one thing proper, what it ought to appear like and really feel like.

“I have a tendency to kind of fall back in transition and swing out to the right a little bit too much,” Knapp continued. “So he just helps me find the feels, to stay a little more on top of it, and cover the ball a little better. He knows my swing really well. He’s known me for a long time and we’ve worked on and off for a really long time together, but it’s nice having him, most weeks I would say, just for little check-ups.”

Knapp mentioned he tries not to rely an excessive amount of on technical swing work through video, however relatively by specializing in really feel.

“Sometimes I’ll take a video just to see what my overall kind of rhythm looks like to see if anything looks off,” he mentioned. “But for probably the most half, I play rather a lot off simply, like, ball flight. And if the ball is doing what I needed to do, I simply form of strive to really feel it on the market the very best I can.

“We’ll meet later today after I’m done, I’ll eat some lunch and then come back up and some balls with him,” Knapp continued. “We’ll work on some of things we were talking about today and then if everything is working well tomorrow, I probably won’t send any videos or do anything. I’ll just give him a thumbs up.”

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It’s that degree of confidence that noticed Knapp via his greatest end at Torrey, the place he birdied three of his remaining six holes to publish a remaining spherical of three-under 69.

“I finally started to get some confidence in my ball striking,” he mentioned. “I’ll tell you, this game is just all about confidence. All the guys out here are really good. It’s just a matter of who’s feeling the best in between the ears that week.”

Knapp’s towering ball flight and textbook precision ought to serve him nicely on a course like TPC Scottsdale. And whereas golf is fickle, if Knapp’s present recreation — not to point out his laid-back and personable demeanor — is any indication, it seems this could possibly be a very good week for him certainly.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She can out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily accountable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, comparable to GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview collection, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.