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By Devlina Sarkar
Contributing Sports Writer
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"Really the only bad swing of the day." This came straight out of Jake Knapp's mouth even after making history by becoming 'Mr. 59' at a disappointing course last week.
But the reason is pretty solid. Knapp watched as his first title of the season slipped through his hands. He led the Cognizant Classic until the final round when Joe Highsmith snagged the title and the $165M paycheck for himself.
And it was not at all easy for Highsmith, who became the first player to win after making the cut on the number in nine years [Brandt Snedeker, 2016]. But things were made a tad easier when Knapp triple bogeyed the par-4 11th.
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The 2024 Mexico Open winner "played super solid" the whole tournament except for his 11th hole that may "haunt" the young professional for the rest of his life.
Knapp had a steady start on Sunday, making the turn at 1-under. But then his winning dream tripped him up on 11.
Following a tee ball that found the fairway, Knapp's approach shot came up short and found water. Instead of taking a penalty stroke, the 30-year-old took a risk. Knapp removed his right shoe and tried hitting a miraculous shot with one foot in the water.
The decision immediately backfired as the ball came right back to him. Instead of giving up, he played another shot and got it out into the rough, but by that point, the hole was a complete disaster.
"Front right pin, downwind. Chipping from long isn't super easy," Knapp said after his round. "Could see kind of the top quarter of the ball, figured I could just kind of blast it out for the most part, and didn't hit any of them really hard enough, unfortunately."
He ultimately carded a triple-bogey seven, dropping him well down the leaderboard.
"I mis-hit the one shot on 11, and that was kind of the only thing I'd really take back. It would have been nice to make some more putts, but the pins were more challenging today."
He continued, "We had the goal of just fairways and greens and two-putting the heck out of it, birdieing all the par-5s, and figured that would be enough, and if I did that, I would have been tied. Just bummed about 11.
"It was really the only bad swing of the day."
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