Livescore
Late on Saturday night before the final round of the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld, California-based teaching pro John Ortega picked his phone off his bed stand to scroll for a moment and accidentally dialed his prized pupil, Jake Knapp, who he’s taught golf to since the age of 8 and who was the tournament’s 54-hole leader in search of his first PGA Tour title.
“It’s the night before his biggest day of his life and it’s even later where he is so I hung up, right? But then a minute later, Jake calls me and goes, ‘Hey, I wanted to talk.’ There was, like, this serendipitous butt dial of sorts, and so we had this conversation. He goes, ‘Hey, tomorrow is going to be a big day for me. I’m not going to be delusional. This is something that could change my life.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah,’ and I just said, ‘I think you’re ready.’ And then, you know, he went out and did what he did.”
Knapp, 30, had never held the lead on the Tour let alone the Korn Ferry Tour, which served as his springboard to the big leagues after recording 10 top-10s the previous season. The former UCLA product overcame a few shaky moments to shoot a final-round even-par 71 and win by two strokes at Vidanta Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
In doing so, Knapp fulfilled the promise that Ortega said he realized from the first time he watched Knapp hit a golf ball at Costa Mesa Country Club in Costa Mesa, California. As Knapp’s game blossomed, Ortega had him play with top amateurs and professionals in the area in weekend games with a group called the Breakfast Club. And he watched Knapp outwork all the other talented kids.
“One time, he might have been a junior in high school, I was driving home and it was raining and I called him, and he answered the phone,” Ortega recounted, “and I’m like, ‘Are you on the golf course?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I hardly ever get a chance to practice my swing in my rain gear so thought it was a good opportunity.’ He did stuff like that. Not too many kids, especially in Southern California, just kind of go, ‘OK, I’m gonna go play in the rain, right?’ ”
Knapp was short in stature as a kid until he hit his growth spurt during high school, transforming him from a short knocker with a great short game to a bomber with exquisite touch around the greens.
“I’ll never forget him hitting this little Titleist 3-wood that he had and carrying a 250-yard mark on the fly with old range balls. I’m like, ‘Whoa, some power, right?’ And by the time he was a senior, he was just hitting it crazy-long and people would marvel and say, ‘How does he hit it that far?’ I’d say, ‘I wish I knew. If I could bottle that, I could just work for a few years and I’d be able to retire, right?”
Swing instructor Sean Foley, who has worked with the likes of Tiger Woods and Justin Rose, may have described Knapp’s effortless power best: “If Adam Scott and Fred Couples’s swing had a baby, it’d be Jake Knapp.”
Yet, Knapp is a late bloomer, having turned pro in 2016 but lost Korn Ferry Tour status in 2021 and was mired outside the top thousand in the world as recently as May of 2022 (No. 1476). He worked a stint at a bar-restaurant as a bouncer at night so he could focus on his game during the day. He said he never panicked that he was progressing through the ranks more slowly than Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and Beau Hossler, tour pros who he competed with as a junior.
“I wasn’t one of those guys that came out of college at 21-22 years old and ready to go dominate the PGA Tour. It just wasn’t me,” he said.
Knapp has a tattoo on the inside of his right arm that says confidence comes from doing, and once he made it to the Tour it took him just nine starts to earn his maiden trophy. While scouting the tournaments that he would be able to play as a rookie last year, Knapp starred the Mexico Open as a good fit for his power game. Long bombers Tony Finau and Jon Rahm had won the two previous editions at Vidanta Vallarta, a par-71 that measures 7,436 yards. In describing the Greg Norman layout, Rafa Campos, winner of the 2024 Bermuda Championship, on Wednesday said, “I wish I had 20 extra yards in my bag, but I don’t.”
Knapp overpowered the course during middle rounds of 64-63 to give him a cushion and hung on for the title. The trophy for the Mexico Open resides prominently on a shelf in the entryway to Knapp’s home. Ortega recalled enjoying the final round at a watch party thrown by Knapp’s parents, who both burst into tears with pride when he clinched his first win.
“Of course, I’m holding back my tears because I usually try to be cool,” Ortega said. “Afterwards, I had to go give a putting lesson and I hopped in my car and I’m driving to the golf course and all of a sudden my eyes start just bucketing tears of joy. It was quite a day.”
Knapp capped the year with another victory, partnering with the LPGA’s Patty Tavatanakit at the Grant Thornton Invitational, an unofficial team event held in December. But to Knapp, he’ll never forget that walk to the 18th green at Vidanta knowing that his childhood dream to win on the PGA Tour was about to come true.
“It’s one of those things you can take to your grave,” he said. “You’re a winner on the PGA Tour. And that’s a cool thing to be able to say.”
2025 Mexico Open at VidantaWorld
Stat
4.446. That was the scoring average last year at the par-4 10th hole at Vidanta Vallarta Course, which ranked as the second hardest par-4 on the PGA Tour last year (out of 530 holes and behind only No. 18 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte).
Keep an eye on…
Akshay Bhatia. Ranked No. 30 in the world, the 23-year-old two-time Tour winner finished fourth in his only start at Vidanta Vallarta in 2023 and is coming off a season-best T-9 at the Genesis Invitational last week.
Aaron Rai. The winner of the Wyndham Championship last season, Rai is the top-ranked player in the 132-man field this week at No. 29. Last season, the Englishman ranked sixth in Strokes Gained: Total, the sum of a player’s strokes gained for tee, approach, greenside, and putting.
Stephan Jaeger. There’s limited data given Vidanta Vallarta has hosted a Tour event just three times, but Jaeger has been cashing steady checks south of the border. Since the Mexico Open’s debut here in 2022, Jaeger has placed T-15, T-18 and T-3 with a scoring average of 68.08 over 12 rounds.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Mexico Open 2025: Jake Knapp returns to defend first PGA Tour title
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post