Jake Knapp torches PGA National with opening 59 at Cognizant Classic

This isn’t your father’s PGA National.

As gettable as it’s ever been, with light winds, soft greens and overseeded fairways, one of the Tour’s toughest courses was defenseless Thursday as Jake Knapp posted a 12-under 59 to lead a barrage of low scoring at the Cognizant Classic.

Knapp’s sub-60 round – the 15^th in PGA Tour history, and first since last summer – could have been even lower if not for a 12-foot lip-out on his 17^th hole. At the 18^th, he blasted a 335-yard tee shot and easily reached the closing par 5 in two. His 18-footer for eagle would have matched the lowest score in Tour history.

“I knew I was hitting it well,” he said, “and just tried to birdie everything today.”

Rounds of 59 or lower in PGA Tour history

A look at the times players have shot 59 or lower on the PGA Tour.

As stunning as Knapp’s opening round was for those accustomed to seeing the Bear Trap bite back, the rest of the leaderboard nearly kept pace.

Russell Henley, Daniel Berger and Sami Valimaki all shot 63 on the Champion Course, where the field average was 68.63 in the opening round. Of the 144 players in the field, 115 broke par Thursday.

“I thought I played well,” Berger said after his 63, “but then someone shot 59. Clearly, the course was not the old Bear Trap that we’re used to.”

In an effort to improve the conditioning of PGA National throughout the year, the club overseeded the typically gnarly Bermuda rough a few years ago. And this year, for the first time since 2014, both the tees and fairways were overseeded, making the fairways essentially play wider and pitches around the greens less daunting. There were other factors, too: Jordan Spieth (65) suggested that half of the hole locations Thursday were in the easiest spots on the green, and the Palm Beach area recently experienced rainfall that has slowed and softened the track that used to rank as one of the most difficult on Tour.

“It’s just a little disappointing because it’s such a great test of golf,” Billy Horschel said. “If you had Bermuda rough and Bermuda fairways, and if you missed the green you had to chip it off Bermuda instead of overseeded rye, it makes it a little bit tougher.”

Austin Eckroat won last year’s Cognizant at 17 under, the fourth consecutive year that the winner was double-digits under par. Prior to that, it happened just once in an eight-year span. The previous low score in tournament history was 61.

Knapp, whose lone PGA Tour victory came at last year’s Mexico Open, missed just two fairways and two greens and needed only 25 putts, his round as stress-free as it comes – his longest par putt was a 2 1/2-footer.

“I was pretty aware coming into this week that my game was trending the right way,” he said.