The latest victory on the PGA Tour Although Jake Knapp is clearly a fan of Tiger Woods, he mentioned Luke Donald, an unusual player, as one of his childhood idols.
After his unexpected victory at the Mexico Open last week, which qualified him for The Masters and secured him a primetime partnership with Rory McIlroy at this week’s Cognizant Classic, the 29-year-old rookie is expected to become a star.
Later in his career, he became a fan of McIlroy, but at the beginning, in addition to the well-known name Tiger Woods, former World No. 1 Luke Donald also made an appearance.
During their opening round at PGA National, Knapp’s all-around game undoubtedly pleased McIlroy, as the Northern Irishman praised him later.
McIlroy responded, “Yeah, he could definitely be a star.” “It looks like he’s got the full package.”
Knapp also appreciated receiving some advice for the future after witnessing the four-time Major champion up close.
“I tried to pick his brain about a few things for the next few weeks, and hopefully the rest of my career, and he was really generous on giving very thoughtful answers,” Knapp said on McIlroy.
“I don’t think he performed to his full potential today in terms of his expectations. He certainly has a fantastic short game, even though he didn’t hit a great shot into No. 1 and a few others. A well-rounded game is necessary to become one of the world’s finest players.
He can clearly drive the golf ball quite far. He rolls it really nicely. He simply keeps things tight and does everything extremely well.”
“I was Tiger for sure and then I was actually a big Luke Donald fan, big Dustin Johnson fan, so those were kind of the three guys that I looked up to,” Knapp recalled.
“Then obviously over the last few years, a lot of people have tried to emulate Rory and just all the things he does on and off the course.”
Donald may not be the most obvious golfing idol to aspire to because Knapp is a big hitter, but the Californian claims that he did not develop his bulk and strength until much later in life, making the shorter-hitting Englishman the perfect role model.
“Growing up I was super undersized as a kid, and I didn’t grow until like my junior year in high school,” Knapp said.
“At the time he was around World No. 1 and just an insanely good short game, really good at putting, so I tried to take after his game and focus on those two things, and then as I started to hit it farther, started to transition more into the DJ category.”