Miami (AFP) – Leader Jake Knapp made a birdie on the 18th hole to ensure he heads into Sunday’s final round of the Cognizant Classic at Palm Beach Gardens with a chance of a wire-to-wire victory. Knapp, whose opening round 59 was just the 15th sub-60 score in tour history, posted a 3-under-par 68 at PGA National on Saturday to hold a one-shot lead over Michael Kim. The American reached the turn at 1-over after bogeys on the par-4 fourth and the par-3 seventh, but a strong back nine ensured he stayed in front. Knapp started the back nine with successive birdies and then ended with two more on the 16th and the final hole.
“A little bit all over the place. I feel like I played pretty solid. I kind of misjudged a few things and definitely made a few bad swings,” he said. “But overall I think I was able to give myself a fair number of chances, and it’s just a little bit tougher out there right now, and did a good job of staying patient and taking what the course gave me and tried to make a few putts fall.”
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No one has ever won wire-to-wire on this course, but Knapp’s outstanding opening round gives him a chance to be the first, and he feels he has handled being front-runner well. “Yesterday it just felt kind of weird after playing so well Thursday and the ball is going exactly where you want it to, to hit shots and not have it be perfect every single time,” said the 30-year-old, whose solitary win on the tour came at the Mexico Open last February. “Just had to kind of manage my expectations and not get too frustrated about anything and just understand that it’s a long week. There’s plenty of great players out here who can go stupid low, so just have to try to stick to my game plan,” he said.
One of those challengers is Kim, who has shown great consistency through the three rounds with Saturday’s 4-under-par 67 being his highest score of the week.
He had some good fortune on the 15th hole, where he drove towards the water, but the ball bounced off a rock back into a muddy bank where he was able to recover and make bogey. “I thought it was a decent swing but the wind pushed it over way more than I thought. When it hit the rocks, I was kind of waiting for a splash,” he said. “I went over there, I was pleasantly surprised at the lie, was able to just knock something on the green and two-putt, get away with bogey.”
A trio of Americans, Russell Henley, Ben Griffin, and Doug Ghim, are a further shot back while Rickie Fowler, who shot 68, is tied for sixth with Taylor Montgomery, three strokes off the lead. One of Fowler’s six PGA Tour wins came at this event, then the Honda Classic, in 2017. “I’ve played well a lot of times around here, and having won here, I know what I need to do,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good stuff the first two days, and good way to fight through it today. Looking forward to picking up where we were the first two days and playing well tomorrow and giving ourselves a chance,” he said.
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