Former PGA Tour winner reflects on Jake Knapp’s 'solid gamer tag' after his performance 'on fire'

Smylie Kaufman reflected on Jake Knapp's first-round performance at the 2025 Cognizant Classic. The former PGA Tour player and sports commentator praised his "solid gamer tag" with playful wordplay.

Knapp had a solid start at the 2025 Cognizant Classic. The 30-year-old scored 12-under 59 in the first round at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He set a new course record, surpassing the previous record of 61 by Brian Harman (2012) and Matt Jones (2021).

After his performance, Kaufman took to X and wrote:

"I've always got respect for a solid gamer tag… Jake Knapp's "itsknapptime" is on point, and after that performance, I'd say he definitely deserves a nice afternoon nap."

For the uninitiated, Jake Knapp's username on Instagram and X is "knapptime_ltd." Kaufman further wrote:

"What a round! He walked out of PGA National on fire (fire emoji)"

Knapp scored 12 birdies in the round, with six on the front nine and six on the back nine. During the round, when he had scored 11 birdies, Kaufman expressed his shock on X with a picture of Knapp's scorecard and wrote:

"What is happening right now (police card light emoji)"

Knapp's 59 was not only a new benchmark at PGA National but also a first sub-60 round at the PGA Tour in Florida.

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Jake Knapp on his first-round performance: I did a good job of just trying to focus on shot-by-shot

In the post-round press conference, Jake Knapp was asked when he realised he was close to a record in the first round at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National. The 30-year-old said, via ASAP Sports:

"I don't really know. I knew obviously I had it going really early, but at the same time, that can happen and then it can kind of fizzle out pretty quick. I thought I did a good job of just trying to focus on shot by shot and not letting what happened or what could happen affect anything.

"Then once I made the long putt on 15, it was like, okay, now this is kind of here. But at the same time, didn't let it affect the game plan or anything like that. Tried to hit an aggressive shot into 16, 17 and 18, and just tried to -- knew I was hitting it well, so tried to just birdie everything today," he added.

Jake Knapp's last PGA Tour win came at the 2024 Mexico Open. He'd look to capitalize on his first-round performance at the tournament and win his second PGA Tour tournament.

Knapp had two top-10 finishes in the 2025 season, a T17 at the Genesis Invitational and a T25 at the Mexico Open.

Let's take a look at Jake Knapp's performance in 2025 on PGA Tour:

• The Sentry: 56 (72-73-70-71, 286, -6)
• The American Express: Missed Cut (73-71-65, 209, -7)
• Farmers Insurance Open: T32 (71-73-71-74, 289, +1)
• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: T33 (65-72-70-72, 279, -9)
• WM Phoenix Open: T44 (67-71-72-68, 278, -6)
• The Genesis Invitational: T17 (71-71-74-69, 285, -3)
• Mexico Open at VidantaWorld: T25 (67-72-68-66, 273, -11)