Jake Knapp knew he was on the verge of something special Thursday after a run of five straight birdies to open his round at the Cognizant Classic.
By the end, he had joined one of golf's most elite clubs.
Knapp, the No. 99 player in golf's world rankings, joined the PGA Tour's sub-60 club Thursday, shooting a bogey-free 59 in the opening round at PGA National. It was the 15th time someone has broken 60 in a PGA Tour event.
"It's just one of those days where everything was kind of clicking," Knapp said.
He missed an 18-foot, 8-inch eagle opportunity at No. 18 that would have tied the tour scoring record of 58, done by Jim Furyk in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship.
When Knapp rolled in the birdie putt, he became the 14th player to shoot a sub-60 round; it has now been done 15 times, with Furyk carding such a round twice. Knapp is the sixth player in PGA Tour history to break 60 without an eagle on the card and the first since Scottie Scheffler at the Northern Trust in August 2020.
And yes, he was thinking about 58, especially after a long birdie putt at the 15th put him at 11 under for the round.
"I stepped up on the 16 tee and just kind of told my caddie, 'Let's play 2 under in the last three,'" Knapp said. "'Let's do what we're supposed to do.'"
He had to settle for 59, if a 59 can ever actually be settled for.
"I thought I played well," said Daniel Berger, who had a bogey-free round of 8-under 63. "But then someone shot 59."
The 12-birdie round on the par-71 course broke the Cognizant scoring record of 61, first done in 2012 by Brian Harman and matched in 2021 by Matt Jones. There are three rounds of 62 in tournament history: Tiger Woods in the final round in 2012 on his way to a tie for second, Brandon Hagy in the second round in 2021, and eventual winner Chris Kirk in the second round of the 2023 event.
Of the previous sub-60 rounds in tour history, Knapp's was only the fifth in the first round of an event. Two of those previous four went on to win the tournament.
There was barely any wind, and PGA National was largely defenseless in the morning session. The closest there was to any trouble was the seventh hole, where Billy Horschel -- a Florida Gator from his college days -- used a club to poke at an actual alligator that was catching some sun near the green and got it to retreat back to its watery home.
Billy Horschel takes a break from his round of golf to try to escort an actual gator back to the water.
Berger, Russell Henley and Sami Valimaki each shot 63, Rickie Fowler was among those with opening-round 64s, Jordan Spieth -- continuing his comeback after wrist surgery -- shot 65, while Horschel, Zach Johnson and Camilo Villegas were some of the players who opened with a 66.
But nobody had an easier time than Knapp, who finished no better than a tie for 17th in his first seven starts of 2025 and then played his way into golf history in Round 1 at PGA National, a course that players have said has been less punitive in recent years. He needed to make only 98 feet of putts, a tribute to a day of excellent ball-striking.
"You still have to hit shots. You have to make putts," Fowler said. "Yeah, 59 anywhere is hard to do. I don't care if you go play from 6,500 yards. You still have to make putts. You still have to hit it close enough to have those opportunities. With this place, we've seen some low scores, guys get after it when the conditions are right. But obviously no one has shot 59 before out here."
Knapp has one PGA Tour win, at last year's Mexico Open as a rookie. He has played the Cognizant once before and did well, tying for fourth last year after shooting three rounds of 68 or better and finishing at 13 under.
He started Thursday with that run of five straight birdies, a stretch highlighted by a 60-foot putt at the par-4 second hole. The birdies kept coming in bunches: three in a row on holes 9-11, then three more coming on holes 13-15 -- the last of those a big breaking putt from 31 feet that went across the green before dropping dead center into the cup.
"You've got to tip your hat to him," Horschel said. "He shot a 12-under-par 59 at PGA National, which no one ever thought."
Horschel and Knapp crossed paths after the round. Horschel, offering congratulations, told Knapp he would have wagered "a lot of money ... like, a lot of money" on nobody ever shooting 59 at PGA National.
"I feel like I shot 4 over after seeing what you shot," Horschel told Knapp as he walked away.
Mike Stephens, Knapp's caddie, said they were not afraid to talk about the chances that awaited on the final three holes.
"I think, if anything, maybe your playing competitors try to give you a little distance or whatnot, but he likes to talk," Stephens said. "So we'd kind of go over things on the last couple [of holes] to try to fill the time. Just to keep it the same. ... Just another day."
A 12-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th hit the outside right edge of the cup and spun off, leaving Knapp at 11 under with only the par-5 finishing hole left.
A 335-yard tee shot left him 200 yards to the hole at No. 18, and a simple two-putt was all that remained to cap the history-making round.
"Whether I shot 89 or 59, I'm going to come back out and do my job tomorrow," Knapp said.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.