As we’re still relatively early into the PGA Tour season, it’s never a surprise to see players still making equipment changes but it’s not often you see them have as big of an impact as they did for Jake Knapp this week at the Cognizant classic.
The big-hitting American is known for his effortless power and silky swing but despite ranking inside the top-10 on the PGA Tour for clubhead speed, Knapp has struggled from the tee this season, ranking 161st in Strokes Gained off the tee.
Just last week Knapp was seen using both a PXG Black Ops Tour-1 driver and a TaylorMade Qi10 driver with a Fujikura Ventus Black TR shaft while playing in Mexico but for this week he made the switch into the TaylorMade Qi35 driver. The result? A first round 59, which set up a four-shot lead on a low scoring day and a new course record. Where some high-profile TaylorMade ambassadors like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have been seemingly reluctant to switch into the new model from their Qi10 driver, Knapp has seen instant results by putting the impressive Qi35 driver in the bag.
But that wasn’t the only equipment change the new Scottsdale resident made. Despite having used a custom TaylorMade Spider putter for a few years now, Knapp swapped out his ‘old trusty’ for a new Scotty Cameron Tour Only Phantom 9, leading to an impressive 12 birdies during his first round.
“Just felt like I needed to feel something a little different, whether it’s for - in my head, sometimes it’s for a couple days or a couple weeks or whatever it might be,” Knapp explained after his round. “But it was more like strategic based on how I feel like my misses have been lately with the putter. I don’t think I’ve been putting terribly, just something feel-wise that I just felt like I needed to feel something different.”
Knapp has been using a larger mallet-style putter for some time now and has recently been testing a PXG milled mallet that resembles his long-standing TaylorMade Spider. The Scotty Cameron is another high MOI design, albeit with a slightly different neck, which will allow for a little more face rotation than his previous models that featured a double bend design.
“I’ve always stayed with the same head shape for the most part, and then I just change between that plumber’s neck and then a double bend, so a little bit of toe hang versus face balanced,” Knapp says. “But yeah, just something that kind of felt right for me and worked on it the last couple days, and it worked pretty well today”
Knapp will be hoping to ride the wave of confidence his two new cubs have given him in an attempt to claim his second PGA Tour title but with a fairly stacked leaderboard behind him and three rounds still to be played, he'll need to make plenty more birdies to get the job done.
