Jake Knapp s everywhere at the Mexico Open and eager to repeat

VALLARTA – Jake Knapp is seeing himself everywhere. The airport. The hotel. Obviously, the golf course.

His image is plastered everywhere at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld in Vallarta, Mexico, where he began the defence of his first PGA Tour title on Feb 20. The result of his opening round was unavailable at press time.

“Usually you know who won the year before at most of the tournaments you go to because you’ll see something, a banner or something like that, but out here it just seems to be everywhere,” Knapp said.

“It’s a bit interesting to see my face blown up in that size just all over the place. But it’s awesome. The amount of love and support I’ve gotten from just everybody this week has been pretty amazing.”

Knapp, 30, was one of the feel-good stories of the 2024 season.

He spent time working as a nightclub bouncer in his hometown of Costa Mesa, California, in 2021 after losing his status on the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour’s developmental circuit. He played his way back, earned his PGA Tour card for 2024 and won the Mexico Open by two shots over Finland’s Sami Valimaki.

“I go back and watch it all the time,” he said. “Not as much to like relive the moment, but more so to better understand how I went about playing the course, maybe what my swing looked like during certain shots or things like that.”

Now Knapp, ranked No. 97 in the world, is one of the main attractions at a tweener sort of tournament that bridges the tour’s West Coast and Florida swings.

The highest-ranked players in the field are Englishman Aaron Rai and Akshay Bhatia at Nos. 29 and 30, respectively.

“It’s obviously a long golf course,” Bhatia said of the