PGA Tour Pro Jake Knapp Joins! How does Knapp fly after his 1.6M win? What games does Knapp play on Twitch?
After talking with Knapp, Does Wiggy now think golfers are athletes? How much practice do pro golfers practice a week?
After talking with Knapp, Does Wiggy now think golfers are athletes? How much practice do pro golfers practice a week?
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00:00from the PGA Tour. It is Jake Knapp. Hi, Jake. How are you doing? Thanks for yeah. How about a round
00:05of applause for Jake? Jake flew all night to get here. Wisely, you did not have Scotty Schaeffler
00:12drive you here. Yep. I believe you got you got here on your own. You're safe and sound. No stop.
00:17Now you you have one win on the tour. Yeah. Is that I know you won 1.6 million or whatever. Is
00:22that enough to fly private? Are you still a commercial guy? Yeah, I'm still a commercial
00:26guy. Okay, good to live, you know, dangerously and fly that route. First class lay flat beds.
00:32Not a lay flat bed. Nice first class seat. First please. All right. Awesome. This show is on
00:38Twitch. And I know you're a big Twitch gamer. Shyam is very excited about that. I mean, I want
00:44to talk golf, but I think Shyam wants to talk gaming. And yeah, what game do you play? Any
00:50like first person shooter? Yeah, I'll play Call of Duty. I'll play Apex. And then if I need to
00:56kind of take it a little slower, I'll play either like NFL, PGA, something like that.
01:01How are you at the PGA video game as opposed to in the actual PGA tour yourself? Not as good as
01:08some that's for sure. I'm definitely not at the highest level, but I'm pretty good. Do you play
01:11as yourself? I mean, yeah, it's kind of like you play as your own character, kind of play as my
01:16own guy. And then I think the inside scoop, I know the course is pretty well. So I think that gives
01:21me a little bit of an edge. Are you a big trash talker while gaming? Oh yeah. So is Wiggy. Hell
01:26yeah. You know how many 12 year olds I put in that place? What a humble brag. Who else games
01:38on the tour? Minwoo Lee's a big gamer. I know that for sure. I think Kurt Kitayama plays a good
01:45amount. I mean, pretty high number. I'm sure more people than you would assume play in their
01:51downtime. It's just something easy to do at night and stay in contact with buddies you don't get to
01:55talk to. So yeah, we were talking about your, you got your first win in February, but not that or
02:04very recently to that you were, you were a bouncer. Yeah. I mean, you don't look, I mean,
02:10Wiggy, could you throw Wiggy up? No, we got bigger guys, but I don't think anybody would
02:15really, you know, I mean, I started out as a bouncer too. So I know exactly where he goes.
02:20I was more than patio. I was the escalator. You know, I was a nice guy to try to go talk to him
02:25first. Maybe the bigger guys behind me, but yeah, he was a Swayze. Have you ever named called
02:31anybody trying to get into a bar name called anybody? What do you mean? Like called somebody
02:35a bad name. Courtney had a bad experience recently. Yes. Bad. I try to be as respectful as I can. So
02:40where, where were you bouncing? It was a place called the country club and Costa Mesa. It was
02:44kind of like a, a nice bar restaurant that then on like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we kind of
02:50like shut down for 20 minutes, turn it over into a nightclub and do bottle service and the whole
02:54deal. That's cool. Did you, did you think at that time? I mean, I'm sure it was your goal, but did
02:59you think you were going to make it or were you like some, some guys get close to the point of
03:03giving up and did you, did you always think you were going to make it? I think I always like,
03:08not that I always knew, but it was just like, there was nothing else I wanted to do. So it's
03:11like, I knew that that was the only path for me. It was just a matter of like, all right,
03:14it's a little bump in the road. Just got to make some money, keep, keep floating and we'll get
03:19there eventually. But yeah, I mean, kind of watching guys on TV as you're working or watching
03:23highlights and you're just like, how is that going to be me when I'm here? Cause nobody else has
03:26really done this. So what kind of makes me think that I'm going to be out there, but you just stick
03:31to it and good things will happen. The family support must be insane though, going through
03:35that, waiting for it. And I know after your win, you talked about your grandfather who you lost.
03:39So just the support of your family around you as you were waiting to make that big break.
03:44For sure. It was huge. Yeah, no, my family's been great. I mean, even,
03:47you know, my family's not super wealthy or anything like that. But my brother even said,
03:50he was just like, how much are you looking to make doing this like each weekend or whatever?
03:54And I'm like, Oh, you know, X amount of dollars just to make sure like, at least my home living
03:58expenses are paid for. And he's like, God, I'll, I'll help you out. And it was like, I don't know,
04:02handouts. I was like, I'm not taking any handouts. So I'm like, this is my gig. I'm doing it. Like,
04:06if this is still something, cause I mean, I was 27 and still hadn't made it like a ton
04:10of money up to that point. So I was like, you know, I need to be able to support myself.
04:14How much, because it's interesting to me as somebody who kind of,
04:20let's be honest as somebody who is a former professional athlete,
04:25who has zero respect for the, for the sport. Let's get to that. I said, I don't think they're
04:32athletes, but that's different. But I do respect the journey though.
04:37Let's clear this up. Yeah. He doesn't believe your athletes.
04:41I don't, I don't believe all of us are. Oh, okay. But I do. I think I am. You are.
04:45Yeah. I do respect the journey as somebody who was undrafted,
04:50but in the NFL, that's all you got is the NFL. There's no other professional league. I mean,
04:55there's a couple now, but where you can make a living. Cause you talked about making a living,
05:00how much practice do you put in a week to say, okay, I can make a living doing this.
05:08I can make $150,000 a year doing this and playing professional golf. Like how much,
05:15you know, were you good in high school? Were you good in college? Like I, cause I always wonder
05:20the journey, the journey for like, you know, like for golfers, cause we all see the Tiger
05:25Woods journey, but he's like a red, you know, like a, a real butterfly.
05:29Yeah. I mean, I think growing up in Southern California, it's like one of those places you
05:33can play year round. So like it's, it's some of the best competition in the country. So if you're
05:36good in Southern California, you're going to beat just about everybody else in every other state,
05:41with exception to like, there's good players in Arizona, Texas, Florida, but those are kind of
05:45the core ones where that's where a lot of the good players come from. So I knew once I was a
05:49good junior player in Southern California and I was kind of like one of the guys to beat most of
05:54the time growing up. And then you get into college. The thing is in college, now you're
05:57playing against every best player like that from every city in every state, whatever over the last
06:02four years. So now everybody, and plus some international kids too. So I was okay in college.
06:08I had a really good year, my junior year. And then I decided to turn pro after that junior year.
06:12Cause it's not that I didn't think, or I thought I was too good to be in college or anything like
06:17that. I just felt ready to get onto the next level. I just knew I wanted to play professionally. It
06:22was all I wanted to do. And I just didn't see myself spending another eight months there,
06:26just kind of going to school. School was never my thing. I just wanted to play golf.
06:30So when you finish your junior year and you do that, how's your 21, 22?
06:34Yeah. 21.
06:35And how old are you today?
06:3630.
06:37So what's the, one of those last, those nine years in between where you are
06:41and where you were then, how many different tours were you in? What's, I mean,
06:44are you traveling the world? What's, what's, what's your life like?
06:47Yeah, I went, I went straight up that summer. So I turned pro pretty much right after Q school,
06:51pretty much like January of 2016. Went straight into Q school, didn't get through. Went and did
06:57Canadian Q school, didn't get through. Went and did Canadian tour Monday qualifiers,
07:02got into a few events, went back to Q school for Canadian tour in 2017.
07:07Won Q school, played in 17 up there. Didn't have a great year. Ended up like hurting my back. So I
07:12took some events off, played a full season up there again in 2018. Cause that's the route,
07:16you know, you can do Latin America or Canadian. Then you go to Corn Ferry, then you go to the PGA
07:20tour. So I played up in Canada again in 18 and I felt super ready, super prepared, healthy,
07:27everything's ready to go. Played terrible, lost my status. So what was it, the yips?
07:32It was just bad. I don't even know. It was like, did you not keep your shoulder in?
07:37Yeah, apparently not. My glutes weren't activating. I don't know what was happening.
07:43So you can't just like go to a tournament, like when you're professional. Well, like, I know,
07:47I know. Cause I don't know what Q school is. So anybody, anybody can sign up and say that
07:54they're professional. If you want to professional just means that you're finally able to like,
07:57accept money when you play well enough at a tournament. Um, but no, you can't just show up.
08:02Like there's many tour events. You can do that too. Many tour events are just, you're basically
08:07paying for that purse. So like at a Canadian tour event, you're going to pay like 250 bucks for the
08:12week to play in the event at a mini tour event for three days. You might pay $900, $1,200 just
08:18to play in the tournament. Cause it's the players. You're basically just gambling against those guys.
08:22And there's just a few guys running the event that are booking the tee times,
08:25letting you guys play against each other for 10 grand, 15 grand, whatever it might be.
08:30Um, but then yeah, like you go to the Canadian tour, like the Q school basically is just a
08:35qualifying staging where you have to go and play well enough for one week, two weeks, three weeks.
08:41And that determines your status for the season. So it might be 170 guys at this Q school. If you
08:46don't finish in the top 30, you got no job next year. So speaking of wagering, playing around
08:51with your buds, what do you, what do you play? Like, are you like wolf or like, yeah, we used
08:57to play wolf a lot. I love wolf. Yeah. Wolf was, I like being the lone wolf. I do too. That was
09:02always good. I was always a little bit better than my buddy. So I was playing against the
09:06unfortunate thing is I always got chosen by them. And I missed the fairway didn't matter.
09:11So I'm going to take Jake and I'm like, I got on birdie every single also maybe take so-and-so
09:15who's in the fairway. But yeah, we usually play games like wolf or things like that. Keep it
09:20interesting. Has that journey, the people that are in it right now and haven't maybe broken into
09:24the PGA tour, does live help out or hurt those people that are on that track? Uh, I think live
09:30is like somewhat helped in a way, just in terms of like, it's taking people away from the PGA tour
09:35that route. So maybe it's opened up some opportunities for some guys who maybe didn't
09:39have the chance, or maybe it's like weakened a few fields here and there. So, um, yeah,
09:44I'd say maybe it's helped in a sense, but I wouldn't say it's, it's helped drastically. Maybe
09:48it's taken more guys over to Europe to try to get into that system. Um, but yeah, I'm not really
09:53sure. Some guys on the tour appear to be upset with the live guys. Are you? No, I'm not. I mean,
10:01I'm still friends with guys that are out there. I have buddies who caddy out there. Um, I don't,
10:05you know, I mean, I think at the beginning, everybody was a little upset because people
10:09said this is for like the betterment of the game and that sort of thing. And it's like,
10:11no, it's not like you're accepting it because it's a lot of money and that's okay too.
10:15There's a certain amount of money out there. Everybody kind of has their own price in their
10:18head. So, um, you don't think they should have to like John Rom should not have to pay it back
10:23to come back on the tour. Well, I mean, you know, there's, there's things like that. I mean,
10:28well, if he's going to accept half a billion dollars and then just, if he thinks everybody's
10:32just going to welcome back with open arms, I think that's a bit crazy. Okay. Yeah. All right.
10:37Okay. Do you like, um, is it possible because I don't know much about golf, but is it possible,
10:44do you have to make the, uh, or the, do you have to play on the PGA tour or the other places that
10:51you can play and make a good living that, uh, that might not be the PGA tour, you know, you
10:58know, like a basketball, a lot of minus live. Yeah. Yeah. Like minus live. So like corn fairy
11:03Canadian tour. So like the corn fairy, to give you an idea, their purses now are like 1.5 million
11:08every single week. So like, if you win, you finish, you get like 300 grand ish or something
11:13like that. I want to say, um, but those top 30 guys are going to the PGA tour. So if you finish
11:17top 30, like, yeah, you've had a good year. You've made some money, but I mean, I finished,
11:21I finished 13th and I think I made like 360, but like the difference with us is like, we pay
11:27all our own travel. You have to pay your caddy. Like the expenses are 10 X what everybody thinks
11:34that they are. Yeah. So especially PGA tour events, PGA tour events are even worse because
11:39at least with corn for events, you're kind of just going and playing a tournament.
11:43The people who come to watch all kind of just live in the area, PGA tour events, like destination.
11:47So people are coming in from out of town. They're booking every hotel, every Airbnb. So like
11:51everything just costs a lot more, like everything. So, and caddies are more expensive. Like you pay
11:57your caddy more on that tour. They get a percentage of your winnings as well.
12:00Really? Yeah. Like it might be a stupid question, but you know, I have a lot of those
12:08probably. No, I am. I know what a caddy is, but aren't you a better golfer than the caddy?
12:14Yeah. Jason Tatum is a better basketball player than Joe Mizzoula.
12:17But no, but Joe Mizzoula might be drawing up a play, right? If you're a better,
12:23better golfer than the caddy, why does he need the caddy? Yeah. What is he going to carry his
12:27own clubs? Yeah. Well, if that, and the caddy reads 30% for you for 20%, it's like a second.
12:35It's like getting a second opinion from a doctor for sure. Am I right? Like my buddy, I have a
12:38buddy caddy for me on the PGA tour. He played like lower level D1 college golf. So he's still
12:45a good golfer. And he knows the game well. And he knows me well. I personally like you kind of have
12:50two routes. You can either go the buddy route or you can go the professional caddy route,
12:54professional caddy route. You're getting somebody who's probably been to the course
12:58a bunch over the last like 10, 15 years, something like that. So they've seen it a lot.
13:03And you're going to get more information from them more like on course help for a buddy. For me,
13:08you're spending 20 plus weeks with this guy throughout the year and you're spending every
13:13single day all day. You better like the person you're hanging out with that much. So for me,
13:18I just wanted somebody I got along with. Speaking of courses, what was your first
13:24master's experience like this year? Pretty surreal, especially going off.
13:29We were the first group off the first day. So that was pretty nuts. I think even just like the
13:36practice rounds, being able to just go there, you're allowed five visits,
13:39like unaccompanied visits just to go whenever you want to get ready for the event.
13:45And I think even just that stuff was just like pretty spectacular. And it's just like that.
13:51You walk around certain holes out there and you start thinking about the shots and the history
13:54and everything else. And it just feels so surreal. Did you meet anybody from the Illuminati
13:58while you were there? A couple of them. It's an interesting place.
14:02Be honest, did gymnasts ever appear out of nowhere?
14:06Just behind a tee box, just randomly commentating on your random Tuesday practice round.
14:11Just taking a nap in Butler Cabin. Peyton Manning walking around.
14:14Goodell's always there too. Is that your favorite course
14:17you've ever played? And what would be like a close second?
14:20I think so. I think, yeah, I think that one's probably the first. I think after this year,
14:25I think Quail Hollow is probably my second pick. What's the hottest course?
14:30The hottest? The most difficult.
14:35The most difficult. Pinehurst this year for the US Open was ridiculous.
14:39Oh, okay. And what makes...
14:41Because it was so fast. Yeah, it was just impossible.
14:44The greens. So what makes a course difficult? It's fast and firmness of fairways and greens,
14:49just because once the ball lands and it starts rolling, if you can't control it,
14:52if it's just rolling, there's just not much you can do. Severity of the rough.
14:57So if you miss it a shot, what's your penalty like? And I mean, out there, it was just 50-50.
15:02You have all these little bushes that are planted. So you could end up in a perfect
15:05line of sand or just be dead behind a bush and have to chip out sideways.
15:10And then just the greens. The greens is just, you take a ball and you turn it upside down.
15:14That's what you're trying to hit on top of. So it's like, if you don't hit your spot dead on
15:17perfect with the right, not only spin, but the correct shape, height, everything,
15:23you was going to end up. This tournament today at Lake of Isles, if you were going to go out,
15:28what would you shoot at Lake of Isles? Like, are you going to be, you're going to be automatic
15:32below par? Cause it's not a tournament course. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. If I didn't shoot under 66 or so,
15:38I don't know what the course is like at all, but if I don't shoot under 66 or something like that,
15:41that's pretty bad. That would be pretty bad. And that, by the way, you're here because of
15:47Echo store, they're a sponsor, but also, so are the Anaheim mighty ducks. Yeah.
15:52How did that happen? I knew the, basically I just knew some guys in the organization,
15:59the president and whatnot. He was a member at my home course. We always kind of joked about it.
16:03And then when I got on corn ferry for the first time, we were just like, yeah, why don't we just
16:06like kind of make this deal happen? Throw the logo on the bag and the shirt. And that was in 2020.
16:12And it's been a pretty cool partnership ever since. I hope you renegotiated that after you won
16:17the event in Mexico. Somewhat. I still, I get a good deal. I get to go to hockey games. They take
16:22care of me. They're the best people we play. The president these days, he let my caddy stay at his
16:28house in Palm Springs for the event we had out there. They're more family now. It's pretty cool.
16:33And after grinding it out for so long and then winning that event 1.6 million, which by the way,
16:39do they Venmo that? Or is that like, does he get a big check or how does it? It's a nice direct
16:43deposit. It's slapped in a week later. Are you serious? Yep. Taxes out or you have to pay taxes
16:50after you pay taxes later. Like at your bank of America account. Yep. You got a direct deposit
16:57of 1.6 million. Yeah. That's great. So cool. Yeah. That's like what Greg gets. I called my
17:03brother after and I looked at it and I just was staring at it in my account. I was like,
17:06it's just a fake number. That's not even real. Wow. What did you buy?
17:12Uh, I mean this house, I'm not, I'm not a fancy guy. I have the same truck and I bought off my
17:16truck. I guess that's what I bought. You paid off my truck. I love it. I love it. Who's the goat?
17:22Like in currently. Yeah. Like, you know, he's not a golf guy. Greatest of all time. Yeah. Like,
17:28like who would you say is the best golfer currently playing right now? Currently Scotty
17:34Sheffler. Okay. Yeah. Xander's a close second right now, but Scotty Scotty's for sure. And
17:39you're a third. Yeah. I'm sneaking my way up. Who's the most, um, misunderstood golfer,
17:46the guy that you got to know and you're like, wow, that's nothing like I thought he was before
17:49I started playing. Oh, misunderstood. That's a good question. Thank you. Maybe, uh, maybe
17:56Keegan Bradley. Really? I feel like he can get like a, uh, since he's really fidgety and he can
18:01kind of take a long time. Sometimes he gets a bad rep and he was, he's the nicest guy ever.
18:04Yeah. So that's, that's a funny thing is a lot of people want to know like who the,
18:08who the bad guys are or whatever. And it's like, I get the sense that those guys don't last very
18:12long out there. Cause it's probably pretty lonely. Everybody out there. So cool. Like it's such a
18:16even tiger. I mean, he keeps to himself a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. I got to meet him. I did
18:21one of his events in Vegas, uh, for his foundation a couple of months ago and got to meet him in
18:26person, which was pretty cool. But it's not like, so at Augusta, when you're like, when you're in
18:31the locker room, you guys aren't chatting and like, yeah, no, they definitely are. I mean,
18:36I think more so like kind of before the round, when you're, when you're going, like, everybody's
18:40warming up, doing like PT and things like that. Everybody's kind of like laughing, joking, but
18:44there's also like kind of their own, everybody has their own little clicks, you know, whether
18:48it's like young guys, older guys, like people from certain areas, like Ryder cup teams, things
18:53like that. Like there's definitely groups that kind of stick together. Um, but yeah, everybody's
18:57super friendly, especially like after I won all of a sudden get into all the elevator events with
19:03all the big names and everybody like that. And like, everybody was super nice to me and welcoming.
19:07It wasn't like, they looked at me as like a, who is this guy? So that was, that was cool to see.
19:12Rory didn't have like initiations for you when you got there. He was, he was the nicest when we
19:16played, we played that next week. That was the coolest thing is it was just like playing with
19:19a normal guy. I got to know Patrick Reed. Never met him. So I can't comment. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
19:25Never met him. Cause you said everybody's seen is, well, he's not on the PGA tour. I didn't know
19:30if you've crossed paths. No, I have not. Are you guys allowed to have side action during a
19:35tournament? Um, I don't know if allowed is the right word to you. Um, I personally don't guys.
19:42Yeah. Yeah. I would say this is like in any practice around group, there's no way that
19:49anybody's playing a practice round without some kind of money on the line somewhere.
19:53Yeah. So yeah. Awesome. Even caddies. Well, it's great having y'all really appreciate it.
19:58You'll be over there at the course today. I'll be there all day. Are you hitting with everybody
20:02on a whole or what? I think so. I think they got me set up in a par three. So I'm going through
20:05some shoulder rehab right now. So unfortunately I can't not full swing and yet, but yeah, I'll be
20:10able to hit some shots. Uh, uh, your gamer tag and Twitch, everybody wants to know on Twitch,
20:15uh, nap time, underscore LTD. Okay. Yes, sir. And I will say this about having this interview
20:22with him. Like my, um, uh, perception of golfers has changed because he's like a regular dude
20:29where I thought most golf guys were like, do she stuck up from places, but no, like he,
20:36I think there's levels to us. I grew up at a public golf course. So like, yeah, you seem like,
20:41you know, you're just like, you know, like you gotta obviously climb your way up the ladder.
20:45I mean, he's not like the shambo. I mean, I don't know who the shambo is, but yeah,
20:50that look, but you know, zero, zero respect for the game. Yeah. I'm not a golfer. That's okay.
20:56My son loves it though. I'll tell him I met you. There we go. Yeah. I am a critic when it comes
21:00to it, but my son loves it. What you do is an unbelievable skill that you have to train and
21:06work at. And I give you credit for that. My son, youngest son loves playing golf. That's all he
21:11wants to do. I don't know where he got it from. Cause I can't stand it, but, um, I have to give,
21:16you know, like the journey is interesting to see how, you know, how long it takes most guys to get
21:20their athletes though. I mean, I think John Daly throws the whole equation. I think that's why I
21:26say that there's, there's definitely a spectrum. Like there's, there's guys that do play golf who
21:30are like crazy, good athletes at a lot of different things. And yeah, you can kind of
21:34tell who those guys are. And then there's some guys who aren't. And, uh, I think that's the
21:37cool thing about the sport is it's all shapes and sizes and there's all different types of people
21:41that do it. Shine. No question from you today. Right? Well, I mean, you guys have been busy,
21:44uh, yapping his ear off. So I didn't want a little help with your swing or, yeah, I mean,
21:52you are what top 25 in distance off the tee. So, uh, I could use a little help, uh, gaining a
21:57couple of yards off the team. Okay. I mean, you know, get younger, swing it faster, work out a
22:02little bit more, all those good things. Uh, I'm trying to do that myself, but, um, you know,
22:07a little more distance. I mean, it's really just effort, you know, when it comes to swinging fast,
22:11like you just, you just got to swing it fast. I take the old guy approach now where I like
22:15bunt it out there a couple of hundred yards. Yeah. Uh, iron to the green, two putt par.
22:20It's kind of like, it's kind of like old man basketball. It's like when you're young,
22:24you drive in the lane, you're like getting rebounds. And then when you get older, it's
22:27like you stay outside, maybe set some soft, learn a little bit more pump fakes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
22:32Feet stay on the ground the entire time. Like the old, the old,
22:35the old bull who walks down the Hill, the young bull runs down there. You know how that,
22:39you know, how that goes. Absolutely. It's the way it works. You're a bull that takes the escalator.
22:45All right. Well, we listen, we'd love to have you on again. So I would love to talk to you
22:50when we get to the season. Um, awesome. Yeah, we should. Well, no, we should have them too. Um,
22:58I'll take it. Okay. But I have a, uh, I have a celebrity tournament. It's in Bermuda this year.
23:04So I'd like to join us. I don't know. What are the dates on that? It's it's in may,
23:10so, but we'll figure it's midweek. All right. Once golf season all year, unfortunately,
23:17it's all year, January, January to about September usually. Oh, okay. All right. Well,
23:22maybe we'll work out a trade deal like the ducks did. Like I don't have a lot of cash,
23:27but it's for my chair. Opportunities for the kids. All right. How about a round of applause
23:33for Jake now? That was great. That was great. Go get them. We want you to now you got to win.
23:39So you got to keep winning and I'm watching now. Okay.