American Jake Knapp has overcome waywardness off the tee to triumph in just his fifth start as a PGA Tour rookie, winning the Mexico Open by two shots from Finland's Sami Valimaki.
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Knapp said he still sends a text after each round to his grandfather, who died last year, and this message might require a lot of detail.
The 29-year-old Californian squandered a four-shot lead in just seven holes at Vallarta Vidanta on Sunday and then held it together with a remarkable short game to close with an even-par 71 and win at 19-under, earning a trip to the Masters and PGA Championship along with $US1,458,000 in prizemoney.
He also gets into the remaining five $US20 million signature events, starting with Bay Hill in two weeks.
Knapp didn't hit a fairway until the eighth hole and found only two the entire round. He never lost the lead, but twice allowed Valimaki to catch him.
They were tied with six holes to play until Knapp took over, getting up-and-down on four of the next five holes, one of them for birdie. It wasn't easy until the end.
Another big par save on the par-3 17th gave him a two-shot lead going to the par-5 closing hole at Vallarta Vidanta where he safely made par.
Valimaki shot 69 to finish runner-up, still a big boost to his rookie season. Valimaki was among the leading 10 players from the European tour to earn PGA Tour cards this year.
Gemany's Stephan Jaeger (65), Taiwan's C.T. Pan (65) and American Justin Lower (68) tied for third, five shots behind Knapp.
Aaron Baddeley, the only Australian to make the cut, finished tied 24th at nine under.
Knapp spent four seasons on the Canadian tour and two on the Korn Ferry Tour until finally getting a PGA Tour card for this year. He once worked as a bouncer when he needed daytime hours to practice and cash to pay entry fees.
Coming into the week ranked No.101 in the world, he became the sixth PGA Tour winner in eight tournaments to start the year who was outside the top 50.
Knapp leans on a pair of initials.
One of them is LTD, an acronym he and his older brother have been using for years that means, "Living The Dream."
The other initials are tattooed on the inside of his left arm - GSFB, which stands for Gordon Sydney Frederick Bowles, his grandfather who died last year.
Playing golf at the highest level was a dream they shared, and Knapp had to choke back emotions Saturday talking about him, apologising because he had never been asked publicly about his grandfather.
"Papa, thank you," he said, pointing to the sky as he walked off the 18th green.
"I didn't have my best stuff today, that's for sure," he added. "I knew I was going to be a nervous wreck. I knew it was going to be tough.
"(I am) super pumped how I played the finishing stretch. Just grinded it out."
The PGA Tour now moves to Florida to begin the road to the Masters, the first major of the year that now will include Knapp.
Australian Associated Press
