Scotland’s Russell Knox singled the support of PGA Tour legends Fred Funk and Len Mattice as pivotal to producing his best finish at the Players Championship in Florida.
Knox, 36, signed for a final 70 for a share of sixth and 28 places higher than his prior best of T34th on his Players debut in 2014.
Cam Smith, sporting his ‘Mullet’ hairstyle, became the sixth Aussie to win the Players but only after a bizarre last hole where, and when leading by two shots, he chipped his second shot from the trees right of the fairway, but into the water down the left side.
Smith, 28, managed to control the damage to a bogey, and after 10 earlier birdies, in posting a 66 and win by a shot at 13-under from India’s Aniban Lahiri.
Knox’s effort was a first top-10 finish since his Players debut in 2014, when he grabbed his prior best result of T34th.
Russell Knox on route to his best finish in the Players Championship
Earlier in the day, Knox restated his third round in a striking manner by holing a 32-foot bunker shot at the 15th, and at the last, he sank a 17-footer for birdie from behind the flagstick last in his round of 68.
The Scot ended his third round mid-morning sharing an eighth place at six-under for a few hours break and then into his last round.
Despite a very average final round, first tee introduction, Knox immediately burst into a share of second with three birdies in his opening four holes. He stalled in two-putting the fifth for a bogey ‘5’ and then dropped back to a tie for eighth in dropping a shot at the seventh.
With it now bucketing down, Knox birdied the par-5 11th for a third of four rounds, to get back to two off the lead before birding the 18th for a second time in one day and eventually finishing with 70.
“I mean, it’s definitely been a week unlike I’ve ever experienced”, said Know.
“To finish my second round on Sunday and then play obviously a lot of golf in the next day and a half, super weird. I’m exhausted, that’s for sure. It’s a very stressful course and obviously a massive tournament, especially for me living here now. Yeah, I’m glad it’s over”.
Knox then revealed in the support he gleaned from the PGA Tour legendary pair of Fred Funk and Len Mattice, who between them boast 10 wins on the PGA Tour.
Funk, now 65, won eight times while Mattice, and aged 54, won two times on the Tour.
“I bumped into Fred Funk on the range at the start, I think after my second round. He gave me some encouraging words”, said Knox. “Yeah, after the flying start I got off to, I was like, I could do this. I had a little rough patch after that that brought me back down to earth.
“I played well. I fought hard. I was smart. I hit a lot of good shots. Super proud of myself, especially the way I finished there on 18.
“Obviously it’s not going to be first place, but it’s definitely my best performance of the year.
“So, very happy with everything in my game. I drove the ball very well this week. I’ve been working with my coach now, Mark McCann for almost two years probably, and we’re finally getting somewhere. It’s been great. I’m finally trusting it.
“And I had a little putting lesson with Len Mattiace at the start of the week, and that was great. Rolled the ball significantly better than my normal this week, which was great.
“Everything is firing. Delighted where my game is at, and it was definitely nice to get a result this week.”
To: Sports Desk, IRISH STAR
From: Bernie McGuire
