Kokrak gets 1st title in 233 tries
NORTH LAS VEGAS — Jason Kokrak sure didn’t look like a desperate, veteran journeyman in search of his first PGA Tour title in Sunday’s final round of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek.
Instead, he was far from trembling in an unaccustomed spot in the penultimate group and strode the fairways looking every bit the man who has been there before on a regular basis. He wasn’t the least put off when one of the members of the group, Jason Day, withdrew with a stiff neck on the second hole and forced Kokrak and then his lone playing partner, world No. 8 Xander Schauffele, to alter their pace of play surrounded by threesomes.
And Kokrak was all sorts of calm outdueling Schauffele and holding off the three players in the final group on the back nine.
Behind a scorching putter, Kokrak, 35 and ranked No. 53 in the world, cracked the winner’s circle for the first time in 232 starts on the PGA Tour as a professional with a bogey-free, course-recordtying, 8-under-par 64 to win by two shots.
With rounds of 70-66-68-64, Kokrak, who started the week as an 80-1 longshot to be victorious, finished at 20-under 268.
“Ten years out here on the PGA Tour’s been a long career so far, so to wait so long for my first win, it’s a pretty special thing,” Kokrak said. “I said this signing my scorecard, if you’re not nervous, you’re not alive. I definitely had some nerves going. A little scar tissue from previous missed wins here and there but called upon those. I think anytime that you’ve been out here for that length of time, you definitely have doubts in your mind.
“As good as my ball-striking is and as hard as I’ve been working with my coach, Drew Steckel, a little short game work with Jeff Pierce, my caddie, David Robinson. I think between the team I’ve got in place, it was inevitable that it was going to happen. I just tried to go out there today, hit a lot of fairways, give myself a lot of opportunities and just let that first win come to me.”
En route to joining the PGA Tour fraternity of winners, Kokrak, who made six birdies in a seven-hole stretch starting on the fifth, led the field in strokes gained: putting and in the final round sank birdie putts of 7, 10, 6, 5, 18, 20, 17
and 3 feet. He added gut-check par putts from 4 and 3 feet on the 16 hole.
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It helps that he’s played Shadow Creek at least 20 times as an ambassador for MGM Resorts, which owns the course.
And he credited his caddie, David Robertson, for supplying him with good reads on putts all week.
“Very happy with how I’ve been putting and kind of paying off with all the work I’ve been putting in,” said Kokrak, whose best previous finish was second place on three occasions, the most recent coming in the 2019 Valspar Championship. “And I’ve played this golf course enough, I should know it by know.”
Kokrak also hit 11 of 14 fairways and missed just one green in regulation. And leading by one heading into the final hole, the 6-4, 230-pound big hitter ripped a 342-yard drive into the fairway that set up a short iron into the green and two putts from 26 feet to polish off his victory.
“I definitely had some scar tissue. None that is going to linger or keep me
from winning obviously with this, but you know, I think I knew, I knew in my own mind that I was going to get it done, it was just a matter of time of me getting out of my own way and letting it happen,” said Kokrak, whose win earned him playing spots in next year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Players Championship, the Masters and the PGA Championship. “Because my game is right there with the best players in the world and I just need to continue to believe so and if the putting’s there for me, we’re going to be right there in contention.”
Schauffele, who stumbled with a 74 in the third round after taking the 36hole lead with a 64 in round two, shot 66 to finish at 18 under. He pulled into a tie for the lead on the fifth hole and tied for the lead again by sinking a 43-foot putt from off the fringe for birdie on the 13 th. But he was stymied when a poor drive near a tree in the rough led to a bogey on 16.
“It was a good fight,” Schauffele said. “Day left us kind of early. Kokrak’s about a foot taller than I am, so we’re doing our
old-man shuffle walking around, trying to walk as slow as possible, stall. We talked all day. I think I was lucky and so was he, we got along really well and we definitely fed off each other and it definitely showed in our scores.
“He beats the crap out of (the ball). Like I said, he’s a foot taller than I am, swings it Ernie Els smooth-type swing. I couldn’t be happier for him. I think what proved was he finally started rolling in some putts and it kind of shows how dangerous he can be out here.”
Russell Henley, who led by three entering the final round, shot 70 to finish at 17 under.
He was joined there by Tyrrell Hatton, who won the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW Championship, before flying to Las Vegas.
Talor Gooch shot 68 to finish at 16 under. Joaquin Niemann charged home with a 66 to finish at 13 under.
Bubba Watson came home with a 68 and Lanto Griffin a 72 to finish at 12 under.
Defending champion Justin Thomas shot 74 to finish at 8 under.