professional golfer
A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...
who plays on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
.
He had considerable success from 2014 to 2016 during which time he won the
2015 WGC-HSBC Champions
The 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions was a golf tournament played from 5–8 November 2015 at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, China. It was the seventh WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, and the fourth of four World Golf Championships events held in 2015.
...
and the 2016
Travelers Championship
Traveler(s), traveller(s), The Traveler(s), or The Traveller(s) may refer to:
People Generic terms
*One engaged in travel
*Explorer, one who searches for the purpose of discovery of information or resources
*Nomad, a member of a community withou ...
. Together with three runner-up finishes and three third-places on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
, he was a runner-up in the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and reached a career-high 18 in the world rankings at the end of 2016. Knox joined the
European Tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...
at the start of 2016 but just failed to gain an automatic place on the
2016 Ryder Cup
The 41st Ryder Cup Matches were held in the United States from September 30 to October 2, 2016, at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis. Europe entered the competition as the cup holders, havin ...
team and was not chosen as one of the captain's picks.
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
. He attended
Culloden Academy
Culloden Academy ( gd, Acadamaidh Cùil Lodair) is a non-denominational secondary school in Culloden, Highland, Scotland. The present enrollment is 1,117 pupils. The catchment area includes Balloch, Croy, Smithton, Cradlehall and Ardersier
...
. Knox signed with the sports scholarship agenc FirstPoint USA in 2002 and helped Knox to secure a golf scholarship in 2003 at
Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, w ...
, Florida. He married former tennis player Andrea Hernandez in April 2014.
Professional career
Knox turned professional in 2007. He played on the NGA Hooters Tour from 2008 to 2010, picking up two victories in the process. He joined the Nationwide Tour in 2011 and picked up his first victory on tour in July at the
Chiquita Classic
The Small Business Connection Championship was a golf tournament on the Web.com Tour. It was played for the first time as the Chiquita Classic in July 2010 at TPC River's Bend in Cincinnati, Ohio.Transitions Championship but he failed to make the cut. His first PGA Tour event as a full member was the 2012
Sony Open in Hawaii
The Sony Open in Hawaii is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, and is part of the tour's FedEx Cup Series. It has been contested at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii, since the event's modern-day inception as the Hawaiian ...
where he missed the cut by a single stroke. He made only 12 cuts in 23 events in 2012 and finished 143rd on the money list to remain conditionally exempt on the PGA Tour for 2013. On 26 July 2013, Knox shot a 59 in the second round of the Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour. He split his time between the PGA Tour and Web.com Tours in 2013. He played in the
Web.com Tour Finals
The Korn Ferry Tour Finals is a series of three golf tournaments that serve as a means of earning PGA Tour membership for the following season ("Tour cards"). The series, which until 2019 consisted of four tournaments, replaced the PGA Tour Qualif ...
and finished 20th to earn his
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
card for 2014.
After an impressive start to his
2014 PGA Tour
Fourteen or 14 may refer to:
* 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15
* one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014
Music
* 14th (band), a British electronic music duo
* ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013
*''14'', an unrele ...
season, Knox came close to winning his maiden PGA Tour title at the
Honda Classic
The Honda Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in south Florida. It was founded in 1972 as Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic, and prior to a schedule change in 2021 was frequently the first of the Florida events in late winte ...
, eventually losing to
Russell Henley
Russell Henley (born April 12, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.
Amateur career
Born in Macon, Georgia, Henley attended Stratford Academy in Macon. He played college golf for four years at the University of Geor ...
in a four-man playoff that also included
Rory McIlroy
Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in th ...
and
Ryan Palmer
Ryan Hunter Palmer (born September 19, 1976) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.
Early life and amateur career
Born and raised in Amarillo, Texas, Palmer graduated from Amarillo High School in 1995. He played college ...
. Knox finished 48th in the regular season FedEx Cup points list, qualifying for the 2014 FedEx Cup Playoffs, eventually finishing in 40th place.
Knox had a good start to the 2015 PGA Tour season with a third place in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in late 2014. He finished tied for third in 2015 The Honda Classic and made the cut in 20 PGA Tour events. Finishing 44th in the regular season FedEx Cup points list, he qualified for the 2015 FedEx Cup Playoffs. Good performances in
The Barclays
The FedEx St. Jude Championship, founded as the Westchester Classic in 1967, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Since 2007, it has been played as the first tournament of the playoff system for the FedEx Cup, with the field limit ...
and
Deutsche Bank Championship
The Dell Technologies Championship was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Norton, Massachusetts, United States, held annually in late summer over the Labor Day weekend. The 2018 edition was the last time the event was staged as the ...
lifted him to 29th place in the FedEx Cup standing but he only finished tied for 45th in BMW Championship to drop out of the top 30 in the standings and so missed out on the
Tour Championship
The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 m ...
. Knox also made a rare appear in Europe at the 2015 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, finishing in a tie for 10th place.
In November 2015, Knox won the
2015 WGC-HSBC Champions
The 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions was a golf tournament played from 5–8 November 2015 at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, China. It was the seventh WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, and the fourth of four World Golf Championships events held in 2015.
...
by two strokes from Kevin Kisner. Knox was playing in his first WGC event and became the first Scot to win a World Golf Championship. Knox only qualified for the tournament as seventh reserve and third alternate. The win lifted him to 31st in the World Rankings, his first time in the world top 50 and earned him place in the 2016 Masters. The week after his WGC success, Knox lost in a three-way playoff in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, Graeme McDowell making a birdie at the first extra hole. Knox missed the cut on his Masters debut but responded one week later with a runner-up finish at the
RBC Heritage
The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia.
...
, where he finished two shots behind winner
Branden Grace
Branden John Grace (born 20 May 1988) is a professional golfer from South Africa who currently plays for LIV Golf. He formerly played on the European Tour, the PGA Tour, and the Sunshine Tour. In 2012, he became the first player in the history ...
. Knox won the
Travelers Championship
Traveler(s), traveller(s), The Traveler(s), or The Traveller(s) may refer to:
People Generic terms
*One engaged in travel
*Explorer, one who searches for the purpose of discovery of information or resources
*Nomad, a member of a community withou ...
in August 2016 and was fourth in the regular season FedEx Cup points list, finishing the
2016 FedEx Cup Playoffs
The 2016 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, was played from August 25 to September 25. It included the following four events:
*The Barclays – Bethpage Black Cou ...
in 10th place.
Knox became a
European Tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...
member at the start of the 2016 season in the hope of playing for Europe in the
2016 Ryder Cup
The 41st Ryder Cup Matches were held in the United States from September 30 to October 2, 2016, at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis. Europe entered the competition as the cup holders, havin ...
. Knox just failed to gain an automatic place on the Ryder Cup team, the points from his WGC win were not retrospectively added, and was not chosen as one of the captain's picks. As a European Tour member, Knox was committed to playing more events on the tour. One of these was the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open where he was joint runner-up behind
Rory McIlroy
Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in th ...
. Knox had three top-10 finishes in late 2016 and finished the year at a career-high 18 in the world rankings.
2017 was a disappointing season in comparison to the three previous years with a best place finish of fifth place in the
2017 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
The 2017 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was a professional golf tournament held August on the South Course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It was the 19th WGC-Bridgestone Invitational tournament, and the third of the World Golf Champion ...
. Knox finished 60th the regular season FedEx Cup points list, finishing the 2017 FedEx Cup Playoffs in 71st place.
Knox had a series of good results in the summer of 2018. He qualified for the 2018 U.S. Open and finished tied for 12th place, his best finish in a major championship. Two weeks later he was joint runner-up in the
HNA Open de France
The Open de France is a European Tour golf tournament. Inaugurated in 1906 it is the oldest national open in Continental Europe and has been part of the European Tour's schedule since the tour's inception in 1972. The 100th edition of the event ...
and the following week he won the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open beating Ryan Fox in a playoff. The results lifted him back into world top 50.
In March 2019, Knox became the first-ever player to have an
albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North P ...
in the history of the
Valspar Championship
The Valspar Championship is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played annually on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, northwest of Tampa, Florida.
History
The tournament was founded in 2000 as ...
.
Professional wins (7)
PGA Tour wins (2)
PGA Tour playoff record (0–2)
European Tour wins (2)
* The
2015 WGC-HSBC Champions
The 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions was a golf tournament played from 5–8 November 2015 at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, China. It was the seventh WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, and the fourth of four World Golf Championships events held in 2015.
...
was also a Race to Dubai finals series tournament.
European Tour playoff record (1–0)
Nationwide Tour wins (1)
NGA Hooters Tour wins (2)
*2009 Silver Star Hotel & Casino Golf Classic
*2010 Gold Strike Casino Classic
eGolf Professional Tour wins (1)
*2010 Palmetto Hall Championship
Results in major championships
''Results not in chronological order in 2020.''
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
NT = No tournament due to
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
Summary
*Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (2016 U.S. Open – 2016 PGA)
*Longest streak of top-10s – 0
Results in The Players Championship
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Cancelled after the first round due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
World Golf Championships
Wins (1)
Results timeline
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Team appearances
Professional
*
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
See also
*
2011 Nationwide Tour graduates __NOTOC__
This is a list of players who graduated from the Nationwide Tour in 2011. The top 25 players on the Nationwide Tour's money list in 2011 earned their PGA Tour card for 2012.
*PGA Tour rookie in 2012
Green background indicates the player ...
*
2013 Web.com Tour Finals graduates __NOTOC__
This is a list of players who graduated from the Web.com Tour Finals in 2013. The top 25 players on the Web.com Tour's regular season money list in 2013 earned their PGA Tour card for 2014. The Web.com Tour Finals determined the other 25 p ...