Bamboo tree parable, inspiration of Papa lift rookie Jake Knapp to unlikely PGA Tour win | Opinion
Why do we love sports and how did that love begin? The question deserves reflection because, for so many of us, sports becomes a life-long joy, a font of avid interest and passion so integral in who we are.
In my case the games and competition became a career I’m forever blessed to have and began as a kid, rooting for the underdog, which enabled me to see the possibility in anything.
It’s 1967. I’m 12. The lowly Boston Red Sox, my first favorite team growing up, were then lowly losers but setting out on “The Impossible Dream” season, winning the American League pennant led by my first hero, Carl Yastrzemski, the son of a Polish potato farmer who would win that season’s Triple Crown. I was mesmerized. I saved the clippings of every boxscore in a notebook. I named my first cat Yaz.
To this day the feelgood story rooted in the underdog remains the soft spot in my heart.
And that well is deep, and never dry; it is the replenishing power of sports.
So along comes Jake Knapp, whom I’d never heard of before Sunday.
He is a 29-year-old Californian, a PGA Tour rookie, and he just won his first golf tournament. The big cardboard check said $1,458,000.00 -- call it $1.5 million.
It was a fairly marquee-light tournament, the Mexico Open in Vallarta. Not a lot of big names in it. It is one of the PGA Tour’s so-called “swing” stops, schedule fillers. Because the superstars pick-and-choose the big tournaments or the ones timed to help them prepare for the majors. but the tour needs to be on TV every week, so the swing stops afford golfers like Knapp a fighting chance to prove themselves and maybe even win.
Knapp had lost his card to play on the lower-tier Korn Ferry Tour and worked various night jobs that would allow him to keep honing his game during the day and afford to do it. Slight of build, one of Knapp’s jobs was as an unlikely nightclub bouncer. Her worked his way back onto the lesser tour and fared so well last year that he finally earned a PGA Tour card. The big leagues.
‘Nightclub bouncer to rookie PGA Tour winner’ has been the easy instant narrative, fit for a headline.
But it isn’t my favorite part of the story, the part that tugs at the heartstrings.
The initials tattooed on his left arm -- that is where the heart of the story begins.
Gordon Bower was Knapp’s grandfather. He call him Papa, and Papa was Knapp’s biggest supporter and guiding force. He died of colon cancer after a long fight as Knapp was struggling to stay qualified for the minor tour.
“If I ever kind of got down on myself or if I ever got nervous or started doing something bad, he would just kind of whack me on the back of the head and be like, ‘C’mon, get to work’,” said Knapp after winning on Sunday.
The golfer also found inspiration during his struggles from the Chinese Bamboo Tree parable, which teaches one to maintain patience, and faith in his or her potential. The Chinese belief is that the bamboo tree takes five years to grow, mostly staying underground the first four years and then sprouting and growing quickly thereafter.
And so it is that after years underground so to speak, Knapp’s career has sprouted. With the win he has rocketed up to No. 52 in the world rankings and earned eligibility to play in The Masters and PGA Championship. If he stays in the top 60 he’ll qualify for the U.S. Open, too.
He calls the whole experience “surreal.”
Knapp used to text or call his grandfather after every round without fail.
He still does, either sending a text he knows won’t be answered or speaking aloud to Papa.
“Yeah, I had a little kind of conversation with him this morning and just talked about the day and wished he could be here to watch it and experience all of it,” Knapp said. “’Winner, winner, chicken dinner.’ That’s his go-to. I know he would shoot me a text with that.”
Papa called cigars “gars.”
“He’d probably say, ‘Gars on me, ‘gars on me’ when I get home. He’d be pretty pumped. So Papa, thank you.”
Thank you, too, sports. Keep reminding us, and then showing us, that anything is possible.
