HOUSTON — Jason Kokrak has a newfound love for Texas. Whether or not Texans reciprocate those feelings is a completely different matter.
Born in North Bay, Ontario, and reared near Cleveland, Kokrak won his second PGA Tour event in the Lone Star state in less than six months on Sunday, taking a pair of beloved University of Texas stars down in the process.
Back in May, Kokrak captured his second victory by going eye-to-eye with Jordan Spieth in the final round at Colonial Country Club, capturing the Charles Schwab Challenge.
On Sunday at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, another former Longhorn — Scottie Scheffler — held the lead at the turn and a legion of burnt orange-wearing patrons were following along at Memorial Park Golf Course, hoping to see his first victory.
Instead, Kokrak got hot at the right time, making a quartet of consecutive birdies on the back nine to finish at 10 under, while others faltered. Scheffler and Martin Trainer both held the lead for a spell in the final hours of the event, but couldn’t match the birdie barrage from Kokrak, a Xavier University product.
For Kokrak, the idea of standing in the winner’s circle seemed improbable, especially after a rocky start to the week. In fact, during a practice round on Tuesday, Kokrak hit the ball so poorly he considered withdrawing from the event. And during one stretch on Saturday when he had a pair of bogeys and a pair of double-bogeys in seven holes, Kokrak sat 10 shots off the top of the leaderboard.
When asked if he enjoyed playing underdog to local favorites Spieth and Scheffler, Kokrak said it wasn’t his favorite position, but he didn’t detest it, either.
“I don’t know if I enjoy the situation, but I’m comfortable in that situation. I guess you can call me an underdog, but the last couple years I’ve played some pretty solid golf, so I wouldn’t exactly say that I’d be the underdog going in,” Kokrak said. “I definitely made the best of it, made a lot of birdies, made a lot of nice putts. The putter was hot this week and I tried to give myself as many looks as possible, and when I was out of position, I just tried to limit the stress.”
Scheffler — who has yet to secure a Tour victory, yet sits at No. 21 in the Official World Golf Ranking — made bogeys on Nos. 10, 11 and 14 to fall back in the pack. He did make birdies on two of his final three holes, however, and finished tied for second at 8 under.
The 22-year-old, who shined in United States’ victory at the Ryder Cup in September, insisted he’s not pressing to win.
“I felt like I played a lot of good golf this week without really my best stuff. I really felt uncomfortable with my ball-striking going into the week, but I gave myself a chance to win here in the end, I put myself in position on Sunday,” Scheffler said. “I’d say today I just probably didn’t make enough putts. Outside of that, I definitely played good enough to win.”
Kevin Tway, who struggled through a 73 in the third round, rebounded on Sunday and although he never led, he finished with a birdie putt on the final hole to end up in a second-place tie with Scheffler. Kramer Hickok posted a 69 on Sunday to finish third at 7 under.
Trainer, meanwhile, came to Houston ranked 1,310th and had made just one cut in seven months, but played valiantly and finished in the hunt.
Trainer’s only victory came at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open — his only top-10 on the PGA Tour in his career — but he was still in contention until a bogey at No. 17. Unfortunately for him, he also missed a par putt on No. 18 and dropped to T-5 at 6 under.
That meant smooth sailing for Kokrak, who simply needed to avoid any major mistakes on the final two holes to claim his third overall Tour victory.
So what is it about Texas, a place to which Kokrak has clearly acclimated himself?
“I think it’s just one of those things, I’ve always been a slow learner and I kind of went with it, and once I learn something, I normally get pretty good at it,” he said. “This is kind of the quintessential golf course for me; long, you’ve got to hit a lot of fairways, got to hit the ball high to keep it in some spots on these greens. Outside of the really bad eight, nine holes that I played, I played this golf course pretty outstanding.”