It all began with a set of plastic golf clubs from the dollar store and a little boy’s dream.
Jake Kneen was 18 months old when he first swung a golf club. It was bright blue plastic and his parents were amazed at how this little guy in diapers already had a really good swing.
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Kneen’s junior golf career started at age 5 at Mystic Creek Golf Course in Milford, where he practices to this day. He played on the Meijer Junior Players’ Tour starting at age 7, graduated to the Adams Junior Players’ Tour at age 13 and then onto the AJGA. He played high school golf for Lakeland High School while attending the International Academy West, and was recruited by several Michigan colleges before deciding on Oakland University.
Kneen's parents saw his future at age 3 when one day they were working in the yard and realized they couldn’t find him. They started yelling for him and ended up finding him sitting in a golf cart on the 2nd hole of Brentwood Golf Course. A nice gentleman decided to sit with Jake until his parents came to find him. When his parents asked him why he wandered through the woods on his own, the young Kneen answered, “I just wanted to watch the ball rolling on the green.”
Jake has won numerous tournaments through the years. High school achievements include a strong senior year when he won the pre- and post-season KLAA Conference championships, MHSAA Regional championship, was named KLAA Conference Player of the Year, made the Division I All-State Team. That summer he went on to win the Michigan Junior Amateur Championship. As a freshman at Oakland University he made the honor roll studying biomedical sciences and earned Horizon League Freshman Golfer of the Year. He rode that to the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship and played alongside Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm at Olympia Fields.
During his sophomore and junior years, he was named to the Horizon League All Conference Team. During his junior year of college, Oakland University honored him with the President’s Award, which is given to one student-athlete who shows outstanding academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, and leadership.
In 2017, he played at U.S. Open Sectionals alongside PGA touring professionals like Tony Finau and Brian Stuard. He also won the 2017 Syron Memorial Tournament which included shooting a course record 62 at Pontiac Country Club. These accomplishments carried him into his senior year at Oakland where he earned his first collegiate victory at the Cleveland State University Invitational, had three other top-5 finishes, and was named Horizon League Golfer of the Year, All-Conference Team, and All-Tournament Team. One week later, he graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences.
Kneen recently won the Michigan Open, being the sixth amateur to do so in the Open’s 101-year history. He qualified to play in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, Aug. 13-19. He was also just named a Srixon/Cleveland All America Scholar in recognition of his athletic and academic performances and strong moral character. In the last week of August, he heads to the Web.com Tour Qualifying School in Florida.
Story written by Stephanie Krause for ClickOnDetroit.com