John Pak ended the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge atop the leaderboard, posting 7 under through his first 18 holes of the tournament. Pak started his day off right with an eagle on the 10th hole (his first of the day). He played the rest of the day bogey-free and added five birdies to his tally.
Pak’s 7-under 63 marked a career-low round for him on the PGA TOUR, and it was clear he was playing with some extra motivation. That extra motivation came via the New York Knicks‘ disastrous Game 1 loss in overtime to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night.
Following the first round, Pak was asked what the rest of his Thursday looked like. He revealed that a restful night was ahead since his favorite NBA team couldn’t disappoint him.
“Thankfully the Knicks aren’t playing tonight, so I won’t be stressed about that,” Pak said. “I didn’t sleep well after that loss last night. I’m going to recover, do a little stretching, and then maybe watch the Thunder game later tonight.”
Pak was then asked if he stayed up late to watch New York lose in overtime.
“I’m a die-hard Knicks fan, and that was historically one of the worst losses I’ve ever seen in my life,” Pak said. “There was a fire lit under me, yeah, this morning. I was a little pissed off about that.”
Pak is right. New York’s loss was historical.
The Knicks held a nine-point lead over the Pacers with under a minute to go in the fourth quarter, but squandered it after Aaron Nesmith powered an 11-4 Indiana run by himself. Tyrese Haliburton then converted on a 23-foot game-tying bucket at the buzzer, and the Pacers would go on to out-score the Knicks by three points in the extra five minutes.
Wednesday night marked the largest comeback win in the final minute by any team in a playoff game in the play-by-play era. Previously, teams down at least nine points in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime of a playoff game were 0-1,414 since 1998.
If the Knicks go down 0-2, Pak may be fired up enough to win at Colonial Country Club outright. However, The Charles Schwab hasn’t featured a wire-to-wire winner since Ian Baker-Finch did so back in 1989. Expect a fun weekend, as this tournament has gone to a playoff in three out of the last five years.