CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE — Russell Knox may have grown up in Scotland, but four years at Jacksonville University certainly made him aware of American football.
The 29-year-old Scotsman was the playing pro Wednesday among the BMW Championship pro-am’s most watched foursome at Cherry Hills. Knox, who is No. 40 in the FedEx Cup standings, was paired with John Elway, John Lynch and Cooper Manning for an afternoon round.
“I’ve lived in Jacksonville for a while, so I’m certainly aware of my partners today,” Knox said with a grin before the round. “I don’t really know why I got to play with them. Normally the big dogs get to play with the big dogs, but I’m really delighted.”
Knox has bounced between the PGA and Web.com tours since turning pro in 2009. This season, he has three top-10 finishes and made the cut in 19 of 25 events.
When Elway was asked before the round what he knew about Knox, the Broncos general manager shrugged his shoulders and said: “Ask me afterward.”
With five hours on the course together, Knox might give a few pointers and in return push for a couple of tickets to the Broncos’ season opener Sunday night against the Colts. The BMW Championship should end about 4 p.m. Sunday, a little more than two hours before kickoff.
“I’ve got my wife here, and we’ve already looked into getting tickets for Sunday’s game. We’d like to go,” Knox said. “This will only help things.”
Getting his first look at Cherry Hills in the pro-am, Knox might have learned something from Elway.
On the 439-yard, par-4 No. 4, Elway hooked a big drive through the oak tree on the left side. It put him about 10 yards wide of the cart path and closer to the 16th fairway than the fourth.
But the drive put Elway in perfect chipping distance, about 40 yards out.
“They don’t know,” Elway said of the visiting pros, “that’s the way to play it.”
On his next shot, though, Elway airmailed the green to the backside. And when a young kid asked for his autograph, Elway said: “After that shot, you can have anything you want.”
As the top two players in the standings, Chris Kirk and Rory McIlroy opened the pro-am Wednesday with a 7 a.m. tee time.
Opening the afternoon round, which started at 12:10 p.m., was Ernie Els, who was paired with Denver native Chauncey Billups. The former George Washington/University of Colorado/NBA journeyman recently became a member at Cherry Hills.
David Krause: 303-954-1893, dkrause@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DavidKrause
