more photosJohn Cook used his playoff loss to Mike Reid at the 2009 Jeld-Wen Tradition as a catalyst to turn around his season.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Cook uses heartbreak to turn around season
Golfer gets season rolling after faltering at Crosswater during Tradition
By Zack Hall / The Bulletin
Published: November 04. 2009 4:00AM PSTJohn Cook’s memorable playoff loss in August to Mike Reid at the 2009 Jeld-Wen Tradition turned out to be a positive for the 11-time PGA Tour winner.
After his heartbreaking finish at Sunriver Resort’s Crosswater Club, where Cook bogeyed the 72nd hole to fall into a playoff with Reid, Cook became the Champions Tour’s hottest golfer.
He picked up his second tournament win of the year this past Sunday, running away with the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, Calif., by five strokes.
Afterward, he credited his Central Oregon loss for turning his season around.
“The event in Bend at the Jeld-Wen Tradition, congrats to Mike Reid, but was mine and I let it go,” Cook said Sunday to reporters in California. “I screamed at myself for a month after that. I just was so torn up by the mistake I made at the last hole (by hitting into a greenside bunker and then two-putting). I said that ain’t gonna happen again.”
Cook earned five top-10 finishes after the Tradition, including wins at October’s Administaff Small Business Classic near Houston and last weekend’s Schwab Cup Championship.
Cook struggled during the first half of the season. And his loss at The Tradition, one of several near misses at major championships in Cook’s 30-year career on the PGA and Champions tours, could have sent his season into a tailspin.
But the 52-year-old’s strong finish to the season vaulted him into second place in the Charles Schwab Cup, the over-50 circuit’s season-long points race similar to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup. Loren Roberts, who finished in a tie for fifth place at this year’s Tradition, won the $1 million Schwab Cup first prize.
“I said (after The Tradition) you can go one of two ways: Just say you’re a regular guy out here making a living, or you can figure out something and try to get better and more aggressive,” said Cook, who is still looking for his first major championship win on either the PGA Tour or the Champions Tour. “I felt like the last month or so, I got a little more aggressive around the golf course, hitting a lot more — you know, go ahead and take a cut at it.”
Roberts, who won his second Schwab points title in four full seasons on the Champions Tour, and Cook certainly did not appear to be heading for a 1-2 finish before The Tradition began.
In August, Bernhard Langer and 2008 Tradition champion Fred Funk appeared to be the two men to beat for the Schwab Cup, with Roberts in third place.
But Langer finished outside the top 10 in Sunriver, losing out on the double Schwab Cup points awarded at each major, and Funk struggled down the stretch.
That helped close the gap. And after Roberts finished in a tie for third place behind winner Jay Haas at October’s Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship in Baltimore, the last of five major championships on the Champions Tour schedule, he had taken the lead for good.
“Well, you know, overall competition for the whole year (was strong),” said Roberts, who also won July’s Senior British Open. “I think the year that I won it (the Schwab Cup) in ’07 I did the same thing. I took over the lead at Constellation. That’s been a great golf tournament for me. I just love the golf course there.”
Roberts, Cook, Funk, Langer and Haas, respectively the Nos. 1 through 5 players in this year’s final Schwab points standings, have been among the dominant golfers on the senior circuit for at least the last two years. But that could be changing next year.
The 2010 Tradition may benefit from one of the best rookie classes in years on the 50-and-over tour.
PGA Tour major winners Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia, Corey Pavin and Fred Couples all will have turned 50 before the 2010 Tradition tees off next August. Couples, a fan favorite, turned 50 in October but opted to wait until 2010 to make his Champions Tour debut.
Seemingly ageless Kenny Perry, who lost the 2009 Masters in a playoff with Angel Cabrera, will turn 50 next Aug. 10, which should be enough time for him to be eligible for The Tradition. (The dates for the 2010 Tradition have not yet been announced.)
And all five of the aforementioned golfers appear to be planning to play a significant 2010 Champions Tour schedule.
Couples said this year that he would like to play in all five of the Champions Tour’s major championships in 2010, which includes The Tradition.
Pavin — a 15-time PGA Tour winner, the 1995 U.S. Open champ and captain of the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team — seems to be a good fit for the shorter-course Champions Tour. And he has already said that he will focus on the Champions Tour next year.
Azinger and Calcavecchia have also expressed excitement about turning 50 next year.
“I’m really looking forward to the Champions Tour,” Calcavecchia said to a Senior PGA Championship blog in March. “I know those guys can still play but I think the overall atmosphere out there will be much more relaxed. I think the Champions Tour will fit my personality perfectly. I can be aggressive on the course and that’s the style of play I like. It’s a tailor-made situation for me.”
Even Perry, who was fifth on this year’s PGA Tour money list and is still competing well at the highest level of pro golf, appears ready to play on the senior circuit when he becomes eligible next August.
“Tell them there’s going to be a new sheriff in town,” Perry said to the Senior PGA Championship blogger. “The players who are now out on the Champions Tour wore me out during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Payback is tough and I’m coming for them.”
And with any luck, they’ll all be coming for Champions Tour fans next year.
Zack Hall can be reached at 541-617-7868 or at zhall@bendbulletin.com.
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