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Making The List: John Cook
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
I haven’t chosen many golfers for Making the List, have I?
The second installment of this column, following the great Jesse Owens, I did pick Jack Nicklaus…
No golfers since then.
Shame on me!
The Ohio State University has had a host of wonderful, talented, and great golfers. John Cook was one of them.
John Neuman Cook was born in 1957. The son of PGA Tour official Jim Cook, John Cook was born in Toledo, Ohio, but grew up in Southern California. Besides being a talented golfer early on he was also a promising, though a bit undersized, quarterback in football through his sophomore year. He was advised by his high school golf coach (also the football coach) to focus on golf; thus the best opportunity for a collegiate scholarship. The coach, Wilbur Lucas, later said it was the only time he suggested an athlete drop a sport.
It would prove to be genius.
Cook was offered a scholarship to the Ohio State University, and had been “personally” advised to accept by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. As a Buckeye John would be a member of the 1979 NCAA Championship team, which also included Joey Sindelar. John would go to win the U.S. Amateur title in 1978 at age 20. In 1979 he almost repeated the title, losing to Mark O’Meara in the finals. He would also win the Sunnehanna Amateur in 1977 and 1979 and the California State Amateur in 1975. Cook also won the 1978 and 1979 Northeast Amateur held at Wannamoisett Country Club.
His accomplishments as a Buckeye hardly stopped there ….
He would be the individual Big 10 Champion in 1978. He holds 6 individual tournament wins as a Buckeye. John would be a First team All-American in 1977, 78 and 79. The 1979 World Cup Champion was.. John Cook. The Walker Cup trophy went to, yep(!) John Cook; as did the Sun Bowl title in 1977, 78. While a Buckeye John participated in the Masters in 1978. He would be the Eisenhower trophy winner in 1978. The Ohio State University inducted John into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.
Cook’s first PGA Tour victory came in the 1981 storm-plagued Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. The event was shortened to 54 holes due to the weather conditions. Cook won the title on the third extra hole after a five-way sudden-death playoff that included Hale Irwin, Bobby Clampett, Ben Crenshaw, and Barney Thompson. Hale Irwin, the last of the four men that Cook eliminated in the playoff, was gracious in defeat. Irwin said: “John is a special young man. He deserved to win. He is one of the best new young players on the tour.”
Cook’s second PGA Tour win came in the 1983 Canadian Open. Cook won the tournament with a birdie putt on the sixth extra hole of a playoff against Johnny Miller.
Cook has had seven top-10 finishes in major championships. The closest he came to winning a major during his career was when he led the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield by two shots late in the final round. Cook missed a two-foot birdie putt on the 17th that would have given him a three-shot lead before he bogeyed the 18th and lost the Open by one stroke to Nick Faldo. The Brit birdied two of the last four holes to surpass Cook. After the tournament Cook said: “I definitely let one slip away. I had a chance to win a major championship and I didn’t.”
During three consecutive years – 1996 through 1998, Cook had at least one PGA Tour win. His 1996 victory in the FedEx St. Jude Classic came after his opening three rounds of 64-62-63 for a 54-hole score of 189 broke the lowest total in PGA Tour history.
As an amateur John has 7 titles. Professionally he has 27. He has certainly done well for himself.
John is a great Buckeye. His consistency in a sport that promises a career span equivalent to ripped elastic certainly outlines his superiority during his era which included some of the greatest names in the game. Without any doubt John Cook deserves to me included in our Making the List. During his collegiate era at The Ohio State University he is one of the absolute greatest golfers that the Buckeyes have had the privilege of witnessing.
The post Making The List: John Cook appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
I haven’t chosen many golfers for Making the List, have I?
The second installment of this column, following the great Jesse Owens, I did pick Jack Nicklaus…
No golfers since then.
Shame on me!
The Ohio State University has had a host of wonderful, talented, and great golfers. John Cook was one of them.
John Neuman Cook was born in 1957. The son of PGA Tour official Jim Cook, John Cook was born in Toledo, Ohio, but grew up in Southern California. Besides being a talented golfer early on he was also a promising, though a bit undersized, quarterback in football through his sophomore year. He was advised by his high school golf coach (also the football coach) to focus on golf; thus the best opportunity for a collegiate scholarship. The coach, Wilbur Lucas, later said it was the only time he suggested an athlete drop a sport.
It would prove to be genius.
Cook was offered a scholarship to the Ohio State University, and had been “personally” advised to accept by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. As a Buckeye John would be a member of the 1979 NCAA Championship team, which also included Joey Sindelar. John would go to win the U.S. Amateur title in 1978 at age 20. In 1979 he almost repeated the title, losing to Mark O’Meara in the finals. He would also win the Sunnehanna Amateur in 1977 and 1979 and the California State Amateur in 1975. Cook also won the 1978 and 1979 Northeast Amateur held at Wannamoisett Country Club.
His accomplishments as a Buckeye hardly stopped there ….
He would be the individual Big 10 Champion in 1978. He holds 6 individual tournament wins as a Buckeye. John would be a First team All-American in 1977, 78 and 79. The 1979 World Cup Champion was.. John Cook. The Walker Cup trophy went to, yep(!) John Cook; as did the Sun Bowl title in 1977, 78. While a Buckeye John participated in the Masters in 1978. He would be the Eisenhower trophy winner in 1978. The Ohio State University inducted John into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.
Cook’s first PGA Tour victory came in the 1981 storm-plagued Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. The event was shortened to 54 holes due to the weather conditions. Cook won the title on the third extra hole after a five-way sudden-death playoff that included Hale Irwin, Bobby Clampett, Ben Crenshaw, and Barney Thompson. Hale Irwin, the last of the four men that Cook eliminated in the playoff, was gracious in defeat. Irwin said: “John is a special young man. He deserved to win. He is one of the best new young players on the tour.”
Cook’s second PGA Tour win came in the 1983 Canadian Open. Cook won the tournament with a birdie putt on the sixth extra hole of a playoff against Johnny Miller.
Cook has had seven top-10 finishes in major championships. The closest he came to winning a major during his career was when he led the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield by two shots late in the final round. Cook missed a two-foot birdie putt on the 17th that would have given him a three-shot lead before he bogeyed the 18th and lost the Open by one stroke to Nick Faldo. The Brit birdied two of the last four holes to surpass Cook. After the tournament Cook said: “I definitely let one slip away. I had a chance to win a major championship and I didn’t.”
During three consecutive years – 1996 through 1998, Cook had at least one PGA Tour win. His 1996 victory in the FedEx St. Jude Classic came after his opening three rounds of 64-62-63 for a 54-hole score of 189 broke the lowest total in PGA Tour history.
As an amateur John has 7 titles. Professionally he has 27. He has certainly done well for himself.
John is a great Buckeye. His consistency in a sport that promises a career span equivalent to ripped elastic certainly outlines his superiority during his era which included some of the greatest names in the game. Without any doubt John Cook deserves to me included in our Making the List. During his collegiate era at The Ohio State University he is one of the absolute greatest golfers that the Buckeyes have had the privilege of witnessing.
The post Making The List: John Cook appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...