Cook Turns Back the Clock
A central theme of this blog is the interplay between young and old in the world of competitive golf, and the concept was demonstrated again this week at Mayakoba with John Cook.
Cook is a Champions Tour player full-time, not someone like Tom Lehman or Fred Couples who can be frequently spotted on either tour. Cook had not played a PGA event since missing the cut at Turning Stone in 2007 (I was there, ironically). With his success on the Champions Tour (6 wins and 42 top-10s in 79 starts), he had no reason to. When he played 13 events on the PGA in 2007, he failed to notch a top-25, so if success isn't coming, it makes sense to go where you can contend.
What accounted for Cook deciding to play at Mayakoba this week? Maybe it was the positive feedback on the event from fellow pros, maybe it was simply the urge to play with the Champions Tour having an off week. Whatever the case, Cook teed it up on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2007, and all he did was fire a closing bogey-free 66 to finish in solo 3rd place.
Cook attributed the success to the lack of pressure, and why wouldn't he? If he had shot a couple 75s and missed the cut, nobody would give him a hard time. He would just be able to go back out on the over-50 circuit and keep moving along, no harm done. Most everyone else in the field had something tangible to play for: money list position, reshuffle position, glory, etc. Cook just went out and enjoyed himself.
"I just feel comfortable," Cook said. "I had nothing to lose this week. I enjoyed seeing everybody. I've seen guys I haven't seen in four or five years, and it was fun to come back and compete again for one last time."
There you go. The power of enjoying something for the moment, without the pressure of reality weighing in. Cook is not a PGA Tour player anymore. He has moved on to the next stage of his career.
But for one week, he showed once again that golf truly knows no age.
"Certain courses we'll be able to compete on because that's what we've done," Cook said. "We know how to compete."
They know how to compete. Even if Cook never plays another PGA event again, that knowledge will not go away. That's why you see the old names among the new names a few times every year. Whether it will happen is not the question. The question is merely who it will be next.
