By JOE FERRARO Stephens Media ADVERTISING He took advantage of the warm California weather in December, playing about as much golf as he did before competing in last year’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. John Cook hopes the work he
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
He took advantage of the warm California weather in December, playing about as much golf as he did before competing in last year’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
John Cook hopes the work he put in will translate into the same result: a trophy at the Champions Tour’s season-opening event.
Cook will defend his Mitsubishi Electric title this weekend, at the 54-hole tournament beginning today and running through Sunday at Hualalai Golf Club.
The 54-year-old Cook has shown he can replicate success on the age 50-and-over tour, winning back-to-back AT&T Championship crowns in 2008 and 2009 and consecutive Charles Schwab Cup Championship crowns in 2010 and 2011.
But winning just once at Hualalai, according to Cook, becomes difficult because the course’s well-manicured greens allow golfers to shoot low scores throughout the tournament. Cook said posting a better-than-average score of 4 under on all three days of the event likely won’t translate into a victory.
The Mitsubishi Electric champion has posted a score of 20 under or better in six of the past eight years.
“(The winner) is that guy that comes down and makes more putts than anybody else,” Cook said.
Last year, that guy was Cook, who finished the tournament with back-to-back 64s. He reeled off five straight birdies on the back nine to beat Tom Lehman by two strokes.
Cook, who also posted victories at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am and the Montreal Championship last year, said he has been playing golf almost daily in Newport Beach, Calif., since Dec. 21.
“The weather was so good that if you weren’t outside doing something, you were missing out,” Cook said.
In addition to his three wins last season, Cook also posted two runner-up finishes, losing in playoffs at the Songdo IBD Championship and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. He recorded eight total top-10 finishes, but just one of them came in a major tournament – he finished second to Fred Couples at the Senior Players.
“I need to relax more at the majors,” Cook said. “It seems like I go into them with such high expectations.”
The golfer Cook beat at the Mitsubishi Electric, Lehman, won the first of last year’s five majors, The Regions Tradition, en route to winning the Charles Schwab Cup – the tour’s season-long points race – at the end of the year.
Unlike Cook, Lehman didn’t play a lot of golf during the month of December, saying he needed time away from the golf course after a 29-event season.
“I needed a break,” said Lehman, who will make his third Mitsubishi Electric appearance. “It was a long season. I was ready for some time off.”
But Lehman proclaimed himself ready after playing in the first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Pro-Am on Wednesday.
After placing second to Cook at last year’s Mitsubishi Electric, Lehman won two of his next three tournaments, claiming titles at the Allianz Championship and the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic.
“My game is in good shape,” Lehman said. “I felt like I was swinging well. I played well, and I’m happy with where it’s at.”
The four other players who won Champions Tour majors last year – Couples, Tom Watson, Russ Cochran and Olin Browne – will also play in the Mitsubishi Electric.
Watson, who made birdie on the 18th hole to beat Couples in the 2010 Mitsubishi Electric, is one of eight former tournament champions in the field. Watson, who won eight majors on the PGA Tour, claimed his sixth Champions Tour major by winning the Senior PGA Championship last year.
The 62-year-old has finished in the top 10 eight times at the Mitsubishi Electric, placing third behind Cook and Cochran last year. Cochran led the tournament after the first and second rounds.
Because of chronic back problems, Couples, a fan favorite throughout his career, played in just 10 tournaments last season. However, he posted four top-five finishes and two victories after winning four events in his first full Champions Tour season in 2010.
Six golfers will make their first Mitsubishi Electric appearances this year: Browne, Jay Don Blake, Mark Calcavecchia, Brad Faxon, John Huston and Kenny Perry.
Blake won twice last season, including the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, and finished fourth in the Schwab Cup race behind Lehman, Calcavecchia and Peter Senior.
Calcavecchia posted 15 top-10 finishes, winning the Boeing Classic and capping the season with consecutive runner-up finishes at the AT&T Championship and Schwab Cup Championship.
Perry, known for coming agonizingly close to winning the 2009 Masters at age 48, won his first Champions Tour event at last year’s SAS Championship.
He said the players who have competed at the Mitsubishi Electric in the past have an advantage over tournament “rookies” like himself this weekend.
“I’m the young kid, and I feel like I’m on the PGA Tour again,” Perry said. “I feel like I’m lost in the ’80s. I’m playing against the same guys that beat up on me when I was young, and now I’m back out here, and they’re beating up on me again.”
But after playing in more PGA Tour tournaments than Champions Tour events last year, Perry plans on spending more time on the 50-and-over tour this season.
“To me, this is a fun tour,” Perry said of the Champions Tour on Wednesday at Hualalai. “To me this is very relaxing. All the guys are great. The people that work these events are great.
“It’s just a very fun atmosphere to be around. On the PGA Tour, all those kids are grinding hard. Thank goodness I don’t have to do that anymore. I kind of like getting away from that scene and gravitate more toward this scene.”
