Rinker’s Golf Tips John Cook 11 Time PGA Tour Winner said this about taking time off of the Champion’s Tour, “You don’t quite know where your game is until you get out there.” I asked John how he got introduced to the game and his father was a high school football coach who went to work for Firestone in Akron, Ohio. As an employee, they could join as a family for $300/year! They had a junior program and that’s where it all started. His dad got transferred to Southern California and there was a good junior program there as well. When John was 14 he met his mentor of 30 years, Ken Venturi who was now the Director of Golf at Mission Hills Country Club. John’s dad knew Kenny because he was an auto racing fanatic and John’s dad used to be the Firestone rep for Indy cars. So when John first meets Ken he could hear him from a mile away because he had this old Cobra that came screaming into the parking lot. John was a typical California surfer dude with the long blonde hair, visor on backwards, clubs hanging off his shoulder backwards with “some OP shorts on. Ken walks down on the green and kind of looks me over and goes hmn… Well, nice to meet you. I’ve got some work to do. Why don’t you go over there and walk around the driving range and hit the balls back into the range, and when I’m done with my work I’ll come out and take a look at you.” So John says, “Yes sir” and proceeds to do what the old pro has asked him to do and thinks that Venturi goes into his office which he doesn’t. Ken walks behind the range shed and proceeds to see if this kid is serious and can follow directions. After a little while Ken comes down to the range in his golf cart “going 30 mph” and their relationship started which lasted for 30 years. They mainly worked on fundamentals like grip, posture, and getting the center of his chest to turn without his arms lifting too much. “I was blessed to have a great champion as my mentor. Practice was about shaping shots and picturing things, and he was getting me ready to go play golf.”
John ended up going to Ohio State and had a couple of alumni that got involved to help recruit him. Jack Nicklaus wrote a couple of really nice letters and Tom Weiskopf “would give me a call about once a week just to say hello and check in. We would be sitting at the dinner table, the call would come in, my sister would answer the phone, hey John “Tom” is on the phone. I didn’t have any friends named “Tom” and here it is Tom Weiskopf calling me on the phone!”
John Cook has won 11 PGA Tour events, 10 Champion’s Tour events and a U.S. Amateur. The only thing missing is a Major and he has two seconds in regular Majors and four seconds in Senior Majors. I asked John about the two footer he missed on the 17th green at Muirfield in 1992, which would have given him a three shot lead. “One of those things I took for granted. Played good all week, battled back, and had the lead. I hit a beautiful 5-iron into the middle of the green and just burned the edge of the cup for eagle, and it went a foot and a half, two feet by. No worries, marked it, hit it inside left and as I was reaching to pick it out of the hole, it lipped out. I backed away and went Oh My God, I just missed this putt. Walking off the green my caddie said got one more hole to play, let’s go do this.” John would bogey 18 and Nick Faldo would play the last four holes two under par to win by one. “I just didn’t finish. That one still hurts.” Look for John Cook on Morning Drive on Golf Channel and the Champion’s Tour in 2015. Hopefully he can win his first major this year.