May 20, 2009
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
JOHN COOK
KELLY ELBIN: John Cook, ladies and
gentlemen, joining us at the 70th Senior PGA
Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. An Ohio
native, this will be John's second Senior PGA.
Tied for 16th last year at Oak Hill in Rochester
New York. John, it's been three decades since
you were here for the U.S. Amateur. And reached
the finals before falling to Mark O'Meara.
Thoughts on returning home to Ohio and coming
back to Canterbury, please.
JOHN COOK: Yeah, 30 years ago, that's
a long time, as you all know. I can't hardly
remember yesterday. But great to be back, I love
Ohio, born in Toledo, and lived through Mansfield
and Columbus and Akron and moved to California
when I was first or second grade. But it's always a
joy to come back to Ohio. It's such a great sports
state. They appreciate anything from baseball,
football, basketball, golf, whatever, the people, the
state of Ohio gets behind their native sons and I
appreciate that.
So it's great to be back here and back to
Canterbury, where I got my clock cleaned about 30
years ago. But just great tradition, Canterbury's
just, it's a wonderful place. And I look forward to
starting tomorrow. Let's get to the first tee and get
this thing going.
KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions,
please.
Q. Can you say what you like about
Canterbury. General comments.
JOHN COOK: Canterbury, the golf course
is in as good a shape as I've ever seen anywhere.
This is some of the best fairways I've ever seen.
And which will, if you can hit the fairways, you'll be
okay, but that's -- the second question is just,
there's a lot of blind shots, a lot of blind tee shots
where the fairways slope away from you, not into
the dogleg, they slope a way, kind of off camber.
So you really need to pick your sight lines.
And it will be interesting. The guy that hits a lot of
fairways this week is going to be the guy that's
going to be the one to beat. It's not so much
anything else.
But it's in wonderful shape, it's a classic
old golf course, it's not super long, but it's got a
couple nice long holes and a great finishing
stretch. So that's Major Championship golf and
that's what Canterbury's all about.
Q. How has the equipment and the golf
ball's changed golf from when you were here
30 years ago?
JOHN COOK: I think that the driver
obviously goes farther, but my irons are the same.
They're setup the same as they were 30 years
ago. Lofts and lies are the same. Shafts are
basically the same. So I don't see that much as far
as irons go. The ball, I play the spiniest golf ball
they make, so that's not a big thing, but the driver
definitely goes a little bit further.
And I don't remember hitting that many
non-drivers here 30 years ago. I thought I hit a lot
of drivers. Where the front side here I think I only
hit two, maybe three drivers. But the back side will
let you drive the ball.
So it might play a little bit shorter, but
length isn't everything any more. And this golf
course will take care of itself. It will defend itself.
So the fairways are going to be difficult to hit and if
you don't hit fairways, you're not going to be
making many pars, I can tell you that. So I think at
the end of the week the golf course will easily
defend itself against any type of equipment.
Q. Is this kind of a flip-flop of pressure
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when you were on the regular PGA TOUR
maybe it took a little while until you got some
experience, until people thought you would win
events.
Meanwhile,
everybody's
got
experience on this TOUR and then when you
get old enough and everybody thinks, you
know, maybe they could carry it over, they
were on the Regular Tour.
JOHN COOK: It's exactly right. Early
years of the PGA TOUR you kind of felt your way
on to the TOUR, kind of got more comfortable each
week and you played every single week because
you had to.
Through the -- after three or four years
then you felt like you had a chance to win every
single week. And towards the end of your career
you were trying to make cuts, which has never
been what you ever played golf about.
So when you get to 50, now you're not
really worried about that any more, but you want
to, you think that you can contend every week, but
everybody expects you to contend every week.
So, yeah, it's just around about pressure thing, but
that's exactly right. And it took a little while to get
used to that. Not being, I mean being competitive
and playing, but not being competitive enough the
last years of your TOUR life and then now you're
into that contending pressure again is, getting used
to that. It's a lot of fun. I like to remember that
feeling.
Last year I had that feeling a lot. So I got
more and more comfortable with it and hopefully I
will continue that being more and more comfortable
with being back in that position where you have
chances to win. Because we have always said
that you never forget how to win, you forget how to
get there. But these guys have won so many
tournaments that are out here playing the
Champions Tour that that experience factor is
there and they know how to win. They know what
to do. Sometimes your body won't allow you to do
it, but you don't crumble, you know what to expect
and how to feel. Getting back used to that is kind
of the tough part.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, John has
three top-10 finishes coming into the Senior PGA
this week.
Q. A past and present question. Mark
was here, he talked about the circumstances in
the '79 how you were the defending champion
and he felt he was the underdog and he talked
a little about the match and how he got three,
how you got 3-up on him rather quickly. Just
on Part A of the question of the past, what's
your recollection of sort of the general way that
championship round unfolded?
JOHN COOK: Yeah, it, I had had a real
good summer, '78 and then I had a real good
summer, '79, won about every tournament that I
played in that summer. So I definitely felt probably
the favorite coming in.
And I just was playing golf, I was just
having fun playing golf. I had a tough match I think
the third round against Lennie, we went eight extra
holes. And I think that took a lot out of me. He
was one of my best friends and we went eight
extra holes and we were just grinding and grinding
and then I end up beating him on, well, I don't
know what hole it is now, I think it's the par-3 over
here or par-4, I guess it was 8 the way the card
reads. And then I played Gary Hallberg in the
afternoon in the quarter finals. And I kind of just
kind of slept walked.
I just -- and by the time I got to Sunday, I
got off to a fast start, but someone, I started, I kept
pressing the gas pedal but nothing was coming
out, I was done, I was cooked. And Mark played
very well. And I just didn't have enough in me to
fight him off.
He was making birdies, I just didn't feel like
I was hitting enough quality shots to make any
birdies at all. And he had me two or three down at
after 18 and then just put the hammer down on the
front side.
So he deserved to win, he played
beautifully, we had a lot of birdies, which you had
to do back then to win this championship. And with
the field that we had, that match play draw is
incredible, if you go through the names that were
in that draw, it's, you know everybody. Everybody
on that draw you know or know of. He was a very
deserving champion that day, no question. He
outplayed me big time.
Q. You and your dad are into the
design and build business, right you and your
dad. The present question.
JOHN COOK: A little bit, yeah.
Q. So you've, what is it about these
greens? They were great greens in '79, they
were great greens in '21 when the course
opened. What is it about them?
JOHN COOK:
I just think that great
courses and great designs stand the test of time,
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they don't need to be monkeyed with. And going
back to the equipment question, it doesn't matter
that the ball -- you still have to make putts. And
these greens, you have to be in the right position
to make any putts at all.
Now if the greens get too fast, then they
lose all their pin placements and that's unfortunate.
So hopefully they will keep the greens at a nice
speed where they can use more than one spot on
each green. So hopefully they don't get trapped
into that.
But they're just very well designed. That's
the way that a lot of these old classic courses are.
They don't have to change a whole lot. They might
need a tee here or there, but you start changing
the character of the greens, you change the
character of the golf course and nobody wants to
see that. So Canterbury's really standing the test
of time and is a course like Inverness will do that
and courses around here are, they're just classic
old great designs.
years. This question is only for me, maybe, but
a little bit on Firestone.
JOHN COOK:
Yeah Firestone, great
history with my family, with my father. Just
growing up really early, really young age, five, six,
seven years old, playing in their junior program.
And watching the great professionals play in the
World Series and the American Golf Classic and
CBS Golf Classic way, way, way back when. It
was pretty special to be around here or around
there and competing in that junior program with the
other kids.
And then moving to southern California,
but then coming back to Ohio State and then
winning the U.S. Amateur and getting in the World
Series of golf where my dad was the tournament
director, so there's a great connection, a great
history there. So Firestone was a big part of my
life growing up.
KELLY ELBIN: John Cook, thank you very
much.
JOHN COOK: Thanks, guys.
Q. John, most every golfer will think
that they can contend for titles. What do you
like about your game going into this
tournament that you're doing well that would
put you in contention?
JOHN COOK: I've had a good last couple
weeks. I've hit the ball very well at Tampa, actually
at Cap Cana, then Tampa and then the Legends a
couple weeks ago. So I think that my tee to green
game is in good shape. You never really know
until you get to Thursday and how you feel, but I
feel confident that my long game will be good.
Short game is always kind of how you get
a good feel on the greens. I worked really hard the
last couple days on my putting and getting used to
the speed and slope of the greens and just trying
to figure out where you're going to be.
So if I just get up on the first tee tomorrow
and just kind of let it go, I think we'll be all right. It's
the times where I get anxious and start steering
things and don't let my golf swing go is when I get
in trouble.
So not that you're going to be stupid, but
you got to be, you got to be cautious, but also
aggressive. And I felt that I've played very well the
last couple weeks that I've played. I've hit a lot of
good quality shots, I've driven the ball nicely, which
you have to do around here, and if I can keep
steady on the greens, I should be okay.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
Q. Talk a little bit about what Firestone
has meant to you and your family through the
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