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Rockport,
ME--What a difference a year makes. Last fall, Nick Cook
began his professional career with two missed cuts at Samoset.
During the final round of the first event, he was merely a
spectator as Eric Egloff defeated Geoff Sisk in a two-hole
playoff.
This year, he held a lead
role.
Fueled by a closing 67, Cook
finished regulation tied at 5-under-par with Samoset’s Jeff
Seavey, who fired a tournament low 5-under 65.
After both hit poor drives on
the first playoff hole, no. 18, it was the 23-year-old Cook, not
the veteran Seavey, who opted to lay up short of the water
hazard fronting the green.
From a bad lie in the right
rough, Seavey’s 5-iron squirted into the hazard. To his
credit, he then played a pitching wedge to five-feet, but pulled
his bogey putt, clearing the way for Cook, who wedged to 20-feet
then two-putted for his maiden victory on Tour.
“I couldn’t hold the green
from where I was,” said Cook, of his decision to play short of
the green with his second shot.
Cook’s $13,000 payday
boosted him to third on the money list with $28,731.66.
Just one year ago, Cook
watched as both Sisk and Egloff made that same decision to lay
up on the first playoff hole.
“I watched [Egloff and
Sisk’s] course management. I watched how they picked their
spots to be aggressive. It inspired me to work hard this winter
and get better.”
With eight top 13 finishes
this season, buoyed by this win, as well as his win in the
Connecticut Open, Cook has quickly established himself as one of
the Tour’s premiere players.
Thirty minutes before Cook
finished, Seavey seemed destined to claim his first Tour win on
his home golf course.
Five birdies in six holes,
beginning on no. 11, were part of a back nine 31, the low score
on the inward nine all week.
He even parred his nemesis
hole, no. 18, which he played 3-over-par the first two rounds.
Despite the disappointing finish, Seavey did reunite with Chris
Christie, the former director of golf at Samoset who caddied for
him this week.
“He told me he was going to
caddy for me,” said Seavey, who earned $7,800. “There was no
question about that. He’s bigger than me, so I agreed. He
reinforced the thoughts I needed to have.”
While Cook and Seavey climbed
up the leaderboard, overnight co-leaders Rick Karbowski and
Geoff Sisk fell backward.
Karbowski doubled the par-5 12th
hole after pulling his 5-iron second shot. A bogey one hole
later ended his chances.
“I blew it,” said
Karbowski. “I had this golf tournament under control.”
Sisk, meanwhile, birdied nos.
11, 14 and 16, but made bogey on no. 15 after his tee shot found
a hazard off the fairway. On no. 18, he blasted his third from
the greenside bunker to 8-feet. With Cook and Seavey in the
clubhouse at 5-under, Sisk’s bid to make it a three-way
playoff snuck past the left edge.
The Tour now travels to S.
Burlington, VT for the second annual Vermont National Open. The
first round begins Sept. 29.
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