Wells Fargo comeback not to be for Rory McIlroy

SILVIS, Ill. — With 50 mini-tour wins, give or take, to his credit, Eric Cole knows he has game. Having spent 12 years chasing the coveted opportunity to follow his father, Bobby Cole, onto the PGA TOUR, Cole also knows the difference is both vast and minute between the brand of golf played on the minis and the game that succeeds on a major-league level. “You don’t have the depth that you have in like a Korn Ferry event or out here on the PGA TOUR, but you’re still playing against the top few guys that are really, really good — guys who either have had success out here in the past or are capable of it in the future,” said Cole, who has actually lost count of his many mini wins. “It’s kind of crazy how many good young players there are playing the Korn Ferry Tour and just kind of learning the ropes of professional golf, guys are going to have a lot of success out here in the near future.” As he readies at this week’s John Deere Classic for his third PGA TOUR start in the past five months, the 33-year-old Cole is working to build on his nearly two years of competing on Korn Ferry Tour. In March, he advanced through a PGA TOUR Monday qualifying event for the first time in several tries and logged a 22nd-place finish at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship. Last month, he advanced through two rounds of qualifying for the United States Open and, despite shooting rounds of 77 and 73 and missing the cut at Torrey Pines, learned some major lessons. Thursday at 8:35 p.m., Cole will head off the first tee at TPC Deere Run for his seventh official TOUR round after again successfully playing his way into the field through John Deere Classic Monday qualifying. His hope is to cash out Sunday with enough FedExCup points to finish 200th in the year-end TOUR standings and punch his ticket to the impending Korn Ferry Tour qualifying finals. “Where I’m at on the Korn Ferry points list, with the two seasons in one, it takes a lot to move from 107th where I’m at to top 75,” he said of his decision to compete for a John Deere Classic opportunity. “I already have some non-member FedExCup points from Puntacana, so if I could get in that top 200 that’s kind of where my focus turned.” That’s his hope. His dream, of course, is bigger. Joining defending champion Dylan Frittelli and the 22 others who scored their maiden PGA TOUR victory over 49 Quad Cities events would be a life-changing occurrence. That’s an unspoken dream, however. Although his father is a former British Amateur champion and winner on the 1977 Buick Invitational and his mother, Laura Baugh, was an LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year with a bevy of top 10 finishes on the premier women’s tour, Cole knows well that a place on TOUR is anything but a birthright. Highlighted by a tie for third at the Savannah Golf Championship last October, Cole’s inaugural opportunity on the Korn Ferry TOUR represents the pinnacle of his professional career. Still, it has been a challenge and then some. He has made 14 cuts In 27 starts in a combined season elongated by the pandemic, and Savannah represents his lone top 10. As such, he has gained a keener understanding of the miles-deep talent in a game that’s grown far beyond what his father faced at the advent of the all-exempt TOUR in the 70’s. So, he’ll tee it up Thursday with ample perspective and genuine appreciation. “I’ve definitely had a bit of a grind this year, and then in the past doing more Mondays and mini-tour stuff years ago,” he said. “It’s just something that you have to kind of take the positives of and try and find a way to enjoy it. If you’re not one of those kids coming out of college and really having extreme superstar success, it’s something that you have to kind of relish, take the positives and enjoy it when you can.”

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Daniel Berger was playing some of the best golf that no one noticed. Three months away because of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t slow his momentum, and he made it pay off Sunday with a victory at Colonial. The PGA TOUR made a healthy return to golf at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Berger saved par from behind the 17th green on the first playoff hole and won when Collin Morikawa missed a 3-foot par putt. Berger closed with a 4-under 66, his 28th consecutive round at par or better dating to Oct. 11 at the Houston Open. Even over the final hour, a half-dozen players were still in the mix. All that was missing was the sound and energy of a gallery, with the PGA TOUR not allowing spectators for the opening five events in its return. Berger won for the third time — all victories during this week on the calendar, just not in circumstances like this. It was the first PGA TOUR event since March 12 when the spread of the new coronavirus shut down golf and other sports. From no positive tests to a dynamic finish at history-rich Colonial, PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan sized up the week by saying, “This has been a phenomenal start to our return.” Morikawa has been equally steady. Since graduating from Cal a year ago, he has won and made every cut, a streak now at 21 events, the longest streak by a newcomer since Tiger Woods. He took a share of the lead with a 50-foot putt on the 14th hole. It was the short ones that hurt. Morikawa also missed a birdie putt from 6 feet on the 18th hole in a 67. Berger was the only one who delivered, making a 10-foot birdie on the final hole that put him at 15-under 265. The last time Berger was in a playoff, Jordan Spieth holed a bunker shot to beat him at the Travelers Championship. So he could feel for what Morikawa felt int he loss. “It’s going to hurt for a little while, but he’ll get over it and he’ll be winning again,” Berger said. Even the optimism of being back to golf didn’t eliminate the sting, and more than Morikawa felt it. Xander Schauffele gave new meaning to the phrase “Horrible Horseshoe” at Colonial. He hit into the water on the 15th from a fairway bunker, hit a poor chip after the penalty shot and then made a 30-footer to escape with a bogey. He followed with a 25-foot birdie to regain a share of the lead. And then his 3-foot par putt on the 17th hole dipped in one side of the hole and spun out of the other. His 25-foot birdie putt to join the playoff came up just short and he shot 69. Bryson DeChambeau cringed when his 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th narrowly missed, giving him a 66 and leaving him one shot out of the playoff. Ditto for Justin Rose, whose 18-foot birdie on the last hole was a turn short. He also had 66. Jason Kokrak finished well ahead of everyone else. he also missed a birdie on the last hole in his round of 64. Spieth, trying to end three years without a victory, left with a consolation prize of progress. He missed a 2-foot par putt on the sixth hole — part of three bogeys in a four-hole stretch — but was still in the mix until a tee shot out of bounds on the 14th. Even then, he made a 35-foot putt to save bogey. He wound up with a 71 and tied for 10th. Rory McIlroy had seven straight tournaments no worse than fifth, a streak that came to a stunning halt. Starting the final round three shots behind, he was 5 over through seven holes and closed with a 74 to tie for 32nd. The final round was as wild as expected with eight players taking turns or sharing time in the lead, all without having any idea without fans to give a hint of what was going on. “If there are fans and everything with the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs,’ I’d probably be a little more (ticked) off,” Schauffele said. “Maybe that’s a good thing for me right now. But it was definitely weird. It was sort of an internal battle, which it always is for me, but more so internal this week just with no fans.” Monahan conceded his biggest concern going into the week, even with its testing and safety procedure, was positive tests popping up. “That’s something, candidly, that I lost a lot of sleep over in the weeks that preceded coming in,” he said. All 487 tests at Colonial were negative, and the golf lived up to its part with a star-filled leaderboard and a half-dozen players still in the mix the final hour. Next up is the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head on the South Carolina coast, and Monahan said the first week won’t be complete until then to see how players handled the interstate travel. Those on the charter were tested for the new coronavirus after the third round. Everyone else would be tested when they arrived at Hilton Head. “This is about a sustained return,” Monahan said. “But I think as we sit here late in the day Sunday, there’s no question that this has been an exceptional week.”

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Former European Tour winner and local St. Augustine resident Julian Suri has surged to the lead after the first round of the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour tournament at the Slammer & Squire Course of the World Golf Village. MORE ON APGA TOUR: Dent following in father’s footsteps | College star sees APGA as key to next level Suri, who grew up just a short drive from the World Golf Village and was a two-time Florida state high school champion before becoming an All-American at Duke University, notched up six birdies and two eagles during a sublime 10-under 62 on Thursday. The 29-year-old leads by two over Georgia’s Tim O’Neal (64) while Kentuckian Patrick Newcomb sits third in the 36-hole event after his round of 65. Cincinnati’s Kevin Hall, who lost his hearing as a toddler, is part of a tie for fifth at 4-under. Suri, an American with both Indian and Mexican heritage, had a huge 2017 where he won on the secondary Challenge Tour in Europe in May before taking out the Made In Demark event on the European Tour in August. After a T19 finish in the 2018 PGA Championship, Suri reached a peak of 60th in the world but has slipped back to 265th after battling through some nagging injuries, including a hernia. His best PGA TOUR finish from 13 career starts was a T8 at the 2018 Houston Open. O’Neal, who won the APGA event earlier this year at Torrey Pines that was played during the Farmers Insurance Open, had eight birdies and an eagle that were only offset by two bogeys. The 47-year-old veteran African American has played seven TOUR events over the last few decades, his last as the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption player at the 2019 Genesis Invitational. The APGA was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. In addition to conducting up to eight tournaments awarding $250,000 in prize money annually, the APGA conducts the Charlie Sifford Player Development Program to aid young minority golfers.

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