Europe builds 10-6 lead in Ryder Cup behind ‘Moliwood’

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Ben Cook, who splits time teaching at Yankee Springs Golf Course in Wayland, Michigan and John’s Island Golf Club in Vero Beach, Florida, shot a final-round 74 to finish 4 over and win low club professional at the 103rd PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. He made a par putt of just over seven feet to make the cut on the number early Friday evening. “Without that, it would have – none of this would have happened,” he said. “Very, very blessed and thankful that I made that putt for sure.” Brad Marek (76, 12 over), who teaches junior golfers in Northern California, was the other club pro who made the cut. He was neck-and-neck with Cook until making an 8 on 17 on Saturday. He is 37 and was overcome with emotion as he described how much he put into playing his first PGA. “Pretty exhausted,” he said. “I’ve been here for 10 days now, so there was a lot of prep that went in with my coach and my caddie, my wife. (Tearing up.) Sorry. Just really proud.” Cook will receive a crystal bowl as low club pro to make the cut from the Team of 20 at Kiawah. At least one club professional has made the cut in five of the last six PGA Championships. Cook, 27, estimated he was followed by a crew of 20-plus friends and family, some wearing #TeamBenny T-shirts, from his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He played the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica in 2018 and has aspirations to make it onto the Korn Ferry Tour. “Making a cut in a major you get to skip to the second stage of Q-School in the fall,” he said. “That would be worst-case scenario. I still have Latin American PGA TOUR status. If I finish Top-10 on the Order of Merit or their points list, I’ll get to go to final stage of Q-School, get a card. Depending on how you play, you get better status.” He won a convert in Webb Simpson (72, 2 over) and his caddie Paul Tesori, with whom he was paired for the final 36 holes. He and Simpson both shot 69 in the third round. Cook birdied 17. “My caddie, we walked off the green on 17 and he said, ‘This guy, how does he lose any tournament he plays in?’” Simpson said. “‘He should be out here with us.’ Impressive.” The caddie had more kind words after the final round Sunday. “Paul was like, ‘Hey, use this as a springboard and see if you can build on that momentum that you created this week and see if you can get to the next level,’” Cook said. “Which was really nice. They are hoping to see me out here on a more regular basis, which is great.” Next up for him: U.S. Open sectional qualifying, most likely in Columbus, Ohio. “It was so cool,” he said of his week at Kiawah, which marked his third PGA Championship start but his first made cut. “Having as many people as we did at every hole, the crowds are great, a lot of cheers even if you hit a bad shot to keep the momentum going, it was really fun.”

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HOUSTON (AP) — Martin Trainer was in rare territory Friday. Not only did he play well enough to stick around for the weekend, he found himself leading the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. RELATED: Leaderboard | Scottie Scheffler gets mad, sets course record in Houston Trainer holed a pair of long birdie putts and three short ones in a bogey-free round at Memorial Park for a 5-under 65 and a one-shot lead over Kevin Tway. The second round would not be completed until Saturday morning as the tournament tried to catch up from a long weather delay at the start of the tournament. While the cut would not be made until then, it was virtually certain four-time major champion Brooks Koepka who would miss for the second straight week. That’s a part of golf Trainer knows all too well. He won the Puerto Rico Open in 2019 as a rookie, and then it was all downhill after that. Trainer has made only nine cuts in 70 starts on the PGA TOUR since then, and one of those was the winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua that had no cut. He had missed seven in a row dating to the 3M Open in July. And then the 30-year-old Trainer showed up at Houston and made the game look simpler than it has for the last two years. “Last week I hit the ball really well for the first time in a long time and I just didn’t putt very well,” Trainer said. “So I figured if I could somehow do both those at the same time — to be fair, every single player says that every single week. But for me, it had been such a long time coming. It really was a grind for a long time. “So now to finally be able to put it together … you have to hope that this is the week.” No need telling that to Tway, who won at the start of the 2018 season and has only one other top 10 over his next 72 events on the PGA TOUR. Tway had a pair of eagles in his round of 64, holing a 60-foot chip on the par-5 third hole and then holing out from 107 yards in the fairway on the par-4 13th. He was tied for the lead until missing a 5-foot par putt on the 17th hole. Jason Kokrak was 8 under with seven holes left. Adam Long was another stroke back after a 67. The low round of the day belonged to Scottie Scheffler, who had a 62 and was in the group four shots behind that included fellow Texas Longhorn Kramer Hickok. To see Trainer’s name atop the leaderboard was a surprise considering how many cuts he has missed and how discouraging it can get. Sure, there were times he pondered his future in the game. His exemption from winning in Puerto Rico runs out after this season. But he always had hope, and he knew that while it’s hard to win on the PGA TOUR, he had done it before. “It is demoralizing when you keep missing cuts over and over again,” Trainer said. “It’s been tough at times for me the last couple years not playing well, but now that I figured out a little bit of ball-striking, dropped some putts, it really can turn around that quickly. “So I’m just grateful that that’s happening to me this week and hopefully I’ll keep it going.”

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