Photo Gallery: The Barbasol Championship, Round 1

It’s easy to get distracted by the latest and greatest golf equipment, but it's the clubs that stay in the bag for years that really pique gearheads' interest. The sticks that have seen some things, like Tiger's Scotty, Fred Couples' square 3-wood, Justin Thomas' 5-wood, Henrik Stenson's 3-wood and basically Bernhard Langer’s entire bag are the really special ones. They have stories to tell. PGA TOUR players will stay true to a club that works, more so than any members of your Saturday foursome. Can you blame them? Their livelihoods are on the line. It’s actually more surprising that they do update season to season, if you really think about it. As we have seen with Woods' "Elder Wand" (Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS), sometimes Old Faithful needs a temporary timeout to rekindle the flame, but somehow it always find a way back into the bag. Harris English gave us a similar story with his win at last week's Sentry Tournament of Champions. The unique Ping putter that English used to win at Kapalua was the same one he used in his previous win, the 2013 Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN. After some time on the bench, the HoHum returned to the bag in 2020. WRX spoke with Ping Tour Rep Tony Serrano, who works very closely with English, about how his old friend helped English back into the winner's circle. He led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting last week and won with a 6-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. “Harris is a big fan of the top alignment features of the HoHum," Serrano said. "The HoHum top surface sits high and is flat with subtle ball diameter and ball-width features that help him with his alignment of the ball. Also, the durometer insert gives him the feel, sound and speed that works best for Harris' putting. "We've tested several different styles of putter in the past. We've even designed a specific putter with Harris' input but he's always gone back to the HoHum. He's commented in the past that it's tough to switch putters since he has so many memories of making clutch putts with the HoHum, which gives him confidence. Yesterday is another just another clutch putt with the HoHum for his memory bank.” Harris English's Ping Scottsdale HoHum: Specs Loft: 3 degrees Lie: 70 degrees Shaft: Straight Arc Length: 36 ¼ inches Grip: Ping AVS MidSize

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John Cook was a Minneapolis club pro who also played a handful of PGA TOUR events per year, mostly in the winter months when the weather back home left snow was on the ground and kept the courses closed. He played nearly 100 TOUR events, his best finish a tie for fourth at the 1967 Azalea Open. But that wasn’t the tournament that his grandson Austin heard the most about. The highlight of John Cook’s career was his brush with greatness in the 1965 Memphis Open, when he played with Jack Nicklaus in the final round at Colonial Country Club. Nicklaus was just 25 years old, but already had won four majors, including that spring’s Masters Tournament. He’d also won the 1964 money list (by a mere $81.13 over Arnold Palmer), an accomplishment that meant Nicklaus’ entry fees were waived for the 1965 season. Not, of course, that he needed the financial assistance. He already was chasing greatness, and he displayed his other-worldly talent again on that Sunday in Memphis. He started the final round five shots off the lead, while Cook was six back. They met on the first tee Sunday, but their paths quickly diverged. Nicklaus fired 65 to collect the 14th victory of his career. Cook shot 76 to fall to the middle of the pack. Austin Cook did Sunday what his grandfather could not, earning a PGA TOUR title in just his fourth start as a member. He birdied three of his final four holes at Sea Island’s Seaside Course to shoot 67 and finish four shots ahead of J.J. Spaun. Cook’s quest to the winner’s circle was reminiscent of the PGA TOUR during the days when his grandfather was competing. A large portion of the field had to qualify each week back in John Cook’s day. There are only four spots available in the Monday qualifier now, but Austin Cook first gained the golf world’s notice by qualifying for several TOUR events before ever earning his card. Cook finished in the top 25 in six of 10 PGA TOUR starts before becoming a PGA TOUR member. Those finishes proved something that his earlier resume may not have: he was built for the PGA TOUR. “When conditions are hardest, that’s when I play my best,â€� he said. He was always the type whose emphasis of accuracy over distance led to consistent scores, but not the flashy results that would make him one of those can’t-miss prospects coming out of college. Cook never won at Arkansas and only once was an All-American (honorable mention). His devotion to academics was another reason his collegiate achievements didn’t look those of a player who’d so quickly find success on the PGA TOUR. Cook earned a biology degree from Arkansas with a 3.9 grade-point average. “Biology was his major and golf was his minor,â€� said his college coach at Arkansas, Brad McMakin. “I always wondered what he could’ve done if he could have work on his game like everybody else and not been in labs five hours a day, three days a week.” McMakin said that Cook was the type of player who’d shoot 70 no matter where they played. The coach compares Cook’s swing to David Duval’s because of the way he would swing back with a closed clubface, then rotate aggressively through impact. “His distance control with his irons is off the charts,â€� McMakin said. “When you hit it out of the center of the face 90 percent of the time, that’s why he has good distance control. “He was the kind of guy you could give one golf ball to … and on the 54th hole he’d be able to give it back to you.â€� Cook displayed that repetitive ballstriking at The RSM Classic, missing just eight fairways and 12 greens all week. Cook finished his degree in December 2013 and shortly turned pro with medical school as a back-up plan. His father, Bill, is an anesthesiologist. Austin set out for the Adams Tour that January with money that Bill had saved for the past few years to help his son get his pro career off the ground. It didn’t take long for Austin to get his first taste of the PGA TOUR. That June, he qualified for the FedEx St. Jude Classic, the same event where his grandfather had played with Nicklaus, and finished T13. The $54,085 he earned there allowed him to pay his parents back and fund his career. Cook made it to final stage in the 2014 Q-School to earn conditional status on the Web.com Tour. He’d make more starts on the PGA TOUR in 2015, though, thanks to his propensity to get through those open qualifiers. It started in Houston, where Cook played alongside Phil Mickelson in the final group of the third round. Cook, whose brother Kyle was carrying Austin’s stand bag, beat the World Golf Hall of Famer by five shots, 70-75. Cook finished 11th. He finished in the top 25 in five of seven PGA TOUR starts that season, including two top-10s. He Monday qualified two more times, earned two more starts with his top-10s and only needed to rely on two sponsor exemptions. “Once I get out here, I’m going to have a bright future ahead of me,â€� Cook said after his play in Houston. He didn’t know how right he’d be.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. — Lee Hodges and Paul Barjon took advantage of a late tee time Saturday to miss the worst of a windy day and share the third-round lead in The American Express. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Inside the Field: Farmers Insurance Open “It was tough early and it kind of died on our back nine a little bit,” Hodges said. “It was off and on, but it was a good wind. The easy holes were playing a little easier, but the hard holes were hard. So you just had to make a couple pars and then get to those downwind holes.” Playing together in the final group off the 10th tee on PGA West’s Stadium Course, the PGA TOUR rookies and close friends each birdied the par-5 fifth, par-4 seventh and par-5 eighth and closed with a par. “We’re just best buddies and we have a great time out there,” Hodges said. “We keep it really light and it’s easy to compete when your friends are playing well.” Hodges, a 26-year-old former Alabama golfer, shot an 8-under 64. Barjon, the 29-year-old Frenchman who played at Texas Christian, had a 65. “We just kind of feed off each other, so it’s been fun,” Barjon said. Hodges opened Thursday with a 62 at La Quinta Country Club for a share of the first-round lead with defending FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay, then shot a 72 on Friday on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course. Hodges and Barjon, both making their 14th PGA TOUR start, were at 18-under 198. Tom Hoge was a stroke back after a 68 at La Quinta, playing in the second group off the first tee in the strongest wind of the day. “Generally, I would say it’s better to be here,” Hoge said about tree-lined La Quinta. “It’s a little more protected from the trees and a little bit shorter golf course, so you could play a little more conservatively off the tee, get the ball in play and go from there.” Hoge opened with his lone bogey of the week. He holed out from a greenside bunker on the par-4 fourth for the first of three straight birdies, added a birdie on the par-5 11th and parred the last seven. Seamus Power, also at La Quinta, was 16 under after a 66. The Irishman played a five-hole stretch on the front nine in 6 under, capping the run with an eagle on the par-5 sixth. “It was an interesting round,” said Power, who won his first TOUR title at the Barbasol Championship last year in Kentucky. “It was very fun on the front there. It was one of those rounds just kind of made everything I looked at for an hour and a half.” Hudson Swafford, the 2017 champion, was at 15 under with Harry Higgs and Lanto Griffin. Swafford birdied four of his last five holes on the Stadium Course, the site of the final round. “I was really patient,” Swafford said. “I gave myself a lot of looks even though it played really tough early. I mean the wind, I’m not going to say it’s laid down, but it was blowing early pretty good.” Griffin had a 69 at La Quinta. He’s making his first start of the year after injuring his back carrying his dog and withdrawing from the Sony Open last week in Hawaii. “It’s feeling a lot better than I thought it would and I’m playing a lot better than I thought I would,” Griffin said. “So, it’s been a really fun week.” Higgs shot a 67 on the Stadium layout in the first group off the first tee. Cantlay, a stroke ahead entering the day, had an even-par 72 on Stadium Course to drop four strokes back. Trying to win for the third time in four starts, the former UCLA player had four birdies and four bogeys. Last year in the desert, he closed with a Stadium-record 61 to finish a shot behind winner Si Woo Kim. Top-ranked Jon Rahm shot a 67 on the Stadium Course to get to 13 under. The 2018 winner finished with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th. Defending champion Kim was 11 under after a 69 on the Stadium Course. Tournament host Phil Mickelson tied for 150th in the 156-man field, shooting 78-73-72 and failing to advance to the final round.

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