If there’s any player in the PGA Championship field who has the genes and the pedigree to be playing professional golf, it’s unheralded Eric Cole.
The 34-year-old, who just made it to the PGA Tour for the first time this season, is the son of former Tour player Bobby Cole and former LPGA Tour player Laura Baugh, so yeah, there was always a good chance golf was going to be his path.
Bobby Cole, a native of South Africa, first burst onto the scene when he won the British Amateur as an 18-year-old in 1966, though he was rather obscure during his professional career and he counted just one PGA Tour victory at the 1977 Buick Open.
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“I always wanted to play golf,” Cole said earlier this year. “I was pretty focused as a young person. I always wanted to do it. There was some doubt whether I was going to have any success there for a little while, but I always wanted to be a professional golfer. It’s nice to be on the PGA Tour and on the biggest stage.”
Eric Cole’s mother was once the face of the LPGA
His mother was anything but obscure. Baugh won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur when she was 16 and skipped college to join the LPGA Tour in 1973, winning rookie of the year. Young, pretty and blonde, the LPGA Tour – largely ignored at the time and desperate to reach fans – made Baugh the face of its organization, featuring her in many of its advertising and marketing campaigns.
However, that created tremendous pressure for her and during an on-and-off 28-year career, not only did she never win a tournament, she became an alcoholic and it was so serious that she literally almost drank herself to death.
“She is an incredible woman,” Cole said. “I’m lucky that she’s my mom. Everyone has some kind of hardship or something that you have to deal with in your life. The way she dealt with it proves her character. I’m just proud of her.”
Baugh and Cole were married, divorced, and remarried and Eric was born during their second period together. He grew up playing on courses in Florida and he eventually became good friends with Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer. Through that alliance, Eric was able to play several rounds of golf with the King at his home course at Bay Hill.
Eric Cole’s long road to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill
He turned pro 14 years ago, and so began a whirlwind odyssey of trying to get to where he is today, competing in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill as a full-fledged member of the PGA Tour.
For most of those 14 years, Cole was grinding on the small-time minor tours, just trying to pay the bills while keeping his dream of the PGA Tour alive. He eventually made it to the Korn Ferry Tour – golf’s equivalent to baseball’s Triple-A – and last year, by finishing seventh on the points list, he was able to secure his PGA Tour card.
After missing the cut in his first four 2022-23 starts, he had a week for the ages – at least his ages – at the Honda Classic when he tied for first after 72 holes but lost in a playoff to Chris Kirk. Still, he banked a life-changing check of $915,600.
He later finished tied for fifth at the Mexico Open and last week tied for 23rd at the Byron Nelson so he was playing well when he arrived in Rochester and that was evident during Thursday’s opening round.
When Cole stopped playing in near darkness Thursday night, he stood at 5-under-par which made him the on-course leader of the tournament, one stroke ahead of DeChambeau.
“It’s nice, I like it a lot,” he said of his seeing his name atop the leaderboard. “Whenever you play, you want to compete to win. That’s the spot I like to see my name at, and hopefully it is there more often.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t on Friday. When he resumed play at 7 a.m., it didn’t go quite as well as he double-bogeyed the brutally tough par-4 sixth – his 15th hole of the round – and finished his first round at 3-under 67. And then his start to the second round began with a bogey at No. 1 and another double bogey at the diabolical sixth, and he ultimately shot 74 for a two-day total of 1-over 141, comfortably inside the cut line.
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