2017 Stroke Play Championship

 
  Pawtucket CC
  July 25-26


img

Final Recap

By Paul Kenyon


 PAWTUCKET _ Add the name of Tyler Cooke to the list of individual champions in Rhode Island Golf Association majors.
         The 25-year-old UConn grad, who until this past year has spent as much time playing hockey as golf, earned his first individual crown Wednesday at Pawtucket Country Club and did it in style. He birdied the last hole to shoot a final round 67 and edge Junior Champion Patrick Welch by one stroke. Cooke finished with a sparkling 7-under-par 200 total over 54 holes on the par-69 course.
          The two were tied going to the final hole with Cooke playing one group ahead of Welch. Cooke, Welch and Brad Valois, who has won this event twice, had gone at each other all afternoon after pulling away from the field in the morning. Cooke had a bogey-free 65 for a 133 total, Welch had a 66 to match him at 5-under and Valois, the first-round leader, a 69 to stand at 135.
         Cooke never lost at least a share of the lead throughout the final round, but could not pull away as Welch and Valois played well, too. By the time Cooke got to 18, he and Welch were tied and Valois two behind.
         Cooke, who is one of the longest hitters in the state, bombed his drive on the downhill 379-yard hole down the left side of the fairway, about 60 yards from the green. He pitched to about 12 feet. With a good sized crowd watching in the beautiful amphitheater that is Pawtucket’s closing hole, Cooke rolled the putt in dead center. He let out a deep sigh and accepted hugs from his playing partners.
         But he could not celebrate. Welch was behind him and Cooke had a vivid memory about not celebrating too early. In the State Amateur two weeks ago, he led qualifying when he completed play. It was late in the day, no one was within two strokes of him, so he was congratulated for being the medalist. But Joe Tucker birdied each of his last four holes and took the medal away from him.
         It did not happen a second time. Welch pushed his drive into the trees on the right side. He was blocked.
        ``I had to hit a cut. I just didn’t cut it enough,’’ Welch said.
       He got it on the green, but about 35 feet from the hole. His putt slid inches left of the hole, giving Cooke the title.
        ``It feels amazing,’’ Cooke said as he accepted congratulations all around, including from his father, Scott, who served as an RIGA official for years, as did Scott’s father, Bill.
       ``This feels so good,’’ a clearly emotional Cooke said.
            Cooke has won the RIGA Four-Ball twice partnering with his brother-in-law, Bobby Leopold. He has played in his brother-in-law’s shadow for the last several years, even as he played both hockey and golf at UCONN.
          ``I had a good and a bad week last week. I played well at the US Am qualifier. But I didn’t finish well. I got burned out,’’ he related. ``But I still felt my game was pretty good. I played well over the weekend in the Wannamoisett Club Championship and I felt that if I did the things I’ve been working on with my dad I could play well.’’  Among other things, he worked on his ball striking.
          ``I don’t think I made a bogey on a par-3 there all week here, which is big for me,’’ he said. On the other hand, he birdied the eighth hole, the course’s only par-5, in every round.
          Coupled with Billy Forcier’s win in the Amateur, the RIGA now appears to have a major fight at the top for player of the year honors, with more players involved (Jamie Lukowicz who finished fourth in the Stroke Play and Kevin Silva also are in the hunt along with Valois) than at any point in recent years.
    The Senior Division also had a terrific finish, with Dave McNally making bird on the first playoff hole to edge George Pirie by one after they finished at 9-over 216. Pirie had played from the blue tees, McNally from the whites where most of the seniors played. They both played from the white in the playoff.
         Also in the Senior Division, Paul Quigley shot a second-round 71. It marked the fifth year in a row the 72-year-old has shot his age in this event, a tournament he won nine times between 1988 and 2000.
        Several of Rhode Island’s best players are competing in the Ouimet Memorial in Massachusetts, a three-day event that began Wednesday at Brae Burn. Leopold, coming off his New England Amateur victory, tied for fourth with a 2-under 70. Eric Marchetti also had 70, Davis Chatfield and Ryan Pelletier both had 73 and Jake Bauer had 76.
         Marchetti’s former URI teammate, Billy Walthouse, is tied for the lead at 67 with Charlie May. Walthouse earlier this week qualified for the US Amateur.

Round 1 Recap
By Paul Kenyon
PAWTUCKET _ Brad Valois did something different Tuesday in the first round of the RIGA’s 34th Stroke Play Championship. And he liked it.
           
The four-time State Amateur champion took the lead in the event at Pawtucket Country Club with a 3-under-par 66. It was the way he did it that was so unusual.

           ``It’s amazing how easy the game can be when you’re hitting from the fairway all day,’’ Valois said. ``I haven’t had a round like that in years.’’
            Valois was not the only one playing well on a cold, dreary day. Junior Champion Patrick Welch was strong with a 67, the same score as a revitalized John Drohen posted. Tyler Cooke and Gary Palmer also broke par with 68. Palmer leads the Senior Division, although he has plenty of company as nearly 20 seniors made the cut. It took a score of 76 to earn the right to play in the 36-hole finale on Wednesday.
           Valois has been the best player in the event in the last several years, finishing first two years in a row and then second to Kevin Silva last year. But he has not had many rounds in that time like the one he had on Tuesday.
          ``I didn’t try to do anything crazy,’’ he said. ``I only tried to hit two hooks all day. I only made four birdies. Normally I have to make seven or eight to shoot 66.’’ The lefty was proud of himself for going the last 16 holes without a bogey, something he rarely does, especially on a course as tight as Pawtucket.
           His only bogey came on the second hole. ``Then I birdied the third and chipped in on the fourth,’’ he pointed out.
         Welch, who won the Junior Championship on this course last summer, also spoke when he finished about how happy he was off the tee. The three-time Junior champ came in with a different game plan than he used last year. He hit his driver more than he usually would.
           The plan came at the suggestion of his father, Marty, who caddied for him. Welch leaves later this week for the PGA Junior Championship in St. Louis, an event in which he finished second last year. That course will play about 7,200 yards. Welch, who has one more year at Classical but has committed to go to Oklahoma in 2018, has a busy schedule after that, too. His summer will be capped by playing in a national AJGA event at TPC Sawgrass. The goal is to make the United State Junior Presidents Cup team.
              ``We thought he had better get used to hitting his driver,’’ his father said. He did, and he hit it well. He made three birds and only one bogey.
             Drohen has become one of the best stories of the summer. He is a member of a terrific Massachusetts golf family. When he moved to Rhode Island he quickly became one of the best players in the state. However, he faded away from the scene for a decade as he and his wife raised a family. Now, his three sons, John, Jack and Justin, have gotten into golf so Drohen has begun playing again, and playing well. He played strongly in the New England Amateur last week and he continued with his 67 on Tuesday with sons Jack and Justin helping him out.  His iron play was excellent as he gave himself numerous birdie opportunities inside 15 feet. He was disappointed he only made three of them.
         The qualifiers play 36 holes on Wednesday.
          Several of the state’s top players, led by new state champion Billy Forcier and 2016 winner Kevin Silva, are not entered for different reasons. Bobby Leopold, the new New England champ, Davis Chatfield, last year’s State Amateur winner, Ryan Pelletier and Eric Marchetti, all are entered in the 50th Ouimet Championship, which begins today in Massachusetts.