Posted at 12:20 p.m., Sunday, October 21, 2007
Golf: Cook wins AT&T tourney for first Champions title
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — John Cook won his first Champions Tour title in his second start on the 50-and-over circuit, closing with a 6-under 65 today for a two-stroke victory over Mark O'Meara in the AT&T Championship.Cook, the 11-time PGA Tour winner who turned 50 on Oct. 2, began the round two strokes behind O'Meara and Tom Kite and was three behind after a bogey on the par-4 third hole at Oak Hills Country Club. But Cook birdied the next two holes, and added five more birdies on Nos. 9-11 and 15 and 16 to finish at 15-under 198.
He made a 7-footer to save par on the 18th after his tee shot on the 197-yard, par-3 hole fell into the bunker right of the green.
O'Meara, another Champions Tour rookie, shot a 69. He had four birdies on the back nine, but also made three bogeys.
Kite had the lead after a 10-foot birdie putt at the ninth, but bogeyed the 14th when he left his 130-yard approach in a bunker fronting the green. And he failed to birdie the par-5 15th after his second shot found the greenside bunker.
He shot a 70 to tie for third with 2006 winner Fred Funk (67) and Loren Roberts (67). Kite dropped to 0-for-120 in his home state on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour.
Cook, whose last PGA Tour victory came in the 2001 Reno-Tahoe Open, played 13 times on the PGA Tour this year and made five cuts with a best finish of 26th.
And though he had two sub-70 rounds in his Champions Tour debut last week in the Administaff Small Business Classic in Spring, he finished 36th.
Roberts' finish allowed him to expand his lead in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings. He'll head to the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, Calif., with a 146-point lead over Jay Haas. Roberts finished second to Haas in the championship last year when he three-putted the final green at Sonoma.
