| Irving,
Texas. 17th May, 1998 -
Fred Couples stood on the 17th tee at the GTE Byron Nelson Classic and stared
at the green 170 yards away and watched John Cook roll in a 6-foot putt to save
par. Now it was
Couples turn. He
had no doubt about his club when he pulled the 6-iron from the bag. And he had
no doubt that he had hit a good shot, until he watched it bounce off the rocks
and into the water, giving Cook the victory today. "When
it was in the air, I really felt it was going to be a good shot," Couples
said after he closed with a 72 and squandered a four-stroke lead to finish tied
for second with Hal Sutton and Harrison Frazar at 12-under-par 268, three strokes
behind Cook. "When
it came up short it was shocking," Couples said about the errant shot that
led to a triple-bogey 6. The
splash was a reminder of the double-bogey 7 Couples made on No. 13 in the final
round of the Masters -- also hitting into
the water -- as he finished second, one stroke behind Mark O'Meara. "That
was a terrible shot," he said about the ball in the water at Augusta. "This
wasn't. I hit a 6-iron there, too. I guess I'm going to have to buy a new 6-iron."
Cook, who closed
with a final-round 65 to erase a four-stroke deficit and pick up the $450,000
first prize, almost out-thought himself on No. 17, playing a 5-iron safely away
from the water to the center of the green. It left him with a 45-foot putt he
hit "a good six feet" past the hole. But
he made the putt coming back. "I
didn't want to be a hero," Cook said about playing safely for the center
of the green. "I knew where I stood and I just wanted to make two pars."
Cook said he
had no idea when he drove off the final tee that Couples had hit into the water.
"I heard
something," he said about the loud groan that came up for the hole behind
him, "but I didn't know what it was." Tiger
Woods, the defending Byron Nelson champion and winner last week at the BellSouth Classic, made a run at the lead early but finished
at 272, seven strokes back. Couples
started the day two strokes ahead of Frazar, his playing partner, and four strokes
ahead of Cook. He was cruising along comfortably when in a matter of minutes a
three-stroke lead became one. While
Cook, playing in the group in front of Couples, had a gimme birdie on No. 13,
Couples' ball was against the lip of the fairway bunker at No. 12. He
popped it out, pitched to the green and missed a 20-foot try at the par-saving
putt. Cook,
who trailed Couples by four strokes when he turned to the back nine, pulled into
a tie at 15 under par with a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 14, his fourth birdie in
six holes. "When
John started to make birdies I just didn't have enough," Couples said. Couples
got the lead back on No. 15 when he rolled in a 7-foot par putt moments after
Cook made a bogey when he had to lay up short of the green from the left rough.
Cook wisely
played an iron from the right rough on the par-5 16th hole, instead of trying
to hit a wood. He was then able to play a 9-iron from 125 yards to four feet and
made the birdie. Couples
drove into the left rough on No. 16 and tried to hit a wood, pulling the ball
into a bunker left and well short of the green, leaving one of the hardest shots
in golf -- a sand play from 58 yards. He
left the ball 25 feet from the pin and ended up making a par on a definite birdie
hole. Cook had
played poorly the last four times out, twice missing the cut and not finishing
higher than 43rd. But on this week he played well enough to get his 10th victory
on the PGA Tour. "I
drove the ball well all week," he said. "I hit my irons well all week
and I putted well when I had to."
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