Honda Classic: Delray Beach rookie Eric Cole emerges as contender with 'passionate' support
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Eric Cole certainly has the genetics to be a good golfer, and he’s shown just how good through the first two rounds of the Honda Classic.
Cole followed his opening 3-under 67 with a 4-under 66 Friday morning on a relatively sedate Champion Course at PGA National. That put him in a tie for fifth place at 7-under, three shots behind leader Justin Suh.
“Yesterday was a good day, and today I hit it well on a course that demands a lot tee to green,” Cole said. “It was a good second round and good first two days to start the tournament.”
Cole, 34, of Delray Beach, is the son of former PGA Tour pro Bobby Cole and former LPGA Tour pro Laura Baugh. He earned his first PGA Tour card through last year’s Korn Ferry Tour, where he tied for third in the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship. That moved him up to seventh on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals eligibility points list.
After missing the cut in his first four tournaments this season, Cole has been on a roll, making the cut in seven of his last eight events. His best finish so far is a tie for 15th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s won a total of $335,880.
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He said he’s played the Champion Course maybe 15 times, mostly when he played for Nova Southeastern University in Davie and in some mini-tour events. Although he lives in Delray, he practices at Tequesta Country Club in Jupiter. But he’s looked right at home on one of the PGA Tour’s most demanding courses.
“It’s definitely a good opportunity, being a course that I’ve played before. As a rookie, you haven’t necessarily seen a lot of the courses, and it being a place where I can sleep in my own bed and stuff is really nice,” Cole said, adding that it helped that he had hometown support, including his mother, his fiancee and her parents.
“I have them out here, which is great, and a bunch of people from the area that I’m friends with that are coming out. It’s nice to have people rooting for you.”
“He may not have the biggest gallery, but he’s got a passionate gallery,” said Baugh, who followed her son for all 18 holes. “I love it. You can imagine following someone you love, it doesn’t get any better, does it?”
Cole gave them something to cheer about early when he two-putted for birdie on the par-5 third hole (he chipped in for eagle on that hole Thursday) and sank an 8-footer for birdie on the next hole to get to 5-under.
He made a nice par save on the 11th when his drive went left but hit something to stay out of the water. His shot from the rough went over the green, but he chipped to within 6 feet and made the putt.
Cole followed a bogey at the 12th with a 5½-foot birdie putt at No. 13, sank a 21-footer for birdie at the 15th and got up and down from a greenside bunker, rolling in an 11-foot putt for birdie, on the par-5 final hole.
“That was a good way to finish,” Cole said. “I didn’t hit a great bunker shot but I hit a really good putt, so that was nice.”
Cole’s father, a native of South Africa, won the British Amateur as an 18-year-old in 1966 and the 1977 Buick Open. His mother won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur when she was 16 and was the 1973 LPGA Rookie of the Year. Baugh competed for 25 years before becoming a golf teacher.
Cole said she probably had a slightly bigger influence on his golf game than his father.
“I spent a little more time playing with her growing up,” Cole said. “But they’ve both helped a lot. Like at a younger age, as a junior, I played more with my mom and we kind of hit it similar distances. It’s kind of like I learned a little bit more from her because of that.”
With parents like that, there was no doubt Cole was going to be a golfer.
“I always wanted to play golf. I was pretty focused as a young person. I always wanted to do it,” he said. “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.”
Given his performance heading into the weekend, Cole could be ready to have a starring role.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Honda Classic: Delray Beach rookie Eric Cole emerges as local contender
