Monday, February 8, 1999
Cook heats up at finish
By Jerry Campany
to win Pearl Open title
Special to the Star-BulletinJeff Cook had a little trouble with the post game "shaka", but not much else.
The Indiana native made his first event in Hawaii a special one when he birdied the final three holes to steal the '99 Hawaii Pearl Open from Kalihi pro Jerry Mullen at the Pearl Country Club in Aiea yesterday.
The wind that held scores down on the first two days died down a little bit -- not that it mattered to Cook.
"I was hoping that it would stay windy," Cook said. "I just wanted to stay out of the rough and have a good day putting. I thought that if I shot a 67 today I might have a chance."
He shot a 68 to win with a 7-under-par 209, beating Mullen, Tomohiro Maruyama and Kevin Hayashi by a single stroke.
Cook began the day four strokes behind Japanese pro Hisashi Nakase, while Mullen started three strokes behind the leader.
Mullen quickly erased the deficit, pulling to a tie with Nakase after the first three holes and taking over the lead on the next.
Mullen stayed at 6 under par until a lapse on the 13th dropped him down to 5 under, but he continued to lead. He gained the stroke back on the 15th and lengthened his lead to two over the fast-approaching Cook.
Cook birdied hole 16 to pull within one, and sank a birdie putt on 17 when he glanced back at Mullen -- who led since the fourth hole -- advancing up the fairway in his first real trouble of the day.
"I looked back and saw him in the right (side) rough," Cook said.
"I thought that he could climb out of it but it would be tough. I thought I might have a chance to force a playoff."
Mullen climbed out of the trouble to par the hole after just missing a 15-foot putt, but began 18 tied with Cook. Mullen teed off just as Cook sank a 10-foot putt for his fourth birdie in the final five holes.
"I thought I had to make at least a birdie to force a playoff," Cook said.
It turned out that a birdie would be good enough for the win.
Mullen's second shot traveled from the middle of the fairway and bit when it bounced 15 feet from the hole. As he approached his ball, Mullen got his first sight of the leaderboard since the 16th hole -- when Cook was two back.
Mullin sighed, knowing that he would have to hit the 10-foot putt to force a playoff. After several glances at Cook's mark on the leaderboard while Nakase and Tsuneyuki Naka played through, Mullen lined up his do-or-die shot. Mullen took two practice swings before missing the shot long to take second place. He tapped in his miss, acknowleged the crowd and left the stage to Cook -- who came from out of nowhere to take the $12,000 prize and become the first American to win since '95.
Cook accepted the trophy and the check and took a few minutes to master the "shaka" that a photographer asked him to execute, but had to say a quick goodbye to the islands. Cook is a PGA representative for Mizuno and will work the Buick Open in San Diego, Calif., tomorrow.
Del-Marc Fujita took the amateur title by two strokes over Regan Lee and Damien Jamilla with a 217.
At Pearl Country Club, par 72 Hawaii Pearl Open
Final round results
Jeff Cook, 71-70-68--209
Kevin Hayashi, 73-70-67--210
Tomohiro Maruyama, 70-72-68--210
Jerry Mullen, 66-74-70--210
Hisashi Nakase, 70-67-74--211
Greg Meyer, 73-71-68--212
Todd Fischer, 70-71-73--214
Masaru Amano, 72-70-74--216
Tsuneyuki Naka, 67-72-77--216
Miller L. Barber, 71-76-70--217
a-Del-Marc Fujita, 67-79-71--217
Steve Schneiter, 75-70-73--218
Hirokazu Hagiwara, 77-70-72--219
Koichi Nogami, 74-72-73--219
a-Regan Lee, 74-72-73--219
Kazuya Okuda, 73-72-74--219
Jeff Thomsen, 72-73-74--219
Masato Endo, 71-72-76--219
a-Damien Jamila, 73-70-76--219
Yui Ueda, 75-75-70--220
Shinichi Akiba, 76-73-71--220
Hikaru Kato, 74-74-72--220
Hidemichi Tanaka, 75-72-73--220
Takeshi Sakiyama, 74-72-74--220
Nobuhiro Sawada, 73-72-75--220
Will Yanagisawa, 77-73-71--221
Brian Sasada, 75-73-73--221
Yoshikatsu Saito, 75-73-73--221
Jay Shannon, 73-75-73--221
Brad Schmierer, 76-76-70--222
Beau Yokomoto, 74-75-73--222
Don Berry, 79-69-74--222
Shoji Akiyama, 71-77-74--222
Jeffrey Fought, 74-76-73--223
Johnny Rieger, 75-74-74--223
Keith Kollmeyer, 73-76-74--223
Fumio Tanaka, 77-71-75--223
Kazuo Seike, 76-71-76--223
Nobuyuki Takayasu, 75-77-72--224
Hatsuo Nakane, 75-77-72--224
Philip Chun, 73-77-74--224
Frank Sanchez, 76-74-74--224
Eiji Yokota, 77-72-75--224
Ron Castillo Jr., 74-75-75--224
Casey Nakama, 75-74-75--224
Lance Suzuki, 74-73-77--224
John Hearn, 73-71-80--224
a--Denotes amateur
