32 Under Par Not Enough, and Calcavecchia Is Cooked

By THOMAS BONK

Jan. 20, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

INDIAN WELLS — John Cook looks so ordinary, if you put him in a lineup with a bunch of grocery store clerks, he wouldn’t be any different, except he couldn’t tell you what aisle the catsup is on.

So how can someone who looks like that keep doing these crazy things on the golf course? It’s almost as if he switched his clubs’ graphite shafts and stuffed them with sticks of dynamite.

For instance, Cook won the 1992 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in a five-way, four-hole playoff with three birdies and an eagle.

He won at Memphis last year with a record-breaking three-round start of 24-under-par 189 and the lowest winning total of the year.

And on Sunday in the latest Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Cook fried Indian Wells with a final-round 63 and wound up beating Mark Calcavecchia by one shot with a 90-hole score of 33-under-par 327.

Yes, 33 shots under par. Imagine how Calcavecchia felt.

“If I can’t win shooting 32 under, what do I have to do?” he said.

Simply guessing here, but a pretty good idea might be to stop playing tournaments Cook has entered.

All Cook did to win $270,000 and his ninth tournament in an 18-year career was to play his last two rounds in 62-63 and tie the PGA Tour record score of 125 for consecutive rounds.

“I ran into a buzz saw,” said Calcavecchia, who can pull himself together with $162,000 second-place money.

Cook barbecued Indian Wells on Saturday and Sunday. In his last two rounds, it clearly was open season on birdies for Cook. He had 20 of them.

“I don’t know what to say,” Cook said later. “I hope I didn’t blow my quota for the rest of the year.”

No one finished near the leaders. Jesper Parnevik closed with a 62, but finished third at 28-under-par 332. Mark O’Meara’s final-round 64 and 333 for 90 holes was only good enough for fourth.

Cook began the day three shots behind Calcavecchia and was four shots off the pace by the time they reached the fifth tee.

But Calcavecchia, who had been encouraged by his putting all week, went into a slump. He missed short birdie putts on Nos. 5, 6 and 8 that were only slightly longer than his close-cropped hair.

He said he knew something was wrong as soon as he picked up his putter.

“It felt like a spatula or a hockey stick or something,” Calcavecchia said.

Cook caught up, then went ahead with a birdie at the 12th hole when he nailed a sand wedge from 78 yards and stopped the ball a foot from the pin.

Calcavecchia got even with a birdie at the 13th, and it stayed that way until the 398-yard, par-four 17th.

As usual, Calcavecchia hit a driver off the tee, but he didn’t get the ball up high enough and it hit a tree only 65 yards down the left of the fairway.

After that, he pulled a three-iron left and missed the fairway. He hit a wedge to the back fringe and two-putted for a bogey.

“You know it could have gone through the tree and been fine,” Calcavecchia said. “I’ve seen a lot of balls go through that tree. But mine didn’t.”

Cook missed a six-footer for birdie, but his par gave him a one-shot lead going into No. 18.

That’s all Cook needed, although it did get a little tense when his drive stopped near a fairway bunker and he had to lay up instead of trying for the green. Calcavecchia reached the green in two shots, but missed a 40-foot eagle putt that rolled three feet past the hole.

Cook hit a sand wedge to within six feet, stood over his putt and then sent it scurrying into the bottom of the hole for a birdie. Calcavecchia also birdied the hole, but he fell one shot short.

So Cook’s resurgence continued. His two victories last year ended a four-year winless drought. Now he has three wins in seven months.

Cook also has many fans. Because he lives in Rancho Mirage, Cook is a popular performer in the desert, so Cook and his wife Jan rented a 50-passenger bus Sunday to bring their friends to the tournament.

The way things turned out, it was a bandwagon.

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Hope Scores

John Cook: -33

66-69-67-62-63--327

Mark Calcavecchia: -32

64-67-66-64-67--328

Jesper Parnevik: -28

66-70-68-66-62--332

Mark O’Meara: -27

68-66-68-66-65--333

Tommy Tolles: -24