{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | When the PGA Championship first came to the Ocean Course in 2012, none of the 20 PGA club professionals came close to making the cut. Two of them even shot in the 90s on the hardest day in the tournament’s history.
Last week, two from the team of 20 club pros – Ben Cook and Brad Marek – made the weekend in the PGA of America’s flagship event when the world Nos. 1, 2 and 4 could not.
“I feel like any time a couple of us can make the cut and represent the PGA well, I think that bodes well for the organization as a whole and just kind of shows the type of players that are at the top level of the PGA of America,” Marek said.
After shooting consecutive 73s to comfortably make the cut at 2-over par, Marek struggled on the weekend to finish 78th at 12 over. The whole experience – which included arriving a full week before Thursday’s opening round to prepare – left him so emotional he needed a minute to compose himself at the podium.
“Pretty exhausted … just really proud,” he said Sunday of his “dream come true” making the cut in his first PGA Tour event. “If I can make the cut in this ... I think it should help people understand that if you put your work in and put the time in that anything is attainable.”
Marek teaches as an independent contractor at Corica Park in Alameda, California. “My primary business is a junior golf academy for kids that are trying to play golf in college, so I work with a small number of kids on a very frequent basis,” he said. “Everybody in that has a goal of trying to move up to the next level in terms of their golf.”
Marek played college golf at Indiana and chased around professionally on various mini-tours for nine years, winning 15 times in places like the Dakotas, Nebraska and Idaho but never getting his foot in the door on the PGA Tour.
“It was always with the goal of trying to get out here,” he said. “Obviously, didn't attain that via the regular route, but as soon as I was done playing, I knew I wanted to be a part of the PGA for the opportunities like this on the playing side.”
He finished T8 in his first appearance in the PGA Professional Championship this year to qualify for one of the 20 club pro spots at Kiawah.
Cook, the director of instruction at Yankee Springs Golf Course in Wayland, Michigan, finally made his first PGA Championship cut after missing it the previous two years at Bethpage Black and Harding Park. After shooting even par in the opening round, Cook had to hang on down the stretch in Friday’s winds when he went double bogey-bogey-bogey-bogey on Nos. 13-16 before making clutch pars on the difficult 17th and 18th holes to shoot 77 and secure his place on the weekend on the number at 5 over.
He came back Saturday to play with world No. 10 Webb Simpson and took advantage of the calmer conditions, firing a 3-under 69 with five birdies (including one on 17) and ultimately finished T44, another step on his quest to join the tour.
“I was impressed. He seems like he's been on tour 10 years,” Simpson said of Cook. “You know, a top-50 player in the world. He played great, really all day. So I know he's still trying to play he said, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him out here.”
Top: Brad Marek
Scott Michaux