Eric Cole, a 56-Time Winner in Golf's Hinterlands, Now Looks Like He Belongs in the Show

The Florida native had a golf pedigree but never a PGA Tour card until this season. Now he's riding momentum into Bay Hill, which he knows well.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Name this professional golfer:

He won back-to-back tournament titles in early January.

He scored another victory in December. (That’s three in less than a month.)

On occasion, he has caddied for Sam Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson.

His career "W" total is 56.

And, oh yeah, he’s a rookie on the PGA Tour this season.

Pardon my attempted trickery. Here’s a helpful hint: He darn near won last week’s Honda Classic.

Eric Cole, 34, had toiled in golf's minor leagues for years before finally getting a PGA Tour card this season. A runner-up last week at the Honda is a big step toward keeping it.  :: Lynne Sladky/AP

What, still nothing? His parents are pro golfers Bobby Cole and Laura Baugh. Bobby was a South African who notched 13 worldwide wins, including the PGA Tour’s 1977 Buick Open, plus a British Amateur. Baugh won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur as a 16-year-old and was a prominent LPGA player.

Meet Eric Cole, 34, a man who has earned the title of journeyman, a badge of honor indicating professional toughness, en route to finally making it to the Big Show (PGA Tour) this year via his Korn Ferry Tour prowess last season.

He came out on the short end of a duel with Chris Kirk in last week’s Honda Classic. Cole lost the solo lead Sunday when he made bogey from the 15th hole’s greenside bunker; fell one shot behind when Kirk birdied the next; but scrapped his way into a playoff with a par at the 18th after Kirk hit into the water and made bogey.

On the duo’s return to 18 for the playoff, Cole found the back bunker in two, splashed a pretty good shot out to 10 feet and cruelly lipped out a must-make birdie putt because Kirk had stuffed a wedge shot to inside a foot.

Second place was worth $915,600 for Cole. Pretty good dough. It’s slightly better than the $1,300 he snagged for his previous win, a Minor League Golf Tour (MLGT) event in Jupiter, Fla. Oh, wait! That also came with an extra $228 from the event’s bonus pool. From Jupiter, Cole was off to Hawaii for the PGA Tour’s Sony Open. It was a unique path.

“Your attitude is a little different because it’s a one-day tournament so you have to play well that day,” Cole said. “But I think it’s good prep because you have a chance to win a lot of tournaments. So even though it’s only one day, you get the feeling on the back nine, ‘if I birdie three of these last five, I’ll win today.’ It might not be quite like the nerves I felt Sunday at Honda but you still get nervous and want to beat the people you’re playing against.”

Those 56 wins, as you have already guessed, were MLGT wins. One wise-guy golf writer—fine, it was me—asked whether he’d be No. 1 if the MLGT had World Rankings. “I don’t know, there are some other pretty good players out there,” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy saying he’s number one.”

What took Cole so long to make it to the big leagues is what takes a majority of players so long. There are more PGA Tour-quality players than there are spots on tour. Making money on the big tour may be easier than getting there. In fact, the whole game in pro golf for the guys who weren’t collegiate superstars is getting there. Qualifying school, Monday qualifiers—those things are hard.

It was a slow start for Cole, who missed his first four PGA Tour cuts last fall. But he suddenly warmed up, finishing 15th at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and second last week.

Cole is not a guy who’s going to beat you with his driver. He hits it pretty hard for being five-foot-nine and 155 pounds. But he ranks 141st in driving distance and 177nd in driving accuracy. Short-ish and not-so-straight-ish is not the standard PGA Tour recipe.

Cole showed why he’s on tour and why he can win, though. His short game is superb, especially his putter. He didn’t miss a putt inside five feet all week at the Honda. He ranks second in total putting, 23rd in strokes-gained putting and 14th in sand saves.

Most guys on the PGA Tour are either bombers, ballstriking machines with their irons or short-game/putting magicians. The best of the best are two out of three.

Like any late-bloomer, Cole had some down periods. He caddied for Saunders for six months to make some money. When his mother remarried, her husband was a member at Bay Hill and so Cole, in his mid-teens, got to play this course dozens (or hundreds?) of times. Is that inside information you should use for betting purposes this week? At your own peril but, of course, there is no wagering at Bushwood, sir.

“Bay Hill was a great place to grow up,” Cole said. “It’s just a special place to me.”

Cole, who lives in Delray Beach, Fla., had a back injury that also sidelined him in his 20s and he considered the possibility that he might have to give up competing in professional golf.

“It crossed my mind that this wasn’t the end of the world,” he said. “I kind of enjoyed it. I think it might have helped my game a little bit to realize golf isn’t the most important thing and if I don’t end up being some great golfer, life goes on. I definitely considered it (quitting) a few times but I’m glad I stuck it out.”

There is enough to his backstory for a three-part Netflix series. His Florida high school golf team won the state prep title in his sophomore season and finished runner-up in his other three years. He played golf for Nova Southeastern University before leaving to try mini-tour golf.

He suffered a health scare during his freshman year, however, when he began losing weight. He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and Addison’s disease, which is when the body doesn’t make enough of certain types of hormones.

When he tied for third at last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship and earned his tour card, he wasn’t able to share it with his younger brother, Michael John, who passed away suddenly in May at age 28.

It’s a long road to the PGA Tour yet Cole is here, exempt on the PGA Tour and after that big payday, probably in great shape to retain his playing privileges next year. And here he is at Bay Hill, where he has a definite home-course advantage on the greens, playing in one of the tour’s new designated events.

“As young-looking as he is, I just assumed he was 24 like every other tour rookie,” Kirk said after winning the Honda Classic playoff duel. “He’s actually 34 and has had quite a journey. I think he’ll stick for quite a while, he’s got a really great game.”

It’s a funny thing about looks. Cole has celebrity looks, and maybe resembles NCIS: Los Angeles star Chris O’Donnell a little bit. He could be a male model, perhaps, if he was six inches taller. Cole is one of those guys who just never seems to have a wrinkle in his clothes.

“He looked more comfortable than I felt,” Kirk said of their playoff.

Cole’s biggest mini-tour win was the Frank Fuhrer Jr. Invitational in Pittsburgh. This tournament is one of the white whales in mini-tour-dom. It carries a whopping first prize of $40,000 and is limited to 40 invited players. Cole won it in 2014, finishing one shot ahead of former Fuhrer champ Mike Van Sickle, my son.

“It was incredible,” Cole said of the outsized payday. “It was something that changed my life at the time.”

His Honda Classic finish was spectacular stuff on a national TV platform—big but apparently not big enough. A wise-guy writer—OK, it was me again—asked if he’d gotten a text from Greg Norman among the dozens of well-wishing messages he received on his phone in the last few days.

“No, but I’ve got a lot of friends on the senior tour,” Cole said.

So, no seven-figure offers from Norman, the LIV Golf commissioner? “Oh, I see where you’re going with this,” Cole said. He laughed and added, “No, I’m very happy to playing on the PGA Tour right now. Very happy.”

Win No. 57 is out there somewhere …