Airport worker in contention at Perth International

One of the more remarkable stories from the first two days of the Perth international has come from South Australian golfer, Peter Cooke.

Peter Cooke works full time at the Adelaide Airport for a cargo company. He aspires to become a professional golfer and in only his third tournament of the year, Cooke is within striking distance of the leader going into the weekend at the US$2million Perth international at Lake Karrinyup.
Cooke has arrived in Perth (probably straight from work) merely hoping to keep his PGA Tour of Australasia card but finds himself sharing the leaderboard with names such as Bo an Pelt and Jason Dufner who have earned close to $8million between them this year on the US PGA Tour.
“About four weeks ago, I thought I’d better start practicing and getting ready for these things.  Just sometimes you just have a good run.  I think when you don’t think about it so much and because I’ve been working, you don’t try so hard.” Cooke said.

“I’ve been working full time at the airport in Adelaide this year, so I think this is my third tournament for the year, so actually pretty much just work to save my money.” Cooke said after his round.

“So financially not great just because I’ve got to work.  You know, a good season over the next month and a half can change all that.”

Cooke is six shots adrift of the leader Emiliano Grillo thanks to a 6-under par, 66 which included a slam dunk eagle on the par-5 third hole at Lake Karrinyup.
“I had 100 meters in.  Hit a full sand iron and the ball didn’t touch any ground.  It just went straight in the hole, so slam dunk, yeah.” Cooke said.
“Took a pretty decent chunk of the lip out. Had to do some repair work. Might become a green keeper. Did a pretty good job.”
The affable and clearly relaxed Cooke is paired with Spaniard Alejandro Canizares tomorrow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *