Cockerill back on course for European Tour season

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This article was published 28/07/2020 (2212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Unfortunately for Aaron Cockerill, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

The 28-year-old professional golfer from Teulon is in his first season on the European Tour and he made some noise last week at the British Masters at the Lee Westwood Colt Course in Newcastle, England.

In the opening round, Cockerill shot a 66 which put him two strokes behind the leader. Cockerill would cool off a bit from there as he ended the event on Saturday in a tie for 53rd after shooting 66-71-73-73 for a four-round total of 1-under 283.

“The funny thing is I bogeyed the first two holes,” said Cockerill on his impressive opening round, in a phone interview from just outside Birmingham, England.

“So, I was really good after that. It was just little things like on the second hole where I had a six-footer and I was like ‘OK, this is actually important.’ At home, you can just brush those in. It’s a little easier when you don’t have a scorecard in your pocket and you’re kind of grinding. But yeah, it was a good start. I had a couple chip-ins in the first round which is always nice. I just had been playing so well at home that I was kind of expecting to keep it going so wasn’t all that surprising. I guess I faded a bit over the last three days but the game feels good.”

Cockerill said the opening round is a nice confidence booster, but overall, he isn’t thrilled where he ended the tournament despite it being his best tournament finish in 2020.

“It was OK. I’d give myself a C. I had some good stuff in there and I had some bad stuff in there,” Cockerill said.

“I didn’t really make too many putts the last two days and had a couple bad iron shots. I kind of have higher expectations for myself, but I think to get my feet wet, get back at it, get four rounds in there and to get some of the rust off was good.”

Cockerill was at his family home in Stony Mountain and working on his craft at Elmhurst and St. Charles before he flew overseas for the European Tour last week. The British Masters was his first competitive event since March 7 when he cracked the top 100 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

“I obviously missed it, but it was nice to have some time off at home, see some family and do things that I would normally miss out on being on the road all the time,” said Cockerill.

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But yeah, I was playing a lot of really good golf at home, shooting some low scores, so I was hoping we were going to go at it soon because I was playing nicely. There was a bit of competitive rust, but it’s good to be playing again.”

There’s no time for home cooking now as Cockerill has seven tournaments in a row on the calendar. The first six are taking place across the United Kingdom with the last one going down in Spain before Cockerill will return to Manitoba for a break. The University of Idaho grad earned his European Tour playing card last season by finishing in the top 25 in the final event of the Challenge Tour.

“I guess just play as best as I can and hit the next shot the best that I can, as stupid as that sounds,” said Cockerill on his goal for the season. “That’s usually when I have my best results like last year doing that when I’m not thinking ahead. Just free-flowing it out there, try to make a bunch of birdies and see what happens.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

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