Stony Mountain’s Cockerill makes cut at Canadian Open

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This article was published 10/06/2022 (1234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — At first, Aaron Cockerill was mostly just happy to be here. Oh sure, he wanted to play well. But there were no expectations attached to a week he referred to as a “free spin.”

Now? Now the Stony Mountain product figures he may as well go all-in after a two-under 68 on Friday has him playing on the weekend in his PGA Tour debut. Cockerill, 30, followed up an impressive opening round 70 at the Canadian Open with an even better performance that has him poised to make some noise on the biggest stage of his young career.

It’s quite a story Cockerill is writing. He’ll go into “moving day” on Saturday tied for 21st, only five strokes behind leader Wyndham Clark of the United States.

“Why not?” Cockerill told the Free Press about the possibility of doing something truly special here at St. George’s Golf & Country Club, where he’s competing this week on a sponsor’s exemption due to his strong play on the DP World Tour in Europe.

“I’m not a PGA Tour member. This is the only event I’m going to play unless I play really well, so may as well make the most of it.”

He certainly did that in his second round. The rough at St. Georges is not to be messed around with, and Cockerill wasted a handful of strokes Thursday chipping back on to fairways after wayward tee shots. Not so on Friday, with just one blemish (the fourth hole) on his scorecard, but birdies at 11, 13 and 17 ensured he’ll be cashing a cheque from the best tour in the world come Sunday evening.

“It was just a solid round. I played really good,” said Cockerill, who was never in any real trouble as he hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation. “It’s not easy out there, there’s not a lot of birdie opportunities. But I drove it a lot better today so it was a little less stressful.”

There were 21 Canadians in the field of 156 this week, and none are in a better position than Cockerill. Overall, six Canadians made the cut that was set at one-over, including Nick Taylor (also two-under), Adam Hadwin (one-under), Corey Conners and Adam Svensson (even) and Mackenzie Hughes (plus-one). Those five are all PGA Tour regulars.

Cockerill credited an early-morning session on the range with his coach, Winnipegger Derek Ingram, for helping to get him straightened out prior to his 8:50 a.m. tee time. Ingram, for his part, gave all the credit to the guy swinging the clubs.

“For a guy in his first PGA Tour event to make the cut, be quite comfortable, be in the top (25) through two rounds. The progression in his game is so much better than it used to be, plus the confidence,” Ingram said outside the clubhouse.

“I think it’s impressive. You’d never think a guy from Stony Mountain, Manitoba, would be making the cut in a PGA Tour event and playing around the world and being as good as he is. I think there’s more coming from him as well.”

Cockerill is ranked 42nd on the DP World Tour for the 2022 season, thanks largely to a second- and third-place finish earlier this year that helped him climb to 312th in the World Golf Rankings. That’s the highest any Manitoban has been since Glen Hnatiuk was a PGA Tour regular nearly 25 years ago.

“I think, deep down, I knew that (I could compete at this level). I’d just never had the opportunity to put myself up against these guys,” Cockerill said of testing himself against the world’s best. It should be noted the Open boasts a strong field, including four of the top nine players in the world. “This is my first chance, and so far I’m doing it. If I play well, there’s no reason I can’t play with these guys.”

Cockerill played last week in Germany, making the cut in the Porsche European Open on one of the most difficult courses on tour. He’d hoped there might be a method to the madness.

“One hundred per cent it helped. Fairways are important on both places. Last week was so hard that this seems a little bit easier,” he said. “It’s still pretty tough. You can see there’s the best players in the world out here and the scores still aren’t very low.”

Every great shot, every terrific putt is being robustly cheered by a growing gallery that includes his parents, Kathy and Doug, his wife, Chelsea, and more than a dozen friends who’ve flown out from Manitoba to watch him take a big career step. Several of his buddies wore T-shirts on Friday bearing hilarious photos of his face.

“It’s so cool. We have really good friends,” said Cockerill. “The fact that they came out here, it’s awesome. It’s really good of them to do that. I even have a few more who said if I made the cut they’d squeeze out for the weekend.”

Cockerill also found time to have a little fun near the end of his round, breaking out a Winnipeg Jets jersey bearing the name and number of Kyle Connor, as he walked towards the green on the 16th hole, which has a hockey theme this week.

“Great player,” Cockerill said of Connor.

Funny, they’re starting to say the same thing about Cockerill around here.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg