After 11-week stretch, PGA Tour pro drives 8 hours to play for $20k first-place prize
Eric Cole isn’t in the field for this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. It will mark the first time in 12 weeks that the 35-year-old rookie hasn’t teed it up on the PGA Tour.
So, how is Cole spending his off week? He’s playing a golf tournament.
Yes, after tying for 24th on Sunday at the Travelers Championship, Cole hopped in a car and drove eight hours to Pittsburgh for this week’s Frank B. Fuhrer Jr. Invitational, a 72-hole tournament at Pittsburgh Field Club.
The Fuhrer has been around for nearly four decades, dating to 1985 when Bob Ford won the inaugural title. The 40-player tournament is the brainchild of Pittsburgh businessman Frank B. Fuhrer Jr., who also was behind the Family House Invitational, a two-day competition for charity that for 14 years featured dozens of PGA Tour pros. Fuhrer died last year at age 96, but his invitational lived on with David Bradshaw winning for a record fourth time last year while claiming the $40,000 first-place prize.
This year the winner will get $20,000 – and it could be Cole, who has made over $2.8 million this season on Tour.
Cole is currently No. 39 in FedExCup points. He was runner-up at the Honda Classic, losing in a playoff back in February, and during this past marathon stretch he posted six top-25 finishes in 10 Tour starts. He began his 11-week stretch by teeing it up on the Korn Ferry Tour in mid-April.
Cole’s last week off for Tour-sanctioned competition prior to this week was Masters week, when just hours removed from a T-39 finish at the Valero Texas Open, he competed in the Palm Beach County Open, a Minor League Golf Tour event, and won.
If Monday’s first round of the Fuhrer is any indication, Cole, who opened in 7-under 63 and leads by five shoots, could be on his way to another off-week title.