PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Eric Cole shares improvements, goals for ’24 | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Eric Cole joins Golf Today to discuss being named the 2023 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, as well as how he is improving his game and goals for the 2024 season. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #EricCole
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PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Eric Cole shares improvements, goals for ’24 | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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The Rookie of the Year for 2023 gets his 2024 underway this week Eric Cole is joining the show to talk about the expectations now that he’s a seasoned award-winning veteran on the tour and we’ll also hear from will zures he’s making only his second tournament start

In 10 months so we’re going to find out just what he expects as gol today rolls into our Two Golf today and the PJ tour completes its two week stretch in Hawaii the opening drive Wii Country Club in the state capital of Honolulu on the island of aahu hosts this week’s tournament Sony Open in Hawaii coverage begins Thursday 7 Eastern right here on golf Chanel this

Is the second hour of golf today Damon alongside aan it’s the first full field event of 20 24 what’s on your mind I’m looking forward to seeing Gary Woodland back this week widely regarded as one of the nicest guys in the game obviously a major championship winner has taken some

Time off he had a tumor removed from his brain uh a few months ago seems to be doing well he’s back on tour this week and it’s going to be great to see him out there yeah fantastic athlete by the way great person as well uh great

Basketball player I don’t know if you knew has a fantastic jump shot and a good interview kind guy is pretty much good at everything Dam absolutely he’s jock tough of the big men on campus great to have Gary Wen back also great to have PJ to Rookie of the Year Eric

Cole in the field this week he’s going to join us in just a little bit was the only rookie to advance to the 2023 BMW Championship recorded two runnerup finishes on the season including at the cognizant 2023 classic that’s the old Honda lost in the playoff to Chris Kirk

And then 2023 Zozo Championship runner up as well you look at this season in review how about it he up 37 times times it’s kind of like the Dana quigly type of schedule 14 top 25s 42nd in F Cup points made more than $5 million two run

Finishes seven top 10 14 top 25s finish T3 T2 T3 as last three starts of the season and how about this pretty cool from Eric’s mom Laura B ericole my son 2023 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and me 197 73 LPGA rookie of the year so cool

Great to have Eric with us from the Sony I want to start right there the first conversation with your mom when you found out you were named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year what was that like yeah it was pretty incredible um you know I just called her and kind of

Told her the news and uh it was cool to kind of share uh you know that news with her and you know uh it’s something that’s really special I’m not sure whether that’s been done before with a parent and child so uh you know it’s

It’s hard to put it into words but it was uh something that was that was really awesome Eric you seem to be the only name in the mix for the Rookie of the Year until the last few months when ludvig obber went on a tear did you have

A a little bit of a fear that he might actually clip you for the award at the very end uh I kind of figured the voting was going to be close for sure um you know he’s an incredible player and had such a great uh kind of start to his

Professional career uh so I kind of figured the vote was going to be close and I wasn’t sure that I was going to win but it was great to uh to hear the news that I did win Eric the Rookie of the Year trophy it’s named the Arnold

Palmer award you played what 40 50 rounds with the King can you imagine what that conversation would have been like if if if he was still around and you walked into the grill room at Bay Hill with that trophy what what would you want to say what do you think he would

Say yeah I don’t know that’s a good question um you know it would have been really special to share with him uh you know it’s it’s an honor for anyone to win the Arnold Palmer award an award named after him but um for me to win it

With my connection with him just made it extra special and uh you know it’s just uh just an incredible feeling to have my name on an award with his name on it so uh you know it’s like again it’s hard to put into words but it’s something that

Uh is going to stick with me forever and I’m just really honored to have won it you you’ve accumulated a tremendous amount of experience through this legendary mini tour career even before you got to the PGA Tour Eric but just within the last year as as a PGA Tour

Player what did you learn in your rookie year that you think is going to be most advantageous to you going forward uh yeah I’m not sure if I really learned it uh recently but I kind of figured uh and just from being around my parents and stuff and some older players

That a lot of times the game that gets you to the PGA Tour if you just try not to change too much uh you can have success with out here um so that’s been a big goal of mine is to change kind of I mean still try and get better and

Still try and make improvements but to um change as little as possible and uh kind of stick with uh what got you there and who you are as a player well you won the Minor League tour champion ship at Abacoa you competed in it again in December at the club there’s like a

Caesar salad W named after you why do you still compete uh in the minor leagues from time to time you won 58 trophies why is that still such an important part of your background and your today yeah I mean it’s uh it’s kind of just part of my DNA um you know I

Obviously have a connection with that club where that tournament is and that tour and uh you know I love the chance to compete and the chance to try and win and uh also like I said without trying to change too much you know that’s kind of

What in my opinion kind of helped hone my game and get my game to this point so uh the last thing I want to do is get away from that and uh you know I’m still trying to get better and those are the tournaments that kind of made me better

So I uh I definitely like to play in them when I can on that subject of getting better you’ve had a year playing against the best players in the world week in week out so when you headed for the offseason a very short offseason by

The signs of it what were you working on thinking that this is where you had the most head room for improvement for 2024 uh yeah I kind of looked at my stats from last year and uh most of them were pretty good but I felt like I could

Drive the ball a little bit better um so put a little bit of focus on that and uh then just from there kind uh tried to refine the little bits uh that could uh have a little bit of improvement some short game stuff and just making sure

That I was uh kind of sharp and ready to go for the start of this year some guys play and then they want to sit in a bucket of ice and and like get away from the game you teed it up some 37 times you competed in the FedEx Cup fall even

Though you didn’t even have to you finished inside the top 50 so your status was Secure in the Signature Events like why do you play so much it’s very old school Barnstorm Style yeah you know uh I like to play I like to compete but also uh you know I’m just

So thankful to have the chance to do it out here on the PGA tour um like it’s been documented it took me a long time to get here so uh I just feel like it’s a huge privilege to be able to play in a PGA tournament PGA Tour event any week

Uh so when I get that chance if I feel healthy and my body feels good then I’m going to try and play as much as I can are you a goal Setter Eric because you achieved so much in your rookie year as Damon just noted getting all the way to

The FedEx Cup playoffs you finished second a couple of times the seven top 10 do you have goals in your mind that you want to achieve now in year two on tour uh for sure yeah I uh I like to write down some kind of like goals that

I’d like to accomplish by this time next year so a year from now and then I also write down some uh maybe more process oriented goals that kind of uh help you achieve the bigger ones so I do a little bit of uh kind of like tiered goal

Setting um but yeah I definitely got some stuff that I’d like to uh check off in 2024 are you going to share any of those with us uh yeah I mean there’s a lot of them one big one is win on on the PJ tour you

Know I had a chance to win a couple tournaments last year and that’s just such a cool environment to be in um um that I’d like to be in that environment and maybe get a different result this year so that’s a that’s a big one well how about that Golf Course where you’re

Standing t61 last year when you first laid eyes on it it seems like it would be a golf course that would fit your skill set what say you uh yeah I mean I’d like to think so I uh kind of reminds me of some uh Florida courses it’s very old school the

Holes kind of run back and forth with some houses on them so it’s got a lot of similarities to uh some courses I’ve played in Florida it also has uh um Bermuda grass so I’m very familiar with that so I think there’s a lot of uh a

Lot of good things and a lot of things I’m familiar with out here it’s rookie orientation season out there these days Eric now that you’re a grizzled veteran of the tour a year away from doing that yourself what’s the one piece of advice you would give to the class of guys coming behind

You it’s a good question um I’d say probably like I said earlier just change as little as possible um you know the game that got you here is obviously very good and refined and uh try and change as little as possible and then probably be

Patient uh you know it’s a little bit of a different environment out here and if you don’t have success you know in the first few tournaments you play that’s okay um everyone out here is very good so be patient and uh stay true to kind

Of what got you to to the PGA Tour Sage advice from the Rookie of the Year Eric best of luck this week and this season and thanks for joining us thank you thanks for having me