Ferris State Alum Ben Cook To Compete In This Week's PGA Championship

Big Rapids, Mich. - For the second consectuive year, former Ferris State University men's golf standout Ben Cook will compete in the PGA Championship set for later this week, Aug. 6-9, at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, Calif.

Cook, who helped lead the Bulldogs to the 2017 NCAA Division II National Quarterfinals in his final collegiate campaign, will be among 20 PGA club pros invited to this year's event. All 20 finished in the top 20 in points among PGA club pros in 2019 and were chosen because the PGA Professional Championship was canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 PGA Championship will be the first major played in over a year and will have no spectators in attendance, but will be televised live across the world. The 102nd annual event will be held at Harding Park for the first time with 95 of the world's top 100 golfers expected to compete. It will feature unprecedented 72-hole coverage from CBS, ESPN, ESPN+ and PGAChampionship.com.

Action gets underway with first-round coverage beginning on Thursday at 10 a.m. (ET). The second-round is slated for Friday and those that make the cut will take part in weekend action on Saturday and Sunday.

A year ago, Cook competed in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in New York and carded a 147 total (+7) for his two rounds of action and missed the cut by three strokes on scores of 74 and 73 over his 36 holes. The Caledonia (Mich.) native earned his invite last year by placing tied for fourth at the 2019 PGA Professional Championship in South Carolina to earn his spot in one of golf's most prestigious events. Cook originally qualified for the PGA Professional Championship by finishing atop the leaderboard in the Michigan PGA Championship.

This year's PGA Championship event will be the 102nd playing of the tournament, which started in 1916. Regularly featuring the strongest field based on the Official World Golf Ranking, the PGA is the only all-professional major championship with 156 players competing annually for one of golf's most prized possessions, the Wanamaker Trophy.

As a senior at Ferris State two years ago, Cook claimed 2017 Division II PING All-America recognition. He led the Bulldogs to a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) runner-up finish and a top 10 national ranking during the regular season. The standout claimed GLIAC Player of the Year honors for the second time in his collegiate career after previously earning the distinction in 2015 when he was also chosen to the Division II PING All-America Team.

A two-time all-region choice, Cook compiled eight top-10 tournament finishes for the Bulldogs his final year, including winning the Kyle Ryman Invitational hosted by Tiffin University. He placed among the top three golfers in five events and tied for sixth overall at the league championships. The four-year letterwinner led FSU to five tournament championships and a 15th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

Following the regular season, Cook helped lead the Bulldogs to one of their best postseasons ever. He finished seventh individually at the 2017 NCAA Division II Midwest/Central Super Regional in Nebraska by carding a 206 total over three rounds. His performance included a school-record eight-under par 64 total in the final round as the Bulldogs earned runner-up honors in the event. It also featured an ace on the part three, fifth hole at the Awarii Dunes Golf Course.

Cook's impressive final regional round helped the Bulldogs notch a 270 final round team score, which also broke the previous school record score of 274 set by the Bulldogs in their own Ferris State Invitational at Katke Golf Course in 2001. Ferris State's 836 team total (-28) for the 54 holes of the super regional also topped the 837 figure recorded in 2009 at the Saginaw Valley State Al Watrous Memorial Invite in Bay City.

Cook's 64 figure in the final round represented the best individual 18-hole score in school history, topping the previous mark of 65 set by John Hagemeier in 1997 and matched by Jim Lusk in 1998 along with Eric Lilleboe in 2009. His 206 finish for the 54 holes also was near a school-record, which Lilleboe set in 2009 at the SVSU Al Watrous Memorial Invite with a 202 total.

In his final season, Cook went on to finish tied for 15th individually with a 214 total at the NCAA Division II National Championships in Florida after shooting a 73 in the final round. He shot a 68 in round one before closing the tourney with back-to-back 73's over the final two days of stroke play.

His play helped Ferris State advance to the national quarterfinals by finishing seventh overall in the stroke play portion of the national championships in Kissimmee. FSU was the only school outside of the state of Florida or South Carolina to finish among the top seven teams in the country in stroke play. The Bulldogs fell to eventual national champion Florida Southern in the round of eight.