Golf:

Looking at John Cook you wouldn’t think the PGA Champions Tour golfer and Corona del Mar resident has much fire in his belly.

He looks more like he is a gentle soul, a guy that would lend you his five-iron if you broke yours. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of darkness to Cook.

But behind the sandy blonde hair and comforting smile is a golfer who has struggled with a competitiveness that has sometimes gotten the better of him. It is a fault he has worked on for most of his career.

Fortunately, it appears Cook is winning more battles than he is losing. Sunday he came to the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup with a six-stroke lead and cruised to a five-stroke victory.

It was Cook’s second victory this year and fourth time he has won in only three years on the Champions Tour.

This season was an impressive one for Cook. He played in 23 events, including the Toshiba Classic, where he finished tied for 15th. In those 23 events, he had 12 top-10 finishes and was out of the top 25 only four times.

“I played well most of the year,” Cook said. “The event in Bend at the Jeld-Wen Tradition, congrats to Mike Reid, but it was mine and I let it go.”

Cook lost in a playoff to Reid when he could have won and really beat himself up over it for a while.

“I screamed at myself for a month after that,” Cook said. “I just was so torn up by the mistake I made at the last hole, I said that ain’t gonna happen again.”

Cook has always been hard on himself and it affected his career on the PGA Tour. He won 11 times, but felt like he underachieved.

“I’ve really never played with a lot of confidence through my career,” Cook said. “I’ve disappointed myself on a number of occasions. Eleven wins isn’t chopped liver, but I had many chances to win some big events and didn’t do it.”

Those disappointments only fueled the anger.

“I’m a son of an old football coach,” Cook said. “I’m going to get hard on myself, yeah. If I’m not doing the right things, I will. I don’t have any problems screaming at myself to get you back into that mode. Yeah, I’m competitive and I don’t like to give things away and make dumb mistakes. I don’t like it — as much as I would like to keep it in, sometimes it slips out.”

It’s funny, though, in all the years I have covered Cook, including the last two times at the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach, I’ve never seen him throw a club or swear after a bad shot, but he promises that fire is there.

“Yeah, it’s just a competitiveness in me,” Cook said. “I’ve had it since I was young. I played football, basketball. I raced motorcycles and happened to fall into golf. So I’m just that guy playing golf. That’s just the way I am.”

One person who has helped him with his game has been Ken Venturi. The two met when Cook was a junior golfer and the relationship has been beneficial for nearly 40 years. The two recently met in Newport and Venturi worked with Cook.

“Venturi and I worked on specific things,” Cook said. “He said to never be afraid to shoot low. And how you do it, those are things that he and I have talked about. You just can’t be afraid out there. A lot of times you gotta play like your pants are on fire, just keep going and keep trying to outrun it.”

Cook should only continue to improve his standing on the Champions Tour and will win several more times. The one thing he wants most of all is a major championship, something he didn’t achieve during his tenure playing on the PGA Tour.

“This out here is a second chance for that,” Cook said about the Champions Tour. “I feel like I’ve played as well maybe as I ever have the last year and a half. And it’s getting better. Hopefully that window doesn’t close.”

JOHN REGER’S golf column appears Thursdays. He may be reached by e-mail at nolimepublishing@aol.com