For Masters rookie Eric Cole, golf really did run in the family

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It is rare, but Masters Tournament rookie Eric Cole is hardly the first participant whose father preceded him at Augusta National Golf Club.

This is the 88th playing of the tournament, and Cole will be the 14th son to follow in his father’s footsteps. His dad, South African Bobby Cole, played in five Masters, the last one in 1978.

But none of the sons of former Masters participants who played in the tournament also had a mother who was a famous professional golfer, like Cole does.

In fact, when Cole won the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award last season, it came on the 50th anniversary that his mother, former Augustan Laura Baugh, was the LPGA Rookie of the Year.

“I think it’s kind of a cool thing with my mom winning Rookie of the Year 50 years ago, kind of the 50th anniversary of that,” Cole said. “She won it when she was probably 18 or 19 if I had to guess.”

He was correct – she was 18. Cole was 35 when he became the second-oldest to win rookie honors. Todd Hamilton was 39 when he won it in 2004.

“Different path for me. But it’s just really special,” Cole said.

Eric’s dad, who is now 75, won 13 worldwide titles and once on the PGA Tour at the 1977 Buick Open. He held the honor of being the youngest British Amateur winner for 43 years. As a pro, he had top-three finishes in the 1974 PGA Championship and 1975 British Open. His best Masters finish was a tie for 15th in 1975. He also played in 1967, 1972, 1976 and 1978.

High finishes are what Baugh was known for on the LPGA Tour.

Baugh, who turns 69 next month, started on tour in 1973 through 2000. She never won, but finished as a runner-up 10 times with a mind-boggling 70 top-10 finishes. She was among the most visible LPGA players through her TV and print ads for such products as Colgate’s Ultra Brite toothpaste and Wilson Golf.

Bobby Cole and Baugh married in 1980, divorced in 1985, remarried in 1987 and later divorced again. Their last child, Jamie Cole, is 26 and was born in the late 1990s. In all, they had seven children, starting with Eric.

Baugh and Jamie lived In Augusta from 2013 to late 2015, when Baugh ran a golf school in Evans.

Being the son of two accomplished professional golfers, which one impacted his game the most?

“I’d say probably my mom,” he said. “I spent a little more time playing with her growing up. But they’ve both helped a lot. Like at a younger age, as a junior, I played more with my mom and we kind of hit it similar distances. It’s kind of like a learned a little bit more from her because of that.”

When Eric was born in 1988, both parents were in the middle of their professional careers.

“I was always around them going to their tournaments and stuff from a young age. So I kind of saw what they did and thought that was something I wanted to do,” Eric said. “I’ve leaned on them for advice, whether it’s golf course stuff or off-the-golf-course stuff, travel or where to play, what to do. So I’ve leaned on them a lot. They both have been an inspiration to me about how I kind of want to pursue this as my career.”

Eric started playing pro golf in 2009, becoming a dominant player on the minor league tours, winning 58 times.

“Anytime you win a tournament it’s a good thing,” he said. “You can only beat the people you’re playing against, so it feels good to win. You get a nice sense of satisfaction from it. It’s something that translates, at least a little bit, on any stage.”

He never lost hope that he’d make it to the PGA Tour, especially with all his mini-tour victories.

“Yeah, I always wanted to play golf. I was pretty focused as a young person. I always wanted to do it. There was some doubt whether I was going to have any success there for a little while, but I always wanted to be a professional golfer. It’s nice to be on the PGA Tour and on the biggest stage.”

He broke through in 2023, finishing in the top 30 of the Korn Ferry Tour money list in 2022.

“I played a lot of golf with guys who had success on tour, and when I would play with them at home or randomly throughout the year, I felt like my game stacked up pretty well,” Cole said. “I saw them having success, and it fueled me to think, ‘If I just keep at it and doing what I’m doing, if I get the opportunity and end up getting there, I think that I can have success.’”

As a PGA Tour rookie last year, Cole had six-top five finishes, including runner-up finishes in the Honda Classic and the Zozo Championship. He was the only rookie to make it to the second round of the FedEx Cup playoff and the only rookie in the top 50 in the season-ending FedEx Cup standings.

As those high finishes piled up, his spot in the Official World Golf Ranking skyrocketed. From being ranked 384th at the start of 2023, he finished 39th at the end of the year, which is how he earned his spot in this year’s Masters.

During his time on the mini-tours, Cole became friends with Arnold Palmer through Sam Saunders, one of Palmer’s grandchildren. Saunders, who is a year older than Cole, played the PGA Tour in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. At times, Cole caddied for Saunders, even in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Through Saunders, Cole says he played at least 50 rounds of golf with Palmer at his home in Orlando. Fittingly, the rookie of the year title that Cole won last year is called the Arnold Palmer Award. Palmer, a four-time Masters champion, died in 2016.

“The most memorable thing to me was just spending time around him, hearing some of his old stories about traveling the tour back in the day and some of those stories had my dad in them, which I thought was really cool,” Cole said. “It’s the little stuff like that that when I think about him and growing up kind of means the most to me.”