John Cook

In an attic somewhere in this land there's a portrait of the golfer John Cook, and his face is wrinkled and weathered and there are furrows in his brow and his eyes squint in a two-fairway gaze and he looks, oh, 50 years old or so and his face looks, as the fellow said, like two miles of bad road. You're all familiar with the Portrait of Dorian Grey story where the picture aged but not the real Dorian Grey.

Fred Couples finished off John Cook with a nifty wedge shot to three feet on the third hole of a playoff Sunday in the Seniors Players Championship at Harrison, N.Y. Couples won his first senior major title, closing with an even-par 71 to match Cook (70) at 11 under on Westchester Country Club's West Course — a longtime PGA Tour venue where Couples estimated he has played about 100 rounds in 30 years. Peter Senior (71) was third at 10 under. Couples joined Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd as the only players to win the Players Championship on the regular and senior tours.

When young John Cook decided to come out on the golf tour, the game could hardly wait. Sponsors drooled. Handsome, blond, slim, he was as photogenic as a Hawaiian sunset. He had this great, gorgeous looping swing. He could putt an acorn into a shot glass. He had steady habits, he loved the game. Golf couldn't believe its good luck. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf, no less, went to work recruiting him to play at their alma mater, Ohio State, although he had grown up in Southern California.

Indie rock has become the old guard. Forged in the early '80s, at a time when musicians looked to small labels to release music that would otherwise never find a home, its network of small labels, innovative artists, hand-made fanzines and passionate fans unleashed a creative counterrevolution. But what is the role of an independent label in 2009, a time when every bedroom musician can record tunes on a laptop and distribute them on the Web for far less money than it costs to record and press a few dozen 7-inch singles?

If I were John Cook, the golfer, I would go immediately to Las Vegas. Skip the crap table, head immediately for roulette. Don't bet red or black. Put the house and car on a number--any number. If you're ever in a shipwreck, get in the lifeboat next to him. Find out what he plays in the market and invest all you've got. Above all, don't play cards with him. And, whatever you do, don't play golf with him. John Cook lost the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic several times Sunday.

Experience is important in anything. But no place does experience count for more than in golf. Golf is a game you only think you know at age 20. You haven't begun to understand it, let alone solve it. Golf is not a game, it's an education. Consider that Ben Hogan never won a U.S. Open till he was over 35 years old. Then, he won four of them. And was in a playoff for a fifth. And was second in a sixth. All this within an eight-year span. That is a typical scenario for golf.

John Cook, who has a 14-year history of frustration in Florida, didn't intend to play in the $1-million Nestle Invitational on Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill course in Orlando. But he's happy to be in the field after shooting a three-under-par 69 on a cold, windy afternoon that left him tied with Rick Fehr and Mike Allen on Thursday for the first-round lead. Cook added the tournament to his schedule because flu forced him out of the Los Angeles Open last month.

John Adams shot a bogey-free 66 Saturday at the TPC at Southwinds course, but spent much of his time as an awed spectator. His playing partner, John Cook, put on quite a show. Cook shot an eight-under-par 63 and has a six-stroke lead after three rounds of the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn. More to the point, Cook is at 24-under 189, the lowest total in PGA Tour history through the first three rounds. The old mark was 191, set by Johnny Palmer in 1954 and tied by Gay Brewer in 1967.

John Cook, the president of Reno-based Porsche Cars North America is leaving the company after he disagreed with directors on organizational changes. Company spokeswoman Martha McKinley said the management shake-up is not related to the lagging American sales of Porsche automobiles, down to about 18,000 cars a year following a peak of more than 30,000 in 1986.

John Cook shot seven-under-par 65 Saturday and rallied to tie Paul Azinger for the lead after three rounds of the $1.2-million Hawaiian Open at Honolulu. Cook and Azinger were tied at 16-under-par 200, three shots ahead of Jeff Maggert and Tom Lehman. Three golfers, including second-round co-leader Wayne Levi, were at 12-under. Cook birdied five of the first six holes to move into contention for the $216,000 first prize.

John Cook had already posted a 62 in the second round of the Sony Open at Honolulu when Jerry Kelly headed to the first tee. To see Cook's name atop the leader board brought back sour memories. Kelly was poised to win his first PGA Tour event last year in the Reno-Tahoe Open until he made triple bogey late in the final round, which enabled Cook to win by a stroke. Even more troublesome was the size of Cook's lead. "I knew I had to catch up, not let him have six shots between us," Kelly said.

John Cook shot an eight-under-par 64 and took advantage of a late triple-bogey by leader Jerry Kelly to win the Reno-Tahoe Open on Sunday for his first PGA Tour victory in three years. "It was a big surprise," said Cook, who shot a 74 on Saturday and started the final round six strokes off the lead. "I played so badly yesterday, I was embarrassed to be out here to tell you the truth.... Trying to stay competitive in your mid-40s is not easy."

The letter began innocently enough. "We are delighted that you have agreed to take on the challenge of leading the Screen Actors Guild." But the nine actors who wrote this letter to John F. Cooke ignited a controversy that prompted Cooke to back out of the job Thursday, 10 days after accepting it, leaving the fractious union without an executive director.

Omar Cook didn't take long to make his mark on St. John's basketball. The freshman point guard lived up to the hype Thursday night as the Red Storm beat No. 12 Kentucky, 62-61, in the opening round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Cook had 18 points and five assists, with his biggest pass setting up Anthony Glover for the game-winning, three-point play with five seconds left. "Omar drew up the winning play," St. John's Coach Mike Jarvis said.

Maybe the late eagle will prove to be just what John Cook needed to turn around his struggling season. The impressive shot gave Cook the first-round lead Thursday in the Colonial, where his four-under-par 66 put him a stroke ahead of a group of eight players. Cook holed a nine-iron shot from 127 yards for an eagle two on his 15th hole, the 393-yard sixth at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.

John F. Cooke, Walt Disney Co.'s executive vice president for corporate affairs and one of Disney Chairman Michael Eisner's top advisors, will leave Disney after 15 years to become a top executive at the J. Paul Getty Trust.

John Cook made a 75-foot chip shot and two 30-foot putts on his way to a seven-under-par 65 and a share of the first-round lead in the Canadian Open Thursday at Oakville, Canada. Cook, who missed most of last season after hand and wrist surgery, was tied with Brad Faxon, who had a bogey-free round at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in the province of Ontario. Faxon one-putted 11 times, had four birdies from 20 feet or more and dropped a 15-foot putt to save par on the final hole.

Maybe the late eagle will prove to be just what John Cook needed to turn around his struggling season. The impressive shot gave Cook the first-round lead Thursday in the Colonial, where his four-under-par 66 put him a stroke ahead of a group of eight players. Cook holed a nine-iron shot from 127 yards for an eagle two on his 15th hole, the 393-yard sixth at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.

John Kent Cooke, president of the Washington Redskins, said Wednesday that his $680-million bid was still on the table after a New York real estate developer withdrew his $800-million offer for the NFL team. The withdrawal of the bid by a group led by Howard Milstein and Maryland businessman Daniel Snyder--which was a record for a North American sports franchise--has reignited the search for a new owner. "While I have no comment on the withdrawal by Mr.

St. John Knits Inc. executives used improper accounting maneuvers to shore up the Irvine apparel maker's bottom line while it was under pressure to meet Wall Street analysts' expectations, according to a lawsuit filed late Monday. The wrongful-termination suit was filed by Amen Wardy Jr., who was fired last month as chief executive of St. John's unprofitable Amen Wardy Home Stores subsidiary. Wardy charged that the home stores unit was reduced to a "sacrificial lamb," and that St.