Eric Cole, Zac Blair have more in common than solid play at Travelers Championship

CROMWELL, Conn. – They are separated by one stroke on the 36-hole leaderboard at the Travelers Championship – Eric Cole at 11-under, Zac Blair at 10. But what connects them are similar backgrounds as children of golf professionals, though there needs to be a qualifier with each.

Cole, 35, is hugely respectful when asked presumptuous questions about how his parents, Bobby Cole and Laura Baugh, must have mentored his game. But the truth is, “this is all him,” said Baugh, a junior phenom in her day and heralded as a one-time LPGA sensation.

As for Blair, 32, he said his father, James – who played one PGA TOUR season (1984) – “wanted me to play baseball, but I got better at golf and it was my choice to go that way.”

Neither man was pushed into golf. Both charged head–first on their own accord, in their own fashion, and both are scripting intriguing stories – not just here at the Travelers, but in the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season.

Having grinded away on the Minor League Golf Tour where he won more than 50 tournaments, Cole is a rookie on the PGA TOUR and becoming more comfortable with each round. With 64-65 to push to 11-under 129, he might trail Denny McCarthy by four at TPC River Highlands, but there’s been just one bogey in two days and Cole is in position to add to his already rich rookie campaign (three top-10s, seven top-25s, $2,672,402 in earnings).

Presently he sits 39th in the FedExCup standings and 81st in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Blair’s season hasn’t been as successful but having sat out 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to shoulder surgery, he’s chasing numbers as an extended medical exemption. Right now he needs 270.455 FedExCup points over the next eight tournament starts, counting the Travelers, to earn back his card.

The good news is, with matching 65s, he’s doing quite well.

But if ever there were a “What, me worry?” guy it would be Blair. He’s not about to stress out over this push to regain his card. “Probably end up being pretty close,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “So, play good, figure it out at the end.”

Perhaps it’s that each of them hails from a golf family that enables both Cole and Blair to approach their craft with such calm demeanors. They have seen pro golf on far different stages; Cole once got through back-to-back Monday qualifiers, one in Bogata, Columbia, the other in Florida, while Blair has toiled on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and the Korn Ferry Tour.

If you were to suggest that Cole’s competitive fires were polished as a young teenager at West Orange Country Club in Winter Garden, Florida., Laura Baugh would not disagree. Or that his spirit is defined not by golf, but by how he handled the news that he had Type 1 diabetes and Addison’s disease. “He never shared that for a long time,” said his mother.

For Blair, golf is more than a profession. Were you to wonder why he lists “video games” and “Legos” as special interests in the media guide, but not “playing other golf courses,” it’s because that is more than a special interest. It is an obsession.

“Went on a little bit of a heater this week,” laughed Blair, who was joined by his caddie Nik Kroisi for a three-day swing to play three heralded golf courses – Eastward Ho! in Chatham, Massachusetts.; Fischer’s Island off the coast of Connecticut; and Winged Foot in New York.

“I just love playing golf,” said Blair, “and seeing cool places. So it’s been fun to do something like that again.”

There could be a sentimental story written to Cole playing at a Connecticut PGA TOUR stop that dates back to 1952. His father, who played the bulk of his 390 PGA TOUR tournaments between 1968 and 1987, the year before Eric was born, competed 14 times here when it was the Greater Hartford Open or had Sammy Davis’ name attached to it.

But 13 of Cole’s appearances were at Wethersfield Country Club. His best finish was a T-5 in 1974.

The thing is, though: Bobby Cole’s PGA TOUR life and Laura Baugh’s LPGA fame are his family’s legacy. Eric Cole is focused on continuing to make his own legacy.

Blair would second that. “My parents were great to me. They were never pushers,” he said. “They just wanted me to do the best I could.”