Local golf pro earns award

MEEKER I It was recently announced by the Professional Golfers Association (PGA), Colorado Section, West Chapter, that local golf professional Jim Cook will be awarded the 2013 Warren Smith Award at the annual spring meeting in April in Grand Junction.
Cook will start his 21st season as a golf professional when the Meeker course opens April 1.
Cook, who has served the Meeker and Aspen Glen courses since 1992, was humbled by the award, which is based on a golf professional’s entire career as a PGA member.
“It is a nice award, any award from the PGA is a good award,” Cook said by phone before boarding a train in California bound for San Francisco.
The Warren Smith Award is awarded to a PGA professional for special contributions to the game of golf, the Colorado Section, junior golf and to the facility. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the game, the Section, contributions to community charities, junior golf and facilities.
“As the head pro of a nine-hole golf course, I feel like I’m one of the “old school” pros who has had the opportunity to learn and grow from two decades that I’ve been at Meeker and Aspen Glen,” Cook said. “It’s simply been my challenge to make Meeker a better golf course in order to grow the game. As a wearer of many different hats, my job has encompassed every aspect of what it’s like to be involved in the golf business from running the shop, teaching, mechanical work, mowing, watering, fertilizing, flipping hamburgers and of course, pouring a cocktail — or two.”