Life is not too difficult for Teulon’s Aaron Cockerill at the moment. The former two-time Manitoba Golfer of the Year is spending the early part of November at the Aphrodite Hills Golf Resort in Cyprus.
He has his fiancée — and caddie — Chelsea Scrivener with him. And Cockerill is coming off a 14th place tie in the Cyprus Open that equalled his best finish this season on the European Tour and earned a payday of just over $20,000. So, yeah, life is pretty good for the 28-year-old who admitted during a recent interview on the CJOB Sports Show that before arriving in Cyprus, he had to look it up on a map.
“We’re kind of southeast of Greece, and it has been amazing. It’s absolutely beautiful here, not a bad spot to be spending the next couple of weeks.”
As a result of COVID-19, the European Tour has doubled up on some events this year to reduce the travel schedule, so Cockerill and his counterparts will be playing at Aphrodite Hills again this week. “We did it earlier this year in Wales where we played the same venue twice in a row and that’s really rare,” explained Cockerill. “I don’t think we would do that at any other time.”
Probably not, and playing during the coronavirus pandemic has changed many other things for Cockerill and the other players on the tour, although not all of it falls under the category of being a challenge.
“They’re very strict here with their bubble. Masks are worn indoors everywhere. They’ve had the same protocols since we re-started,” says Cockerill, who added that normal booking procedures for hotel accommodations and travel don’t apply for the time being. “In some ways, it’s been kind of easy because you know where you’re staying and everything is pretty much booked for you so all you have to do is show up and play golf.”
But it has not been all off-days at poolside, soaking up the sun for Cockerill and Scrivener. Not so long ago they were playing in chilly Scotland, and then had to contend with near hurricane-type conditions at a tournament in Portugal.
“That’s probably the biggest difference between playing on the tours at home and over here is the dicey weather,” Cockerill pointed out, and then described just how brutal the playing conditions were at the Portugal Open in Obidos where he shot a third-round eight under 64 and managed a tie for 24th place.
“It was so extreme — like my umbrella snapped on the tee. If you had a three-foot putt and missed it, it was going to roll, like 20 feet away. At home they would never play in those types of conditions, but here they make you truck through it a little bit more. At that point it’s just survival and and try to get through it because you know everyone else is playing in it as well.”
No doubt having a caddie to help talk through those kinds of scenarios is an asset as well, and Cockerill says his future wife has developed into a very strong second voice on the bag.
“At first she didn’t know that much about my game, and golf and was just kind of out there. Now she’s a legit caddie,” said Cockerill proudly. “We have the same routine every shot basically — wind direction, club — she has the yardage book, she knows how far every one of my clubs go. She’s getting pretty decent at reading greens, she’s actually pretty good at it now. It’s been a pretty good combo.”
And Cockerill is hoping he and Chelsea can keep that momentum going at this week’s Cyprus Showdown for a late-season surge to finish in the top 60 and qualify for the season-ending championship in Dubai in mid-December.
Cockerill went into early November sitting in 141st place in the European Tour rankings and fully admits he needs a couple of career-best showings to climb the ladder.
“I’ve been consistent, I’ve made a lot of cuts. Just no real high finishes, which is what you kinda need at this level,” says Cockerill who has just surpassed the $150,000 in career earnings on the European Tour. “You’re almost better to have a top-three finish and then miss four cuts, and then have another really high finish. It doesn’t overly reward the guy who finishes 25th every week.”
Next week, Aaron and Chelsea will do some exploring around Cyprus because the Tour is taking a break for the Masters, but after that it’s a trip to South Africa — hopefully — to try to improve that ranking.
“They have three tournaments in South Africa that I’m thinking I should hopefully get into. They’re co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour which is like the South African Tour,” said Cockerill. “Half the field will be guys from the European Tour, so the plan is to hopefully play all three of those, and the Race to Dubai final event in mid-December, which I believe the top 60 guys qualify for that. And if not, we’ll be home in mid-December.”