Sonoma Golf Club sends off Schwab Cup in style

November 2, 5:18 PMSF Golf ExaminerGreg Quiroga

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John Cook tees off on the Sonoma Golf Club's scenic 5th hole (Photo AP/Eric Risberg)

The Champions Tour season finale took place at the Sonoma Golf Club for the final time this past weekend, ending the Charles Schwab Cup Championships' six-year run in Sonoma. John Cook shot a -3 (69) on Sunday to finish 22-under for the week, winning the event by five strokes over Russ Cochran, who never challenged Cook's lead.

• Photo Gallery of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Sonoma Golf Club

Cook had other things on his mind, and was essentially fighting to hold on to his lead all day on Sunday. Joey Sindelar, one of Cook's friends and teammates from Ohio State, suffered a pulmonary embolism on Saturday, which shook Cook up a bit.

"We're just good old friends from a long time," said Cook. "You know, that kind of shocks you a little bit when one of your compadres goes down with dizziness and all that."

He managed to hold it together on Sunday, bolstered by the six-stroke lead he took into the final round. "I didn't want to make a bogey," said Cook, " I felt that if I got to -22, you know, and someone beat me, God bless 'em. What else can you do?"

Loren Roberts finished a distant sixth, but clinched the points race to earn his second Schwab Cup. The win is a big one for Loren, but for different reasons than immediately evident. Roberts is going to take a portion of his winnings and donate them to Sacramento-area schools in order to keep their golf programs running.

"That particular school district, I think there's nine high schools in the district that they have there. They're cutting boys and girl's golf," said Roberts. "Completely dropping it really. You know, they were talking about it, because they don't spend that much money."

Roberts made the decision to find a way to finance the schools' program, which costs in the neighborhood of $35,000 per year for all nine schools. "I think that's one of the great things about the Schwab Cup," said Roberts. "It's fun to win it. It's an awesome challenge to play all year long. But it allows us to do some things in communities that maybe we wouldn't even know about."

Sonoma will be losing the Schwab Cup Championships to San Francisco's Harding Park for 2010 - 2011. The Champions Tour has not announced plans for the event beyond that.