If you’ve been following (or playing) any of the National Tournaments in the last 10 years you know that MikeyC is a staple in the final stages and one of the players to watch. His devilish two handed forehand and backhand has no match. His ability to switch hands and hit overheads with either hand is a feat that only a handful of players can do. We could go on forever listing all his paddle accomplishment. He was even written up on the New York Times for his paddle abilities. Actually, not… but back in 1991 they wrote about his football skills. Click HERE to read the article.
Well, we are not here to discuss Cochrane’s paddle nor football skills. He is actually a pretty good golfer too. Don’t believe it? He challenges any paddle player to play golf at the first chance he has and there is no record that he has ever lost to any paddle player yet. While he kept beating up on more and more paddle players on the golf course, last week decided to give it a go and play at the 111th Met Amateur Championship at The Stanwich Club. He showed up and made it to the match play knock-out round. Not too shabby!
His buddy Ray Crosta, who is a top paddle player himself, made the trip from New Jersey to carry his bag and offered his expert golf advice. Crosta is a scratch golfer who also dreams to become an amateur champ one day. During the qualifying round MikeyC shot a 147 (+3) over 36 holes of stroke play and qualified for the round of 16s as the 8th seed. In the next round he faced 9th seeded Pat Wilson of Panther Valley Country Club. Cochrane lost by four strokes with three holes left to play.
He won 14 with an eagle, there’s nothing I could do about that,” Cochrane said.
The golf dream may continue for a few more weeks and definitely next summer. In the mean time Cochrane dreams about bringing the magic back to the Cochrane-Estes duo. They won Nationals back in 2007 and will get together again this upcoming season. If paddle doesn’t work for MikeyC, there is always golf.
