By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

During his first break as a rookie on the 2012 PGA Tour, Jason Kokrak needed to recharge his batteries.

He did that by spending the week in North Carolina, where he played very little golf, except for some practice.

“I just needed to relax because it’s a grind,” said the 26-year-old from Warren, who isn’t accustomed to the weekly ways of the top-level of golf after playing on the Nationwide Tour last season.

“It wasn’t much golf, just a little practice,” he said. “It felt good not to be swinging.”

Kokrak was ranked 62nd in money ($195,868) prior to last week when other golfers were either at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., or the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico.

He wasn’t among the top 64 in the world rankings to qualify for the WGC-Accenture and hadn’t signed up for the event in Mexico.

With six tournaments under his belt, how does Kokrak rate himself?

“I’m pleased where I put myself,” Kokrak responded. “I’m not disappointed, although I wish I would have made more cuts.”

In his last competition at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in Los Angeles, Kokrak finished tied for 34th.

On the next-to-last day, Saturday, Kokrak was playing lights-out over the first nine holes (back nine), then came back to Earth.

“I got off to a great start, a good start on the back nine — the tougher of the two — by hitting good irons to get into pretty good contention,” the Warren JFK High graduate said. “It showed me that on the tougher courses, on weeks I don’t have my ‘A’ game, I can still compete at the highest level and get myself in the top 10 for at least a few hours. Riviera is tough if you don’t make the greens.”

If there was any doubt about his ability, it’s waning.

“I know I can play with those guys and play week-in and week-out and contend,” Kokrak said. “I got my first top 10, that was four or five events in [Pebble Beach]. I have confidence I can play well and compete at the highest level.”

Kokrak seems to feel that he’s finding a niche among players and is developing a sense of fraternity.

“It’s nice to have the veterans come up and congratulate you. It’s a relief to welcomed and have some guys recognize that I played well one week. They took time out of their day to say ‘Hi’ and introduce themselves and get to meet me.”

Kokrak’s long-range goal this season is to keep his PGA card.

“You’ve got to stay in the top 125,” he said of rankings-based on earnings and FedEx points.

“I’d like to keep the card to get into some of those other events to get in position to have the opportunity to win a million bucks.”

Kokrak’s current FedEx points ranking is 72nd.

This week he returns to competition in the Honda Classic at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The week of March 8-11 would be the Puerto Rico Open or, if invited, the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Doral, Fla.

“It’s opposite Puerto Rico, but, if I play well enough, I could get into Doral.”

For 18 rounds throug Feb. 26, Kokrak remains among the leaders in driving distance.

With a 307.8-yard average, he’s tied for fifth with Jamie Lovemark. Tops is Bubba Watson’s 315.5 through 16 rounds. Fourth-best is Kyle Stanley’s 308.0 through 19 rounds.

Tour players’ average distance is 289.7.

Kokrak is ninth in the total driving category with a 79. The leader is John Rollins with 52.