Cink's season makes big "Turn"

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-07-22

A few years down the road, Stewart Cink is going to laugh about 2009.

The laugh will be above and beyond the smile that will be very difficult to remove as a result of his thrilling playoff victory over Tom Watson Sunday in the British Open.

No, the laugh will be in reference to how he had basically given up on the 2009 PGA Tour season, had set his sights on a bang-up 2010 and, bang, there he was, sitting in an airplane seat from Scotland to Atlanta with the overhead compartment.

“I had pretty much given up on 2009 because I played poorly and just could not get anything going,” Cink said Wednesday during a teleconference. “I really made a lot of major changes in my game, especially my putting, around May, after the Players Championship.

“So I had no real expectations going into the rest of the year, except just to try to get myself ready for 2010. And then I had a good couple of weeks there at Colonial and Memorial, and got a little bit of confidence, and now this.” ‘This’ was a performance that was perfect, not necessarily in the strictest definition of the word, but perfect for the moment.

“It must be some kind of a zone thing. I don't really know about that, Cink laughed. “But I did feel some kind of sense of calmness over there, and really more of like an acceptance. I was just totally willing to accept anything that happened. And part of that I think is the nature of playing on links golf courses.

“You don't have to be quite as precise over there on links because it's more about increasing the percentages. Like hit it in between the bunkers. Keep it in between the left and right edge of the green on your approach shot. You don't have to be dead-on with all your approaches or your tee balls, not like over here. It's just more of a percentage game you play.”

“I think the fact that you don't have to be absolutely dead-on precise, I think that calmed me down a little bit, and I knew I didn't have to be perfect. I just could play my shots and be ready to great all the way through to the last hole.”

And this was a learning experience, learning how to deal with something like stepping in the way of history.

“Once it became apparent there was going to be a playoff, I was going to be playing against Tom Watson,” Cink admitted. “That's when the bizarre stuff really started to hit me a little bit. Like, what? Tom Watson? You kidding me? I'm playing against Tom Watson, he's 59, he won his first major I think right around the time when I was born, and he's been winning tournaments ever since. You know, it was very strange.

“But I knew the people were really pulling for Tom to win, because that was the story everyone wanted to be written. It was, honestly, as a sports fan, it was a tremendous story. Maybe the biggest sports story in the last couple of generations. I was the one standing in the way of it. I had to really put that aside, though.”

After he had dispatched the golf legend handily in the four-hole playoff, things took turns that the Huntsville, Ala. native could never have imagined.

He did all the “champion” things – the photos, the interviews, the cocktail reception. While at the reception, the general manager of the Turnberry Hotel came up to Cink and asked him if it would be OK if the staff moved his family’s luggage into the champions’ suite, which had already been renamed the “Cink Suite.”

“We got to spend the night in my own suite, which is probably something that will never happen again. You know, you win a tournament and you get to stay in the suite that's named after you so recently. So that was really cool."

An early morning flight home to Atlanta, being greeted by 25 of their closest friends, a party at a downtown restaurant at which filled the Claret Jug with Guinness and a basic collapse once they get home.

A quick trip to New York on Tuesday to do that night’s Top 10 list on David Letterman and now it’s me for a little R&R for the champion of the 138th British Open champion.

His performance at Turnberry vaulted him into the top 15 in the FedExCup standings and the top-10 of the Presidents Cup standings.

He’ll next play in the Bridgestone Invitation, a tournament he’s won previously.

It’s all coming together quite nicely for a season that as late as the end of May seemed destined to be a tuneup for 2010.

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About Mike...
As a sports writer for over 35 years, Mike Dudurich has seen a lot of great things, covered spectacular events, but his passion is, and has been golf. He recently ended a 29-year career at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and will now be a frequent contributor on GolfGearReview.com. Mike hosts a weekly golf radio show on 1250 ESPN in Pittsburgh from the beginning of April through the end of August. The show airs Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and can be heard online at http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/show?showId=insidepghgolf - Listen to Mike Here!.

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