	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

March 30, 2017

Stewart Cink

Humble, Texas

Q. Fowler leading, you're a couple off the pace, Stewart Cink, after that 66. Talk about this just a few moments ago about the courage that you and Lisa have shown in battling this Stage Four breast cancer that she's been battling. What does it mean to you to play well here in Houston, the city where both you guys faced a lot of feelings?
STEWART CINK: Well, we're still facing a lot of fears. Honestly, I haven't put the two together coming back here to Houston. This is a different part of town and we fly into a different airport to come here to the Golf Club of Houston. So, it doesn't really feel like we're in the same city, although I'm seeing a lot of the same people.

I played in the Pro-Am yesterday with one of Lisa's doctors from M.D. Anderson, one of our good friends now. In a way it's good to have people supporting Lisa and indirectly me, too, because a lot of people around here, now we come down to Houston for medical treatment, but it doesn't really impact the way the golf tournament feels to me. I'm treating it like any other tournament and trying the play as well as I can every shot, and it's just a week-to-week thing.

Q. You and I talked about how she has inspired you on the golf course. In what way?
STEWART CINK: She's just inspired me to fight harder. After -- I played out here now for 21 years, this is my 21st. I got a little bit complacent. I didn't know I was getting complacent. When I saw Lisa fight through, when I've seen her fighting through, you know, I just felt like why can't I also fight a little bit more and dig a little deeper.

So just inspired me to do what it takes, and I don't really think I was quite doing what it took, although I thought I was. I had to really do some soul-searching myself, and I found that I could do a little bit more. And so I've just kind of made golf a little bit more of -- it's been more fun. I've made it more fun because I'm working hard, in a way I'm really pursuing it in a different way than I was before. She's inspired me in that way.

Q. You're going to the airport right now pick Lisa up. I appreciate you taking the time.
STEWART CINK: Sure.

Q. I didn't hear you get that close. What was going through your mind? I didn't see that little bump-and-bounce shot.
STEWART CINK: Yeah, maybe we see things a little differently out there. I just saw a little slope in front of the green there that I had about 4 yards or so where I could carry it and it would kill some of the speed, and it wasn't a shot that really I expected to get really close. But like my caddy, Taylor, and I said, let's give ourselves a look at the par. If it comes off just right, we'll have something inside 20 feet. Came off exactly right and holed a good putt.

Q. Really solid golf out there. Got to be really happy.
STEWART CINK: I was happy. I'll be happy whether I play great or not. It was fun and extra rewarding to see some of the shots turn out like you wanted to and feel comfortable and have fun.

Q. Speaking of fun, yesterday in the Pro-Am you played with Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros, and R.C. Slocum. You played in a lot of Pro-Ams. Is that fun when you get with two special guys like that.
STEWART CINK: Don't leave out Robbie Gould or Dr. Tommy Buckholz, who is my wife's lead doctor. It was one of my most memorable Pro-Ams. The only regret I have, we got rained out after 4 holes. The Shell Houston Open puts together groups like that for us and makes the experience even more special.

Q. That was special. Tonight, by the way, we're looking forward to the Final Four. Your Georgia Tech team at TCU in the NIT Championship. Are you going to be watching?
STEWART CINK: Absolutely I'll be watching. I have even got a dinner bet with J.J. Henry, the Yellow Jackets and Horned Frogs.

Q. Who is going to win?
STEWART CINK: TCU looks like a tough, tough matchup for Georgia Tech. It's almost like they rose from the ashes this year. They had almost nothing coming in, no expectations at all. Then their new coach, Josh Pastner, ACC Coach of the Year, has turned the program around. Everybody is excited on campus.

Q. Stewart, thanks, man. Keep it going.
STEWART CINK: Taco Bell.

Q. 6-under, 66, bogey-free. How would you describe the day?
STEWART CINK: It was a solid day. I think mainly I just putted really well today. I had a lot of putts from like 10 to 20 feet that were going in and my speed was good. So when you can do that on this course with the way the greens are, they're so true out there and so smooth, you're going the make a few. And as long as you don't hit the ball in the hazards, you can score. Even if you miss the fairways, the rough is not obviously deep and the bunkers are playable. You can score well if you just manage them and make a few putts.

Q. What sense did you have in your game that things were starting to come to go and click for you?
STEWART CINK: I wouldn't say I really had any. I don't look at it like that. I've played decently solid over the last month or two and really extended back even to maybe like the last six months. Had some good tournaments. Feel good about just having a good attitude out there and having fun. Sometimes it all adds up to 6-under. Sometimes it adds up to even. Today was a good day.

Q. What does this place, this town of Houston, mean to you considering what your wife, Lisa, went through and how they've been a big part of it?
STEWART CINK: Yeah. She's still going through it, and we're down here in Houston about every 12 weeks, and luckily for us, though, Houston is a really big city and M.D. Anderson Cancer is on the other side of the town. Here at the Shell Houston Open we're trying to create some new memories, and it doesn't really feel like we're in the same town, honestly. We're quite a ways away. I've been here quite a bit playing in the golf tournament, but even though we've been facing some of the most like disastrous stuff you can face in life, still even coming out of that are good memories and a lot of closeness between us and our faith. It's really been an incredible ride, not one I wish on anybody, but we've learned a lot about ourselves throughout the whole thing and I got the chance to play in the Pro-Am yesterday with her one of her doctors was in the group.

Q. What did it mean to you?
STEWART CINK: The second time I've gotten to play with Dr. Tom Buckholz. We got rained out after four holes. A great guy. Become one of our really dear friends. We like hanging out with each other. The tournament put us together somehow, I don't know how, but we got to play together. It was a really, really fun day out there even though it was short.

Q. With what you've gone through and your wife, does this feel like almost a second home, so to speak, with the support you guys have received here in Houston?
STEWART CINK: We have received a lot of support, but I don't think it's the kind of support that makes you feel like you're at home. It makes you feel like you're a patient still. While we're very grateful for that kind of support, I'm looking forward to the day when Lisa doesn't have to think of Houston, Texas, as a place she has to be a patient and maybe next year, years down the road she can think of Houston as a place she can come to be the wife of Stewart Cink, golfer, and that's it.

Q. Would it be extra special to make that charge this weekend here?
STEWART CINK: It's special every week on the PGA TOUR to be in contention every weekend for sure. Yeah. I've got good memories here. I placed decent in the past and terrible in the past. I'm hoping to continue to play like I did today. We'll see what happens. Either way Lisa is coming tonight, she'll be here and get to hang out for the rest of the weekend.

Q. When was her last treatment?
STEWART CINK: Monday.

Q. Here?
STEWART CINK: No, Atlanta.

Q. When was she last treated here?
STEWART CINK: February the 13th.

Q. When will she come back?
STEWART CINK: May the 8th. Every 12 weeks, roughly.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297