	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

DEAN & DELUCA INVITATIONAL

May 27, 2017

Stewart Cink

Fort Worth, Texas

Q. Moving day. You got off to a hot start. Take us through your round.
STEWART CINK: Yeah, it was a hot start. You know, start off with a comfortable birdie on the 1st hole. Just driver, 6-iron on the Par-5 there to about 15 feet and 2-putted.

Had a few putts go in. 3.

Long 2-putt on 4.

Missed a short one on 5, actually.

But then some started to go in from like four feet, eight feet, fifteen feet, and then long 2-putts, good saves. Those are the kind of things to save you around here, because you're going to have a lot of -- a lot of good shots are going to miss the fairway, and from the rough, it's really hard to get the ball close.

So you have a lot of long putts, and 2-putting those or getting up and down from off the green is really, really key to saving momentum.

Q. You're experience around here is incredible. You've been here I think since the turn of the century. Had some good finishes.
STEWART CINK: Which century? (Laughter.)

Q. The current one. Take me through what it means for you at Colonial. A lot people love it because of the old style course, but what is it for you?
STEWART CINK: I think it's that. But over the years, too, Fort Worth, the town, has really grown on me. I really love this town. It's one of my favorite places to go during the entire year.

My wife and I are both having a good time here. We know a lot of people here now. The fans are always very appreciative and a little rowdy at times, but that's great. That's great to have that.

So I just like the environment. I love playing the golf course, the history of it. Of course everybody loves playing here, but I think the town, I just feel very comfortable being here.

Q. You seem to be in a more positive frame of mind. I know it's been a long time between drinks on the PGA TOUR for you. How excited are you at giving yourself a chance at that next win?
STEWART CINK: I think you hit it right on the head. It's exciting to get a chance. You know, I think in your career out here, season after season, you give yourself five or six chances to win, being in the mix on Sunday, and of one of those times it might happen; maybe more.

You can't exact it to happen unless you get yourself in position on Saturday. Got 18 more holes to go. I would love to be down the stretch in the mix here, too, and enjoy that challenge.

Q. 16 of 18 fairways, if I'm not mistaken.
STEWART CINK: Greens?

Q. I'm sorry, greens.
STEWART CINK: Sounds right, yeah.

Q. Is that even more important at a golf course like this where the greens are small? You just talked about the need to limit your mistakes.
STEWART CINK: It is, yeah. Of course if the greens are small and you hit a lot of greens you're going to be a lot closer to the hole than the average course.

But, yeah, I don't really think about it that way. I don't know that greens in regulation is really a great way to measure your ball striking around this course, because you can hit god shots and miss, too.

Certainly if you're using your putter for birdies or eagles 16 times in a round here then it's going to be a lot harder to shoot under par than if you're trying to grind up and down all day.

Q. Stewart, how would you describe the heat?
STEWART CINK: Everybody is talking about. It's like Topic No. 1 in the locker room and on the range. It's hot. It's hot. I think the main thing is it's really the first heat of the year we've experienced. You have to go back all the way to, you know, well back into 2016.

So we're just not accustomed to it. Not yet. It'll be hot like this again in Memphis. Who knows? Could be hot anywhere. We're getting to that time of year.

If it was this not August we wouldn't even be mentioning it.

Q. When you finished tied for second here in 2000, did you think back then, All right, at some point in my career I'm going to win at Colonial?
STEWART CINK: No, I never did. I don't think like that. I was excited about finishing second in 2000. When I finished that tournament, actually, that was one that I remember I probably let get away that I really should have been maybe winning that.

So I took it and learned what I could from it and tried to get a little bit better that day and rest of that year. It did become a good year for me.

I didn't think about it like this is a course I think I can win on or I want to come back and win on. I knew even before 2000 this is a course I enjoyed competing on, and I was going to come back here year after year after year.

Q. You did miss a couple years, last couple years.
STEWART CINK: I did. It was a function of graduations. Yeah, both my kids graduated from high school during this tournament, and so I missed two.

Honestly, I have no idea would I have missed it any other year. It's my 21st year on tour and I missed it four times, and I can't tell you why I missed it the other two, but I wish I would've played. (Laughter.)

Q. It's been a while since you've been in the mix. How do you go into tomorrow? Will you be anxious to get the first win since the Open?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think one of the keys in learning how to handle being nervous and a little bit anxious in situations like this is to not run and hide from it and to kind of embrace it and figure out how to sort of swim in it. That'll be what I plan to do.

I'm sure I'll probably be thinking about it a little bit tonight and tomorrow. But it looks like Webb is probably going to forge ahead a little bit. He's got a couple-shot cushion. I'm going to come out tomorrow and just try to maintain aggressiveness and see what I can do.

We'll start making decisions based on where we are relative to the other players in the field probably around 14th or 15th hole tomorrow.

Before that, just trying to play the course the best we can and pile up the birdies.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297