THE 149TH OPEN

July 15, 2021

Stewart Cink

Mixed Zone

Q. Joined by Stewart Cink. Stewart, can you just describe your performance today and that under-par round?

STEWART CINK: I think today was what I would've hoped for for an opening round, for the most part. We have my son Reagan I have a pretty good game plan for this course, and we got to push that into operation today.

It seemed like there were very few errors in that department out there today and it was pretty smooth round. So I know I've been around these Opens enough that there will be a lot of challenges, be a lot of travails out there over the week. Today I mostly avoided them.

Q. How important is it to get off to such a good start?

STEWART CINK: Well, I mean, you know, I hesitate to use the old adage about winning the tournament on Thursday, but it's kind of true. You want to be in it. You want to get a good feel for the course. Few surprises on the first round, and just do the best you can.

I executed pretty well and I've got a good solid executing plan for the rest of the week, and so I think that between Reagan and I we are doing a pretty good job. And mostly this whole year, but doing a pretty good job piecing the shots together and figuring out the strategy on each shot and not making a lot of errors in that department.

So that's a big part of links golf, is to do the right guesswork.

Q. Fine round today. You're famous in my part of the world for paying a visit to Lahinch before your preparation for '09. Did you pay another visit this week to kind of get you in form for links golf?

STEWART CINK: Sadly, no. I haven't been back for a few years, but do love the area around Lahinch. I still say Lahinch is my favorite opening nine holes anywhere in the world. I love playing the first nine, and hopefully I'll get back soon. Didn't make it this year.

Q. So you had 14 greens in regulation today. How important was that in getting such a solid opening round?

STEWART CINK: That's important I think every round, no matter what course you're playing and what tournament. Today I had a few shots that I wouldn't consider to be super high quality approach es and some of them still found the green. That's mostly due to reasonable planning and just not shooting yourself in the foot.

You don't want to take a lot of chances when there is a lot of trouble lurking around the greens, and today I hit my -- some good shots in there close and some poor shots that ended up on the green and playable and living. That's what we call it, we say we're living.

And I felt like I was living all day. Playing out of the good parts of the fairway and from light rough mostly, if I was in the rough. So all in all today was really acceptable day.

Q. With the weather forecast being consistent over the weekend, are you confident you can make a push for a potential second Open?

STEWART CINK: I'm very confident in that, and it has nothing to do with the weather forecast, though. I didn't realise the weather forecast was supposed to stay consistent. I feel like I've got a lot of experience and I like the way my game has been the last ten or twelve months. I'm having a great time, so I'm not too stressed out about the results.

I'm hoping to get in the mix and give this thing a run like I did in 2009 and try to draw on some of those memories.

Yeah, I definitely have the confidence to do that.