MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 7, 2022

Stewart Cink

Quick Quotes

Q. How did things shift as the weather changed as the day went on?

STEWART CINK: Well, really the wind was the only real change. The course stayed soft, as expected. It was just you had to start really dialing your ball in in the air, and it was challenging at times, as it always is when it's windy here.

For the rain they've had and the softness and how perfectly conditioned everything is, it's not an easy day to score out there. You have your hands full out there. It's just a tough golf course to play.

Q. So Reagan says you guys are sticking with it for another year or so?

STEWART CINK: I guess, I guess. It was supposed to be over at the end of last season, and it didn't end. I'm not complaining, I love him caddying. We'll just keep going, and I'll let him decide.

Q. So it's his decision?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it's up to him. I love him caddying. In a vacuum, it would be great to have him caddie for me until I stop playing golf, but I don't think that's the best thing for him probably as a young adult.

So it won't last forever, but it's definitely fun while it's lasting.

Q. Enjoy it another year?

STEWART CINK: Yeah.

Q. Tough back nine, though, it looked like?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I had a couple of penalty shots back there. Some mud on the ball occasionally. It's remarkably not that often, but when it's there, it's hard to commit to aiming your ball and allow for the mud to move it one way or the other when you've got so much trouble on the side of the greens.

Like 11 is a perfect example. Harry's ball had mud all over the side of it. He was right beside me, and he had mud all over the left side, and you just can't aim it out to the lake.

It's just hard. Everybody is going to have to deal with something like that. It probably evens out over the course of the tournament, but, man, when you're standing there looking down on your ball and it's got mud on it, it's really difficult. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of trust, and it makes golf at this course even harder than it already is.

Q. Did you play any practice rounds? I saw you, and it looked like you were mostly driving, chipping, and putting?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I played. I came over last week and played a dedicated 18 holes where I did a lot of homework. Then the rain kind of -- just the timing of my rounds, I got called off the course a couple times when I was in the middle of my rounds. But I got to do what I needed to do for prep.

A lot of preparation on a course like this for me is conserving energy, and that means like not playing 18 holes every day.

Q. Kind of taking a step back from this week, you played with Tiger a bunch of times here. I'm curious, when you're in a group with him compared to when you're playing with others, is the vibe different from your seat? In terms of the noise, distractions, chaos?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it's way different.

Q. How so?

STEWART CINK: It's way different here and -- but it's not different from anywhere else. It's way different when you play with Tiger anywhere, and Augusta National is no different.

The biggest thing is just the energy in the crowd and the intensity of the reactions and the scrambling for position. There's a lot of movement out there. But it's not something that really bothers anybody.

And Tiger is really good at knowing it's going to happen and letting the guys putt out if they need to so the patrons don't just scramble on to the next hole as soon as he finishes. He's always been really good about that.

Q. What do you make of him being here this week?

STEWART CINK: I'm astonished that he's been able to come back and play in the Masters. It's just -- if there was one person I guess I've ever known that I would say could do t it would be Tiger Woods, and he's doing it.

I know one thing about him, he's definitely not missed any days of trying to recover and get the most out of whatever he has now. So the fact that he's out here walking around this golf course is really remarkable.

Q. How many shots per round -- could you quantify it? How many shots per round is it worth when he's won this thing five times? When he starts the day and he's a little physically hobbled and he doesn't look the same when he has to mark his ball and stuff, but he has so much know-how around this course. Is there any way to quantify sort of what he has, a half shot or anything over you guys?

STEWART CINK: Might be a little bit because he does have all that, but you have to combine that with the belief and the ability to execute how you're seeing yourself do your shots, how you're planning. So being a good planner and taking in all the factors and the local know-how and all that is one thing, but being able to execute it is a big, big part of it too, and he can do that.

That's what won him the Masters tournaments so many times was both, being able to do it all. But I mean, that's no surprise. That's what put him at No. 1 in the world for 50 years, it felt like. He could do everything in the game as good or better than anybody else -- long, accurate, iron play, discipline, short game putting, belief, mental toughness. He had it all. He was at the top of every category.

When you put that kind of a golfer on a golf course like this that requires all that the most, it just gives him the edge even more.

Q. We're feeling this wind pass through here. Is that a big part of it, like waiting out the wind and figuring out the wind stuff?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I think you can probably over plan for the little micro wind adjustments like you have down in Amen Corner where you have wind direction that should be going this way, but the trees are making it come in like this for instance. That happens all over the place here.

If you're too careful trying to get all that stuff right, you're probably going to shoot yourself in the foot. So I think it's better to be a little bit more general on a windy day and play for what you think the wind should be doing because you're going to probably be right more often and you're going to confuse yourself less.

But you're never going to get away from being like basically made to look silly by the wind. It happened to us a couple times out there today, everybody in our group.