PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2022

Stewart Cink

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: We welcome Stewart Cink to the PGA Championship here in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we are joined by Stewart Cink who carded a 1-over par 71 today, 2-over par for the championship. Thanks for joining us. Does your perspective on a longer career give you patience to sit back and do what you do best?

STEWART CINK: I believe so. Being in this position -- I'm not going to say I was in that position a lot of times playing in that many majors but I will say for a lot of years I've been in these positions and you know that there's just a certain element, I don't know how to describe it -- the golf course is hard and with the wind, completely flips around, there's a whole new puzzle every hole and you have to figure out what's going to happen and you are going to guess wrong sometimes. We executed, Reagan and I, pretty well several times today and did not get what we thought we were going to get and ended up in some really bad places. I think that's going to happen to everybody but you've just got to keep on going and grinding and just as important to win the attitude contest as it is the driving and irons and the chipping and putting contest.

Q. You and Mickelson played a round just before he won the PGA Championship last year, which might have helped him. How does what he achieved last year perhaps inspire and motivate you here this year?

STEWART CINK: It blows the ceiling off what we thought was impossible before, really. Phil is his own guy for sure and he's one of the best the game has ever seen but the fact that at his age he could not only just compete but finish it off and win, coupled with the fact I know I've got recent wins on the PGA Tour, it really gives me a load of belief that I can go out there and compete in a tournament like this, and maybe tomorrow, you know, if I have a couple of those things that didn't go my way today, maybe they go my way, 4- or 5-under par, you just never know. I've got that going for me and surely I was inspired by seeing what Phil did and that he hung in there and that he was himself and just made it happen.

Q. You contended in a major before. How much does that memory help you?

STEWART CINK: It doesn't help because it's completely a different golf course than it was and I'm a completely different golfer than I was. So I do like being in this area. It actually reminds me of the area I grew up here in Alabama. It feels like a comfortable place for me to play but the memory -- I have one memory, that's missing a short putt on the last hole that cost me from getting into a platform. It took me awhile to get over, and it's 20 years down the road almost. It's a distant memory now and I've got that monkey off my back thankfully.

I love playing here and I think more than having previous experience playing here, I just love the course the way they redid it. Gil Hanse did just a fabulous job. It's one of the best renovations or restorations I've ever seen. I thoroughly enjoy playing it.

Q. Is it shocking this is the same golf course in 2007 when it was 105 degrees and here we haven't even touched 60? That hard to comprehend?

STEWART CINK: It is. I expected it to be hot this week. We started looked at the weather last week, not really for temperatures, because we expected 90 degrees every day but more for wind and when I saw this weather coming through on the forecast it was very surprising. I'm wearing both the pullovers that I brought with me. I have two on, I have nothing left in my suitcase, I saw a couple short sleeves out there, but I need to conserve heat at my age.

Q. Happy birthday again, wanted to ask you, Reagan on the bag, how big is that having him there and what does he do to you that helps elevate your game?

STEWART CINK: Well, you know, he's part me. I mean, literally he thinks about golf the same way I think about it. I've got a pretty sound handle on how to judge the shots out of certain lies and the wind direction and just always been kind of a knack I've had to -- it's like being a tough out in baseball. Doesn't show in the stats every day.

But he's like that. He has a really good sense of judgment and feel for the way a shot is going to play and we very rarely disagree. When we do, we always arrive at a common assessment before we hit our shots. He knows the keys are not just to be physically on top of your game and hit every shot perfect, but it's how you handle the shots you don't hit perfect and where you get your heart, what position you get your heart in before your shots.

Those things are the intangibles that just are so crucial at this level of the game. And Reagan is a good golfer. He's about a scratch golfer, maybe a little bit better, but he just understands that part of the game so much better than a scratch golfer. He's like a TOUR player when it comes to that.

So having him alongside me, he can caddie for anybody in the world right now, and I'm not exaggerating. I don't want him to. I want him to caddie for me for a little while longer. He's a pleasure to have out there. And I'm proud to have a son, and I'm equally proud of Connor, my other son for other reasons, but to have Reagan out there doing the kind of job he's doing is not easy and it's incredible and it's a great experience.

Q. What's it going to take to continue the momentum and see how everything plays out ahead of you?

STEWART CINK: Well, I don't know what the scores are going to end up doing. I would think for me the biggest key is just to stay in the present and to keep on what we like to call bludgeoning, and that means just working everything down to a common denominator and executing that shot and going to find the ball. It's really simple, and it's really hard to do when your emotions are just like going like the Indy 500 out there.

That's going to be the key for me tomorrow. Keep doing what I've been doing. I've been striking the ball great and just clawing and fighting, and I'm going to keep doing that. If it turns into a 64 or 65 tomorrow, who knows.

Q. I know you said Phil blew the lid off, but how do you feel compared to how you felt 15 years ago?

STEWART CINK: It takes a little longer to warm up when I tee off at 7:30 in the morning, but other than that it feels exactly the same. I've never felt better or stronger or -- well, I can't put my socks on standing up like I used to, so I can't say I feel just as flexible as I ever have.

But golf-wise, going back to golf, I feel physically just as capable as ever if not more so. I've got the most speed I've ever had. I'm hitting the ball as far or farther than I've ever hit it, and power is a big deal in this game, especially on a course like this, and I do not lack in that department whatsoever.

All credit goes to my trainer, Cornel Driessen, who helped me overcome an injury back in 2019, and from there we sprung into this new physical stature that I have and this ability to put my golf swing where I want it. So since then I have felt really in control physically. I'm not saying my shots are always in control. I wish they were, but I can't ever blame a physical deficit for not playing well.