PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 15, 2022

Stewart Cink

Connor Cink

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Just some thoughts about how exciting, fun, all of it is for you guys to be here together this week?

STEWART CINK: Well, it's the most enjoyable tournament of the year. It has all the good stuff of all the tournaments we play in, but it has very little of the stressful and excruciating stuff that all the other tournaments have.

I get to share that with him or other years with my son, Reagan. It's really a unique thing. You can't -- you can explain what it must feel like to stay at home and face like a 100-mile-an-hour fastball in the World Series but you can't ever really get that experience. And this tournament gives the partners a chance to sort of feel that coming down the stretch and on the first tee and all that. It's just really cool.

Q. Any nerves, and what kind of game do you bring to the team?

CONNOR CINK: Well, nerves, I think I feel the nerves to start but he helps with that a lot, instilling confidence. Reminding me that I'm out here just to have fun and play golf, and that there's --

STEWART CINK: And win.

CONNOR CINK: And win. And win, yeah. That's -- and I guess that's a good segue to what I bring is a chipper attitude, a positive force and occasionally a fairway and a putt, that's what I bring.

Q. How do you decide which of your boys plays?

STEWART CINK: We just alternate. When we played, me and Connor the first time we won so he played the next year as the defending champion and after that we've alternated every year. I haven't been in every year but when we get in, we just alternate.

So they switch back and forth and just kind of been the way it is.

CONNOR CINK: And yeah, we've caddied for each other. It's always cooperative and a little competitive but you know, it's all in good -- good fun. We encourage each other.

Q. Is there trash talk among the brothers about their performances?

CONNOR CINK: Light, light trash talk, only when there's good on the other side. If it's a tough day, we usually let each other off. But yeah, you just don't take it as seriously as it might seem because we are both out there with Dad and that keeps it the same way we've been playing golf since we grew up.

Q. What's the biggest strength and weakness in Connor's game?

STEWART CINK: I would say putting is his strength. He's natural a good athlete. He doesn't play that much golf. He comes from outside of the golf world in a lot of ways, probably more so than a lot of the players here but he's got really good hand-coordination and touch and feels, so around the greens he's excellent. His long-game technique has not really been all that polished, so we will probably rely on me for that part. But when we get up near the green, it's usually we have got two horses in the race. Hope that's fair.

CONNOR CINK: That's very fair. More credit than I would have given me.

Q. Just wanted to ask you about Tiger, you saw what he did this year, only playing three tournaments, but is there something to be said about even doing that for him? Does it show maybe what we all knew about him, how he never gives up and that trait that he has and to be able to do what he did this year?

STEWART CINK: I would say we are never really going to know how much is in there because he just continues to do more than we thought he would ever be able to do.

I came out at just the same time he did and if you asked me if there is going to be anybody in our generation to win a hundred tournament -- what is he, 81? 82 tournaments, I would have probably said, no, there's no chance.

But he continues to defy really all conceivability. To me what says a lot about the PNC championship is it's the third straight year he's played in. Can you name any other tournament that that's the case? I don't know if there is one that he's played in the last three straight years? I mean that says a lot about what this tournament means to all of us playing; that Tiger Woods would play here three consecutive years considering what he's gone through.

Q. How have you seen this tournament grow?

STEWART CINK: If you look behind us here, there's quite a lot more infrastructure than there was nine years ago when we first played in this thing. So that's one way. There's just a lot more interest. I mean, Tiger just is his own universe when it comes to that. We've all known that for a long time. We know it, tournaments know it and everybody that comes out here to watch, you can't get a ticket to this thing. And that tells you that Tiger Woods is playing, and it's just a lot bigger deal just like every tournament of the year when Tiger shows up to play, it's a bigger deal than it would have been if he had not been.

Q. Who are some of the golfers you're excited to see this week?

STEWART CINK: I mean, I see them all the time, so with the exception of Tiger, I don't get to see him that often but I like seeing Gary Player and Trevino, and when Jack always played here, I loved watching Jack. We got to play with Jack, I think that was you and I.

CONNOR CINK: That was awesome.

STEWART CINK: It's just something that you don't get to do very often. I'll see plenty of Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard and those guys. I see them all the time. It's not that I don't look forward to seeing them because they are my friends.

But to see Lee Trevino at lunch and hitting balls, that's something that doesn't happen that often.

CONNOR CINK: I grew up with a lot of the sons and the kids that are playing in these tournaments and it's been a long time since we got to hang out outside of the daycare days when we were just kids. Seeing all the families in the different walks of life, and then getting back to just being friends again and being under the same roof and competing, it's a really special thing.

Q. I know you have a milestone birthday coming up. Will you play the Champions Tour?

STEWART CINK: I will probably sprinkle in a few events but my plan is to focus on PGA TOUR golf for a while. They keep elevating these events and making the prize even more rich, so sounds like a pretty good experience to me.

I still have a lot left I think in my tank and I have a lot of years for Champions Tour golf and so my plan is to sick stick to PGA TOUR for a while and Champions Tour will be there but I'm going to dip a toe in the water, too.

Pádraig Harrington encouraged me to continue playing on the PGA TOUR for some reason. Maybe he thinks I've got some potential out there, I don't know. He wants me to stay out there, I don't know what to read into that. But hopefully if I do come out and pray I get to play a lot with Pádraig the next few years.

Q. What do you look for on the range with Tiger to know he's still got --

STEWART CINK: You can't see it on the range. It's not that because when I've seen him hit balls he looks a lot like the Tiger Woods of pre-accident. But it's just more of the getting around for consecutive days and walking up and down hills. I would not even pretend to know what he's going through. But he's told me about some of the pre-round stuff he has to do. He's not really big on letting you in on a lot but he's told me some, and I don't know if I would still be out here trying. I don't know. He's just got a fascinating drive inside him and I don't think that the swing hitting balls on the range will tell you much. It's more about how he feels at the end of the day getting around on foot.

Q. Do you think he can get something out of participating in this tournament?

STEWART CINK: From a golf standpoint, yeah, you can get something out of it because you still are trying to hit good shots under a little bit of heat. But more importantly what you get out of it is you get to spend time with your family member, I get with Connor and he gets with Charlie and that you can't replace. He would be out here, even if he didn't hit a single shot probably just for that.

CONNOR CINK: Plus seeing Charlie, he can stripe the ball. He's getting his reps early. So he when starts playing more competitively and taking off, he's going to think back to moments where he had pressure putt on him at a young age and his dad, legend of the sport, was able to give him that insider information. He can take that into the course when he starts playing at those more competitive levels. We will see that in the next couple years.