SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2023

Stewart Cink

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Stewart, how would you characterize the round today?

STEWART CINK: For the first round of the calendar year, I was pretty pleased with it. I did a lot of good things out there. Couple mistakes here and there, too, but all in all felt like my heart in the right place.

Mentally I kind of felt like I wasn't too rusty. Judged a lot of the shots right. That's the key to Waialae, is judging the shots out of the rough correctly and just kind of weathering the storm when I miss fairways, because you're going to miss a lot of fairways here.

Q. Was there a particular shot that you felt you judged particularly well out of the rough there today?

STEWART CINK: Probably the 18th hole, second shot. I hit a good drive, but there is going to be a lot of guys today that hit great drives there that don't end up in the fairway because it's downwind and there is just not a lot of room out there to hit it into.

I hit a good drive, ran it through the fairway, and I had really pretty tough lie. I mean, it was thick grass. You know, you're going to get a lot of tumble. The fairways are running like crazy. It's just kind of a guessing game.

The main thing you want to do is not put yourself into a really awkward place for you next shot. We made up a good plan and I executed right and the ball lands 25 yards short of the green and ends up rolling right up on the center of the green exactly like we drew it up.

So that's a good example, but that's the kind of shots you have to -- you have to keep your wits about you and keep a clear head and manage your expectations on shots like that.

Q. You think this is a golf course that you enjoy and can contend in year in and year out even if you get a little bit older?

STEWART CINK: Well, I don't know if age has anything to do with it or not. This is not a kind of course you need to be super long. If you hit the fairways it's a short course. You just have to have the expectations in the right place here.

A lot of good shots aren't going to end up in good places, off the tee especially. You just have to be ready to deal with that, and I've seen guys and I've seen myself even get pretty frustrated here.

But it's good kind of course because it rewards some experience and some properly-set expectations.