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WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 17, 2005

Stewart Cink

AKRON, OHIO

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to get started by welcoming our defending champion Stewart Cink into the interview room. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.

STEWART CINK: Well, it's my pleasure to be back this year. A lot of great memories. The course looks the same. It doesn't change year to year much, except for where we're parking (laughter), the memories start to flow back even more when you get here. So it's a great feeling to be back.

JOHN BUSH: Revisit last year for us, your win here in Akron.

STEWART CINK: Well, I remember being under I wouldn't say pressure, but it was just a stressful four or five weeks leading up to the PGA with me being right on the cusp of the Ryder Cup team and not wanting to miss out on that. I did miss out on it technically because I didn't qualify in points, but then when Hal Sutton picked me, he called me on the phone as I was getting off the plane Sunday night after the PGA, and he said, "let's go, I want you on the team." That was a huge goal that I had been trying to reach. And to be picked for the team really you know, it helped me feel like I was really that Hal wanted my on the team, and in a way I felt maybe a little bit better about being picked than I would have been about being tenth or ninth and just sneaking on because out of all the guys he picked me.

It really took a lot of pressure off, and the race was off and I got on the team and I got to come here and focus on playing the golf tournament, which is something I hadn't been able to do. Everything was in form as far as I was swinging great, I had a good attitude, and then when you take away a lot of pressure, the first round was like the easiest 63 I ever shot. It was a great feeling and it carried on the whole week.

JOHN BUSH: Talk about the state of your game as you head into your title defense this week.

STEWART CINK: I wish I could say it was as good as last year. I've been working on a few things and I haven't had the best summer. I definitely haven't had as good of finishes this year as I had last year. But overall I'm sort of on the way up, and I've made a few equipment changes that have really helped me calm down a little bit on the golf course.

So I'm looking forward to playing here again and being out there. Every hole has a little something special to it because of last year now, and I'm sure it'll be a good stroll around.

Q. What kind of equipment changes?

STEWART CINK: Well, I was hitting the driver really well last year all year, and about three tournaments after NEC I broke the face of my driver when I was hitting balls. Immediately I started searching for a new driver and it was a tough replacement, and I really didn't find one until about two or three weeks ago. Nike came out with a new prototype something or other, a new driver. They won't tell me much about it, except to shut up about it. That's the only thing they tell me about it.

But it's a nice driver, and it immediately put the focus on me and my swing and my performance as opposed to the doubt that I had and what I was holding onto. It's hard to play courses like Pinehurst and Baltusrol and even regular Tour events with something you're not totally confident in. Unfortunately I broke two drivers in my lifetime, one when I was about 20 and this one last year, which was the one I drove the best in my life.

Q. The Nike driver, is that the one with the yellow on the bottom?

STEWART CINK: That's the one with the yellow on the bottom.

Q. What was the first tournament you used that?

STEWART CINK: Denver, and I drove it real well. Denver is not a real good test for us because the air is so thin, it's tough to curve the ball. When you hit shot after shot into your little window, no matter where you're trying to hit it, that's good, no matter if you're at sea level or on top of mount Everest.

It was a good thing for my confidence. It helped me to be able to go out there and think less about the driver I was hitting and more about the drives I was hitting.

Q. So even when other pros ask you about this thing, you say it's a mystery driver?

STEWART CINK: Basically. I'm holding back a little bit because I do know a little bit more than I'm saying, but they tell me, hey, it's a new prototype driver and just a new driver, and other than that we don't really know much about it. I'm sure there will be much more information forthcoming very soon from Nike.

Q. How old was the other one?

STEWART CINK: The one I was using before that broke? I had gotten it just before the first tournament of 2004. I used it every tournament of that year except for Tampa and the TOUR Championship, which is where the break happened, at Tampa.

Q. You've probably played 13 or 15 of these World Golf Championships, and there's always a few people that you've obviously played with regularly or don't know. Is that ever the case, where you've actually gone to the range and said, "who is that?"

STEWART CINK: Yesterday it happened.

Q. And?

STEWART CINK: Actually my caddie tried to get me he tried to catch me because I pulled up next to somebody to hit balls, and it was a little slopey so I said why don't we go over there on the other side of him, and Frank Williams, my caddie, goes, "quick, what's his name?"

Q. Did you ever find out?

STEWART CINK: I knew it because I had seen his bag so he didn't catch me.

Q. Who was it?

STEWART CINK: (Laughing) I'm not going to say who it is because I don't believe that would be very nice. There's guys that come from all places in the world that we Americans don't see that often because we don't travel very much. We stay here, and they for the most part stay there, but they play great golf, and just because you haven't seen them before or haven't I've heard all the names, there's no question about that.

Q. Every name in the field you've heard?

STEWART CINK: Every name I've heard because I'm not just a guy that plays a tournament and then turns golf off. I like to read about it and watch Golf Central and stuff like that. I keep up with golf and what's going on around the world, but it doesn't mean I see all the faces. It just goes to show you how deep our game is now, where you've got guys coming from everywhere in the world playing well enough to qualify for this field.

Q. Do you think he knew who you were?

STEWART CINK: Well, I can't say. I don't know. He might have, but we didn't really talk to each other very much so I didn't ask him that.

Q. Did he speak English?

STEWART CINK: Yes, he speaks English.

Q. What are you working on in your game? Do you work with Butch still?

STEWART CINK: I work with Butch Harmon. I'm still working on the same things I've been working on for the three years I've been seeing him. Just trying to get a little shorter. I get a little long at the top of my swing. That's a habit I've had for my whole life, and I'm trying to work on keeping that under control and just a few other technical things that are boring. Butch is a great teacher, I think, because he feeds a student in spoonfuls and not wheelbarrowfuls, and it makes it easy for me to go out there in Las Vegas where he is focusing on one little thing and just trying to get that part better.

We both know that playing golf out on Tour is much more of a marathon than it is a 100 yard dash, and in three years I've worked on two things, that's it. I probably won't be working on anything new for three more years, and that's the way I like it. I don't need a radical change, I just need to change little things.

Q. You putted so well here. Is that almost like your standard now for what you're trying to get back to?

STEWART CINK: You might say it is because I don't know how many tournaments have been played with better putting by anybody. I played extremely well here last year. I made almost everything inside ten feet and just felt so comfortable, so fluid. You know, I've had other tournaments where I putted well like that, too, but last year, to do it under pressure when I carried the lead through every round was really something that I built on a lot.

Q. Were you surprised to go wire to wire concerning this field, being as strong as it is?

STEWART CINK: I don't know. I never really thought about that. It is a strong field, but I think I'm a pretty strong player, too. One thing I guess I was surprised at is that on Sunday last year that no one came out and shot that super low round because a lot of times the guy that's 2nd or 3rd, five shots behind, can come out and shoot a low round because they're just free wheeling it. It didn't happen last year, and the golf course is tough. It's not an easy golf course here at all. It's very similar to what we saw last week, and I guess that probably explains the fact that no one shot low on Sunday.

Q. Because this is similar, someone might suggest that the same people who were in contention last week might do that here. Is that the case?

STEWART CINK: It wouldn't be an illogical conclusion to come up with, but then again, the game is just it's so diverse, and one week you're on, one week you're off. It's hard to say that someone would be in contention just because the courses are similar. Obviously Tiger is going to be in contention because he's Tiger Woods, Mickelson is on a roll, I'm sure he'll factor in here, and other guys you can't say just because the courses are similar that they'll be in contention. But I think one thing you can say because the courses are similar that everyone will enjoy playing here and look forward to competing this course because it will separate the best.

Q. I had two questions. Did you hear about the circumstances Sunday night at the PGA where Phil was 4 under, Thomas and Steve Elkington are 3 under, Tiger is at 2 under and done, and then they come back Monday morning. Tiger apparently went home Sunday night instead of sticking around to see if they came back to him. Do you find that unusual?

STEWART CINK: I didn't know that, but yeah, I find that unusual. I thought he'd be hitting balls Monday morning at the golf course because it's a tough course to finish on and it's a major championship. They did get two inches of rain, and when we finished on 18 I was the last group to finish, and the horn blew right away, so we were lucky. I got home that night.

When we finished and I saw Tiger's name up there at 2 under and the way the greens were playing and the fairways were hard to hit, I thought he had won the tournament because the closing stretch of holes is not easy. You couldn't hold it on 16 green with anything.

Then when they called it and they got the storm, things changed. I am surprised that he went home and didn't come back.

Q. My second question is I would imagine it's just a little bit more special to play in a Presidents Cup when you've got Jack as the captain. Everyone seems to have a memory of Jack, even though he's obviously pretty far before your time. I wonder if you have one little standout that years from now when people say "did you know Jack Nicklaus," what's the story you would tell about you and Jack?

STEWART CINK: First memory I have of Jack really is from the '86 Masters. It was the first tournament I really was excited about watching on TV. Usually I wanted to change the channel when my dad wanted to watch golf. I wanted to watch cartoons. I remember that shot he hit that landed on the 16th hill that almost went in the hole, and I remember jumping myself, which never happened, so that was my earliest memory of seeing him on TV.

As I got up into college and got to be a little bit better player, Jack's son Mike was on my team, so the first time I ever met Jack was also a memory. I met him at a Georgia Tech football game one year, and he and Barbara came up for like a parents' day where we invited all the team parents to come in and go to a game, so maybe it was homecoming or something. Jack and Barbara actually came to this day, which I thought was really good, and I got to meet Jack for the first time. We actually got to play golf together, too.

Q. When was that?

STEWART CINK: It was in at one of the courses we used to play called golf course of Georgia up there, and I played with Jack and I tied Jack, and I remember on the last hole, I made about an eight footer for par, and he asked me if I when we got finished, I knew exactly what he shot and what I shot, and I knew that was to tie him, and he asked me if I knew that that putt was to tie him, and I lied to him and said, "no, I didn't know."

But then when I walked away, I was thinking, "why didn't I tell him I knew because if I told him I knew he would have thought I was better because I made that putt to tie Jack Nicklaus." But I told him I didn't know. Those are some of my earlier memories of Jack.

Then this point at St. Andrews I got a vantage point unlike any other of him crossing the bridge for the last time because I played behind him. I was on 17th green behind him. Very few can say that.

Q. Did you ever go back and tell him that you lied?

STEWART CINK: No, but I'll probably tell him at the Presidents Cup. He won't remember that, so me telling him that would be sort of anticlimactic.

Q. He will.

STEWART CINK: He will?

It may have been the same weekend, maybe later, but it was the same year.

Q. Did you get choked up watching him cross the bridge?

STEWART CINK: Well, I was choked up or maybe I was just choking because I was shooting about 6 over. So one of the two. It was pretty special to see him there go across the bridge. I was in a bad mood because I was going to miss the cut, which stinks, but to see him go across there, and he called Tom and Luke Donald up on the bridge with him, it was special to see it, especially looking there from where I was, I could see the whole 18th behind him and the clubhouse and all the people. So it was a unique perspective. I really wish I had a camera in my pocket at the time, but I didn't think of it.

Q. Going back to the driver thing, are you surprised in this day and age with all the technology that it takes you that long to find a replacement?

STEWART CINK: You would think that you could find one right away, but no matter how good the technology is, no two drivers are ever going to be the same, no two shafts. It takes a while to sort through a few and find ones that are perfect. I'm hard on Nike. I'm one of the guys that is very demanding of if one is not really just right, then it's thrown out. I can't go out with something that's just close. I really have to have something exactly right. But the driver is the only club like that. Every other club in my bag, basically they make it and it goes in.

Yeah, you would think you could just find one right away, but for me in my case I just had a good time. But now I think I'm good.

Q. Did you keep the shaft?

STEWART CINK: I did for a while and I put heads on it and tried some things, but now I don't know where it is.

Q. Was it a Nike driver you were trying to replace?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, Nike 410.

Q. One more quick thing about Tiger on Monday. I mean, would that have been unsportsmanlike to come and warm up when you're not sure you're going to be in a playoff?

STEWART CINK: Unsportsmanlike? No way. It would have been totally sportsmanlike for him to come out there and be prepared for whatever happened. Because if you consider the fact that let's say there was no delay. Do you think he would have left and gone home at 2 under par or do you think he would have just stuck around to see? I think he would have stuck around to see. He may have even gone to the range if someone wobbled coming in. No, it wouldn't have been unsportsmanlike at all. If anything just him being there at the clubhouse and being seen might have affected the way they played on Monday (laughter).

I remember an amateur tournament one time when I was probably 19, 20 years old, and I played in it and I shot 63 the last day, and went from nowhere to somewhere, and I was near the lead, and I teed off really early. 63 in amateur golf is pretty unheard of, and I remember Allen Doyle was in the last group, and when he got finished and he came in I actually won the tournament that day, and he got finished and I was there waiting for the trophy presentation or whatever, and he said that if he had shot a 63, he would have been out there with a bullhorn letting everybody know he shot 63, and I think that's in a way what Tiger would have been there if he had been there on that day, he would have been there with a bullhorn letting everybody know I'm 2 under par, I'm in the clubhouse and I'm finished and I'm waiting for you. I am surprised that he left.

JOHN BUSH: Stewart, thanks for coming by. Good luck this week.

STEWART CINK: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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