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MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 8, 2005

Stewart Cink

KAPALUA, HAWAII

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart, thanks for joining us for a couple of minutes here after the third round of the Mercedes Championships. Third round, 67. Vijay is trying to run away with it, but yourself and several other players are not letting him. Talk about your day today and we'll touch on the possible weather tomorrow and the early start and how that might affect you.

STEWART CINK: Today was a great day. I've really played about the same every day. I've really kept my mistakes to a minimum out there. The only thing I wish I could improve on is I've played some of the easier holes poorly. I've really not blistered the par 5s. I've really let go on some of the easier par 4s like 12, 14. A lot of the guys, some guys drive it on the green; I'm making pars. If I'm going to end up winning this tournament, I definitely need to take advantage of some of those holes tomorrow.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Okay. We'll go into questions.

Q. Does the early start tomorrow change your routine for the rest of today at all?

STEWART CINK: Probably not, because I've been falling asleep about 9 o'clock anyway.

No, it won't change anything. The only thing it changes is that now I get to go back to the room after the round is over tomorrow and pack up instead of having to do it before. That's fine with me.

Q. Are you keeping an eye on Vijay or just trying to ignore that?

STEWART CINK: If you try to keep up with Vijay Singh you're probably going to end up failing a lot more times than you succeed. I don't look at the score board too often to see what he's doing but all I can do is try to do my very best on every shot and if that ends up being even par or 8- or 9-under, then all I can do is come in and say I've done my best.

You know, I have no control over Vijay at all. He's on a roll like probably only two or three guys in history have ever been on. He's going to be tough to catch. I don't even know what he's on right now, but I'm sure we can wait five minutes and it will be one better. (Laughter.)

Q. A lot of times people start talking about the top players and the names Retief, Ernie, Vijay, how do you feel you should rank up there?

STEWART CINK: Well, I feel like I have a long way to go still on my game. It's hard for me to say because, you know, I don't see myself objectively. I know internally how I feel about my game, and I feel like I've got a lot still -- a lot of room to go, still to catch up with those guys.

But I'm working hard on it and I'm getting there. I'm closing the gap a little bit I think. You know, I'm not -- I don't want to discount myself at all because I definitely have the ability to play with anybody and I believe that firmly, especially over the last two years or so. I believe I can win any tournament and play against any field. But, you know, I still in my mind, I know I can be better than I am right now, and that's sort of what's driving me for the next two or three or four years.

Q. Do you feel especially after last year?

STEWART CINK: Well, after last year, I think I got a glimpse of what I can do. My swing has gotten better but it still has room for improvement. My motion, my mechanics still need a little bit of tweaking, just a little bit, and I know where that is. Three or four years ago, I really didn't have much of a clue where I needed to get better, so I got a lot more handle on now where I need to be, and it's a clear-cut goal, so I'm heading straight for it.

Q. How much of a factor do you think is the sports psychologist in terms of this kind of improvement on your game?

STEWART CINK: I don't think sports psychologists are a factor at all. I don't see one. I have a regular therapist.

No, everybody reacts differently to different kinds of therapy mentally, and for me, the sports psychologists that I've talked to, just I never really got -- I never helped myself feel at ease playing with them. So I went just a little bit different route and it's helped me quite a bit.

So it does have an impact. Really what's key is when you get down the stretch and you're in contention and you can still trust your swing and still trust your putting stroke. That's where the mental coaching comes in.

Q. So you do see a mental coach or were you joking about having a regular therapist?

STEWART CINK: No, I was not joking.

Q. Okay. So you do have a mental coach but he's not a quote unquote sports psychologist; is that right?

STEWART CINK: Exactly. He's a psychoanalyst.

Q. Important to get off to a good start tomorrow, if you're a couple shots back off the lead?

STEWART CINK: Not really. I mean, yeah, of course it's important, but it's important not to get off to a bad start. The way the conditions are forecast to be, it could be one of those days where 2- or 3-over is a great score. I mean, who knows. They are talking big, bad stuff. So I don't really look at it as it's big for me to get off to a good start because if I par the first four or five holes, I start feeling down about myself and that's not what I want. It's an 18-hole contest tomorrow and it just really is the fourth part of a four-part edition.

Just try to take it one shot at a time and do my best every time.

Q. If it does rain a little bit, will that make the greens even slower?

STEWART CINK: Well, one thing rain does is it sort of negates a little bit of the grain. So they might actually be easier to putt if they are soaked. They will be slower, but when they get dry like they are right now is when the grain really just kills the ball and you have to allow for so much grain. So if they get wet tomorrow, I think you might see more putts made, actually.

Q. What was the main reason behind your improvement last year, the little step you took up the ladder? I know you led the TOUR in putting, you talked about that the other day.

STEWART CINK: The putting was good, but I putted pretty well the year before, too, I was fourth or fifth or sixth. It wasn't just the putting.

Mechanically my swing has been improving since I've been working with Butch Harmon, and also mentally, like we talked about before, I've been working really hard on giving myself a little bit of a break out there and feeling at ease and learning about where fear comes from on the golf course.

I've found a sort of a peace out there playing that I never have been able to enjoy before.

Q. Can you talk more about that, about that fear, where fear comes from? Where does it come from?

STEWART CINK: Well, in golfers' minds, we have tons of transcript on this from the other day.

Q. I wasn't in there. I can read it.

STEWART CINK: The golfer's mind works a little bit differently than an athlete, like a quarterback or like a runner, somebody who is working their big muscles full speed all the time. You have so much time in between your shots and a lot of times, your shots are fine motor skills, and so the fear can come in on a chip or a putt the same way it could come in on a drive. If you're afraid of going right, well, you're going to go left. The key for me has been to understand where that's coming from and why I feel fear in the golf course. It helps me to deal with it. But you can go back and read some from whatever day we were here, there's tons. I explained it a lot more in detail.

Q. Where would a win in this tournament rank on your resume?

STEWART CINK: Well, it would -- the biggest tournament I've won so far has been the NEC last year from the World Golf Championships. I think it would be close to that if not equal to it because the field here are prestigious winners. There are not many players that are not considered the great players of today that are not here. It would be a huge honor and to get the year started off like that, knowing that I'm coming back here in a year would be a huge, huge day for me.

Q. Would that relax you even more for the rest of the year if that was happening?

STEWART CINK: Probably so. You know, winning breeds confidence. Right now I'm pretty confident, but I've only had two wins in the last 12 months. I'm very hungry for more wins. I love putting myself to the test like this. Especially since I've been working hard and I've rededicated myself over the last couple of years. I just live for being right here in this situation and giving myself a chance to prove myself right. I love it.

Q. You talked a little bit about the weather, do you consider yourself a good inclement weather player?

STEWART CINK: I consider myself a good player in dealing with adversity. And so, when weather comes in, you've got rain and wind, I feel like that's very adverse, and so yeah, I do like myself in those sort of conditions. Although in really rainy, cold -- not that it will be very cold -- but in rainy cold weather, I really don't have that great of a track record.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart, thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts.

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