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MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIPS

January 5, 2005

Stewart Cink

KAPALUA, HAWAII

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks for stopping by the 2005 Mercedes Championship. This is the first time you're back here since 2001. Must be nice to return to.

STEWART CINK: It's a great place to return to. Gosh, what can you say that has not already been said about Kapalua and the Plantation Course. In addition I guess to the beautiful place we are at here, it means a lot just to be here.

TODD BUDNICK: Resurgence in your career last year with the two victories. What does 2005 look like for Stewart Cink.

STEWART CINK: I would love to add on a few more wins this year. That was definitely the highlight of last year. But I'm really trying not to compare 2005 to 2004 because there's only four more places higher to go on the Money List than I had last year, so it's difficult to improve on a good year. So I'm coming out this year with sort of a new slate and I'm not -- I'm trying not to make comparisons, so give myself a break here.

TODD BUDNICK: At the end of the year did you look back and say, this is a particular part of my game or anything that led me to get back to where I was?

STEWART CINK: Well, the first thing that would jump out off the paper would be the putting because I finished first in that. Really I putted well for a few years now, and I think this year what really helped me improve a lot is working with Butch Harmon; my driving got better. My stats were still horrible in accuracy but when I had situations where when I needed to hit good drives, I hit them and that was the difference this year or in 2004 from the other years is that I was able to produce more often when I needed to.

Q. When you look back at your season last year, Torrey Pines you had a good chance and blew up on the last day if I remember correctly.

STEWART CINK: Thanks.

Q. Well, after a bad game last night, I'm looking negative -- no. Was there a time in your career where you would have let that bother you and how did you see that last year, was it still a good tournament and keep building?

STEWART CINK: It bothered me last year, too. The difference was it bothered me in a different way. I was really angry at that last year because I felt like my game got to a point where I should not be shooting high scores on Sunday although John Daly shot 75, one shot better than me on Sunday and he won. It was a tough day but still I was angry at myself for allowing that to happen because I knew I was better. In the past, it would affect me, it would bother me because I felt like maybe I was not up to the standards of the other players I was with.

But this past year I really started believing in myself quite a bit more and so when I had rounds like that, 76 the last day there and a few others during the year, I was angry at myself not because of the way I used to be but it just got me fired up.

Q. Was that maybe a sign to yourself that you were onto better things as the year went on?

STEWART CINK: I knew at that point that I had a sense that I felt like I was ready to move on and I was ready to jump a little bit on the ladder. And so that was one of those points where I sort of had to have a reality check and maybe I got a little lackadaisical and a little bit lazy. So looking back, it was probably not a bad thing that happened.

Q. You talk about the Money List and you talk about not only were you high, you look at the guys who were above you and below you and talking about Vijay, Tiger, Ernie, Retief, Mickelson and you're right there. Is it even better now because there's so many great players on top of their game?

STEWART CINK: I think it's better. I definitely expect Tiger to jump right back up there and be where he was. But the competition is always good no matter what you're talking about, it's always a good thing.

It seems like we have more competition now than we've ever had.

Q. With the competition, how unlikely is it that a player would win nine titles? What we're seeing now with Vijay last year and Tiger in 2000, we've seen it twice now in a four-year period; how unlikely is it?

STEWART CINK: You would think it's unlikely but it's happening more than ever. I don't know how to explain that except for Vijay and Tiger just seem to be -- they seem to be almost superhuman with what they can do with the ball. It's amazing, the distance and accuracy they have and the short game. They have got the whole package, and when they are on, they are almost unbeatable. A few years ago, we would say that about Tiger and I think now you have to put Vijay in there, too.

Q. A couple years ago when Tiger came off that 2000 season, there was a sense that, you know, is it ever going to stop, what's he going to do next and how long does it go; do you set that same sense with Vijay?

STEWART CINK: I do. And as we can see, the Tiger performance has slowed down a little bit, but you do get the same sense with Vijay because you just don't see him going anywhere. He works so hard and he's in great shape, he's mature, 41 or 42 years old or whatever he is.

You don't get the sense that anything is going to derail that machine. But then again, it happens. Golf is just so unpredictable, you never know what to expect.

Q. With Vijay and Ernie and everyone else, did you guys get that much better or did Tiger get worse?

STEWART CINK: I think a little bit of both. I think Tiger working on his game a little bit and changing his swing slightly, when you're at such a high level, if you just make a little bit of a change and you come down just a little bit, it's noticeable, and I think he would tell you, too. He came down a little bit, but everybody else is elevated and you know, everybody has gotten so good at taking advantage of what's available to them out there.

Q. You're not the first guy who said you expect Tiger to have a good year; why do you say that?

STEWART CINK: Because the last tournament I played in, he won easy. (Laughter.) Every time I tee it up it seems like he's leading. It's like back to the old 2000 again, 2001.

Q. Did you play in Japan?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I played in the Dunlop Phoenix.

Q. What were you doing there?

STEWART CINK: Actually, I was over there for a week before the tournament to work, do some work with my church, the Baptist Mission in Japan and I played in the Dunlop Phoenix as part of that and also to play another competitive tournament. I like going over to Japan quite a bit.

Q. Are you going back?

STEWART CINK: I don't know. I don't make my plans for that so far in advance but I'm definitely expecting to go back some time.

Q. What's your history there?

STEWART CINK: Played three or four tournaments.

Q. Early?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, like the last one I played I think was in '99 before last year, but I enjoy going over there.

Q. You probably stand out over there?

STEWART CINK: A little bit. (Laughs).

Q. You talked about people moving up and I wonder if you could in any way quantify how much you've moved up since, say, 2000, 2001?

STEWART CINK: Well, I have. I've really let up on myself quite a bit as far as, well, I stopped beating up on myself as much and I started forgiving myself for mistakes. What that really translates into is taking pressure on and being able to perform the way I know I can and being able to trust myself. I make it a lot easier on myself. I think I was carrying around a lot of extra baggage that was weighing me down a little bit. Now I've sort of wiped a little bit of that away. You know, I'm having more fun playing and it's working both ways. I'm playing better, too.

Q. I guess I was referring mainly more to the physical aspects of the game; how has that translated into what you do better?

STEWART CINK: Oh, you mean -- okay. Well, I'm hitting the ball a lot farther than I was a few years ago, and I don't mean just because of new balls and new clubs; I mean relative to other players. I've gained a lot of distance. My fitness has gotten a lot better. I'm more aware of, you know, where I need to go with my fitness and how I need my swing and how that sort of relates to one another.

And so I've got a lot better handle on things. I'm more of a businesslike player away from tournament rounds than I used to be. I used to just show up for tournaments and then I would be businesslike and now I carry that a lot away from the course, too.

Q. How did you go about this mentally taking that pressure off yourself; was it a process or did you just wake up one morning and say, "I'm not going to beat up on myself"?

STEWART CINK: I wish. I wish it was like that. I was having some trouble, I was having a lot of self-doubt out here about two or three years ago and it was affecting my play. I was anxious, I was dreading tournaments and I was not looking forward to being in front of crowds.

You know, just stuff that goes through your head when you're in front of people when you're playing golf, and instead of just trying to deal with it on my own, I sought help and I got help. I found a guy in Florida, Dr. Preston Waddington who helped me out quite a bit. He's not a sports psychologist. I used to see a sports psychologist but I don't anymore. This guy is a therapist. He helps me with a lot of things in my life. He's helped me figure out a lot of things about Stewart Cink that before I didn't really understand were going on. It's really translated into me being more at peace and at ease on the golf course.

Q. You kind of chuckle when you said he's a therapist. Like did you have to get past, I don't know, a reluctance to even want to go see somebody like that?

STEWART CINK: No, because I realized I was having trouble on the course and I knew that it was something that I was not going to be able just to wipe away. Because I tried doing that for a few years. I tried to just put it away, I tried all kind of different fixes. I see guys during these tour events do the same kind of things I was trying to do all the time, all the time. You know, that's not the answer. The answer is that you have to find the real answer. And it usually is buried somewhere deep inside in your mind. You've got experiences in your past that come out at certain times, personality traits. I just educated myself basically and with the help of this Dr. Waddington, just freed myself up. It's been really enlightening for me.

Q. If these are things that you are dealing with internally or emotionally or whatever, how can you see guys working on something internally? What were they working on?

STEWART CINK: No, because the things they work on were external. I see guys trying new grips, trying new clubs, even in interview processes, I hear the same kind of things in guys' answers all the time.

Q. Like what?

STEWART CINK: Well, I don't want to mention any specific players but I hear people refer to, you know, things about what the crowd might think about them or what another player may think about. Basically you compare yourself to everybody every day, we all do it. And it's pretty common. I think golf and pitching and kickers in football, we have similar type of mental activity because it's a lot of fine motor movements that control like putting and chipping, little things. You have to be able to slow your heart rate down and you have to be able to handle yourself.

If you're emotionally sort of out of whack, it's impossible.

Q. That being said, is that a common trait that Ernie, Vijay, Tiger have that they all seem to be totally different personalities?

STEWART CINK: I think what all the best golfers have today and in the past, what they all have is they really don't give a crap about what anybody thinks about them. (Laughter.) Honest to God, that's true. Talking about 3-putts, hitting balls out-of-bounds, bogeys on par 5s, all that stuff, they have a real strong ability just to wipe the slate clean and start over on the next hole and that's something that a lot of golfers don't have and for a long time there I was having trouble putting my mistakes behind me. I was carrying along every mistake I made and that's not the way we play golf. It's enough to carry around 14 clubs.

Q. Was that one tournament when all of that like just stopped and a new light bulb came out?

STEWART CINK: No, it wasn't one time. There was a particular time when I realized that I was having trouble and I needed to find help, but it wasn't a golf tournament. There was a lot of times like the U.S. Open at Southern Hills and some other tournaments that were a lot less in the spotlight where I realized that I was having these problems and these symptoms but they were just symptoms along the way. It wasn't like they caused it. It was happening a long time before the Southern Hills.

And that was one of the red flags along the way that led me to believe that I needed to figure out a little bit about myself.

Q. At the risk of prying too deeply into your personal life --

STEWART CINK: I won't let you pry too deep.

Q. At the risk of telling us, what was it that made you feel more comfortable or understand yourself, what was it?

STEWART CINK: I already mentioned part of it, it's not that complicated. What we do out here, we play golf, we're seen by a lot of people and what happens is you start to let golf affect your whole sense of self and the way you feel. Good round, good self. Bad round, bad self. It's not fair -- I'm not being fair to myself to let what I shoot on the golf course or where my ball goes or whether it goes in the hole or not, I'm not being fair to myself to let that dictate how I feel about myself.

You know the human psyche is set up to go into real defensive mechanism whenever it feels threatened. So if I feel like I'm about to have an assault on my sense of self like if I'm about to rip all of my clothes off here and stand naked in front of the cameras, I'm not going to allow that, subconsciously it's not going to happen. The mind goes into a self-defense mechanism. It happens on the golf course all the time.

For instance say you have trouble right beside the flag, what happens when you're on your down swing and your body pulls the ball left? That's what it is because you start to protect yourself against making mistakes and it's not just your score card that you're protecting against, it's the way you feel about yourself.

Q. So that's how I stop doing that shot?

STEWART CINK: Yes. (Laughter.)

Q. At Southern Hills, that putt you missed, what you were doing everyone does, they exit stage right and let the winner finish off. Do you think because of what happened that guys might be less inclined to do that?

STEWART CINK: I don't know. That's a good question. It happens almost every tournament if you think about it if some guy is in that situation. What happened there for me, and the reason it was one of the red flags along my journey, not because of the miss and how it felt, I was embarrassed, I didn't feel like I had lost the U.S. Open when I missed that putt.

Q. It was over?

STEWART CINK: It was over. I was embarrassed because I missed. But the problem with me there was, all I had riding on that putt was to me at that time was everybody is watching me and I'm putting and I feel shaky on my putts. That's the only thing I had riding on it. That is the probably that I had to deal with, not the problem of, okay, I need to make this putt to win the U.S. Open. I've been able to perform when I had the golf and the competition riding on it. It's more the sense of self stuff when I've had trouble, and so that right there was one of the things that I have dealt with quite a bit is, you know, figuring out where the fear comes from. Is it because I'm afraid to miss the putt or is it because I'm afraid of what people are going to think about me if I miss the putt? It's been like, you know, slicing up the apple in many different pieces and figuring out which piece of the apple has the worm.

Q. Would you recommend this process to other players?

STEWART CINK: I already have. There's at least three or four guys who talk to this guy now that are friends of mine. I've had guys come and ask me questions like, how do you -- they see me on the course and they see that I'm pretty easygoing out there. And friends of mine have said, you know, "How can you be so calm out there?" I just say, "Hey, there's times when I'm not calm at all." But I have to ask myself, why am I anxious or whatever.

So I've led other guys to Dr. Waddington and now he's got a few extra clients because of me. I haven't seen my referral --

Q. Is Pat Perez on that list?

STEWART CINK: I would not say a guy like Pat Perez would be a good type of candidate for this. But golfers, we all have similar things that happen in our minds, and it's just one way I've decided to go about trying to make it easier on myself and get over it.

Q. You were talking a minute ago about pitchers and kickers and heart rate and things like that. Do you think with all of the talk of performance-enhancing drugs in other sports, where do you see the future of golf; do you see it ever getting involved in that?

STEWART CINK: I don't see it ever. I don't know the drug that would ever improve a golfer's ability to play.

Q. Do you know what the tour's drug policy is?

STEWART CINK: I don't. I don't know if there is a drug policy. I'm sure there's something probably. But what are they going to do, kick a guy off the TOUR for smoking marijuana? I don't know.

Q. Just when it's his turn to putt.

STEWART CINK: I don't know. Drugs have too many side effects that I think would affect golfers negatively than positive. I just don't see that drugs would ever be a big part of the game.

Q. Because of the fine motor skills that are involved?

STEWART CINK: Yeah. I know from taking like allergy medicine that I don't like being on that stuff when I'm trying to play competitive tournaments because I just feel so headachy and it's not a good feeling.

Q. If they decide at THE PLAYERS Championship this year to pee into the cup, does anyone come up with a red flag, do you think?

STEWART CINK: Well, depends on what you're talking about red flag. (Laughter.) There's probably some red flags. There's some red eyes. If you're talking about like performance-enhancing --

Q. Steroids.

STEWART CINK: I don't think anybody does, no. I'd bet a lot on that.

Q. Have you talked to David Duval or had any insights into his state of mind now?

STEWART CINK: We haven't really talked that much since -- well, we talked in Denver, the tournament, and we talked a good bit in Las Vegas recently with the Nike shoot. He was there. But we don't really -- we're not really all that close and we don't -- we haven't talked anything about his play at all. Usually things other than golf are what we talk about.

Q. Are you playing next week?

STEWART CINK: Yes.

Q. Have you ever played with or watched or had any thoughts on the 15-year-old?

STEWART CINK: Never played with her. I saw the 13-year-old when I was there the last couple of years ago, saw her hit. She was playing in the junior Pro-Am I think. She hit it past Jerry Kelly or was it Tom Lehman on the first hole? Lehman. It's pretty amazing. I'd like to see her -- I guess today she's here.

Q. What do you think about her playing the Sony for the second year?

STEWART CINK: Well, last year she proved that she's got a shot. So I don't have a problem with it. I think it's fine. It's a great media publicity thing for the tournament.

Q. They have been talking for a couple years, especially when Annika went to Colonial whether we'll ever see a day when a woman competes regularly on the PGA TOUR. Any crystal-ball gazing there?

STEWART CINK: You're setting me up here. (Laughter.)

I don't see that day coming any time soon, no, not regular. Not going through the same processes that all of the guys have to go through to get their card and be competitive out here. I don't see it happening.

Q. The week-to-week stuff, I think that's probably where it would get hard, wouldn't it? It's one thing to show up one week --

STEWART CINK: The whole year, different courses, I mean you're looking at Colonial and Waialae, two courses that are very similar courses. You have a lot of wind, a lot of roll, narrow fairways, and then you think about courses like Muirfield where you really have to kill it. Here, too. It helps to hit the ball a long way.

I just don't see it happening. That's my answer.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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