home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE RYDER CUP MATCHES

September 15, 2004

Stewart Cink

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN

JULIUS MASON: Stewart Cink, ladies and gentlemen joining us on Wednesday afternoon. Stewart, why don't you give us a little insight on what happened on the golf course today and we will go to Q&A.

STEWART CINK: Today we had a nice relaxing 11-hole day for me and the other guys went on and played the rest of the way. It's so much fun playing the practice round. You play with different guys every day and you get to pal around a little bit. They are small fields, so you don't have to worry about waiting on groups in front of you much. Everybody seems to be playing well. It's just really fun for me to be part of this team and to be able to get a really good front row seat watching these guys hit the ball.

JULIUS MASON: Thank you. Questions, folks.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about the greens early today, and just wanted to get your thoughts on what you thought, a lot of people are saying they are very severe and wondering what you're seeing out there?

STEWART CINK: They are severe, but they are in great shape. So what you see for break you're going to get. There's no surprises out there. Wherever you hit the ball, you know exactly what the putt is going to be like. Nothing new out there. We knew it was going to be difficult and it should be great for the testing of nerves of these Ryder Cup players.

Q. When Hal Sutton picked you as one of the alternates, did you consider that he was picking you because of your expertise or how well that you putt out there and how well you perform on the greens?

STEWART CINK: That's part of it. But I also think that more of it was how I finish tournaments as far as my score overall.

Hal, he's been around the game so long, and he's been a great player and a great champion. He knows that you have to do it all good to finish with a lower score than most of the field. I think that basically translates into, you have to manage yourself well.

And I'm not the straightest driver out here, I'm not the longest hitter, I might not be the best putter, I don't know, everybody's so good. Every day there's somebody new who takes over the top of every category.

But one thing I am good at and I may be the best between the two teams is I really manage myself really well. I'm never out of a hole. I'm never going to give up. I think I'm -- Hal picked me because I really think that he's the kind of guy that he wanted to be on the team.

Q. 11 holes, where did that come from?

STEWART CINK: I was going to play nine, but I was having so much fun and I couldn't stop. Then my momentum carried me to 10 and I was stuck. I had to come back to the clubhouse somehow and 11 green was my closest jump-off point.

Q. Just talk about the chemistry on the team and the context that a lot of the European players have been saying that they have greater camaraderie week-in and week-out on the Tour where the Americans are more individual and that in effect could play to their advantage. Are they misreading the Americans in terms of the camaraderie that you guys share?

STEWART CINK: Last time I checked, all of us play on the same tour, all of us Americans. We all played on the same tour, and the last time a lot of these guys played also. It's not like they are all traveling in a big van over there or anything, you know.

The No. 1 tour in the world I think undeniably is the United States PGA TOUR. When a lot of guys come over here to play, they are not spending as much time with their Ryder Cup Team mates anymore. So I think that old saying about their camaraderie being better because of the European Tour itself, I think that's pretty much dissipated now. We are all world travelers. We play individual tournaments all over the place. Everybody has their close group of friends. We all wish we could see them more. But I think it's pretty even on both sides.

Q. Do you feel the chemistry right now is right where you'd want it to be?

STEWART CINK: Well, yeah, I think so. Chris Riley, for instance, Chris Riley, a new face on the Ryder Cup, he's great. He's like a breath of fresh air because he's got a naive spirit about him. He's about 29 or 30 years old but he acts like he's about 7. It's great to have a guy like that in the team room because if nothing else we can all just sit around and laugh at what he says and play jokes on him. (Laughing).

Q. You're ranked No. 1 in putting this year on the PGA TOUR. With how the greens are, putting is so important, how are you rolling the ball so far this week, and does anybody else on the team seem to have a knack for the greens here this week?

STEWART CINK: Well, there's been a lot of putts made and there's been a few missed, too, in the practice rounds. I think everybody is just sort of going their own way about feeling out the greens and figuring out a little bit about where the breaks are and where the grain, if there's any, might be coming from. I think we have an idea of some of the influences that are affecting the ball.

But the one thing I noticed about the green is there's a lot of break on them. And even as pure as the grass is, there's more break than you think there's going to be, which is the opposite of how it usually is. And so I think that a really strong attribute for players this week is going to play the long putts, the 30-, 40-plus-foot putts that have five or six feet of break in them and get close nestles down close to the hole and avoiding the 3-putts. That's going to be really big.

Q. Just wanted to get your thoughts on Phil's decision to take the day off today and what you thought of that.

STEWART CINK: I wish I would have done it. (Laughing) no. I think he's really smart. Phil, he's bold at times, he's not afraid to make a decision that might ruffle a few feathers. But for Phil Mickelson taking the day off was the best thing for him to do for his game and I admire that. A lot of people probably wouldn't have the guts to say, I'm not coming to the practice round today to play at Ryder Cup. As Phil has shown time and time again, he has the guts to do just about anything. It's going to be better off for him to take the day off. It is tiring playing out here and doing a lot, playing a lot of practice shots, even nine holes is a lot. It wears on you. The course has a lot to offer so you have a lot to think about.

For him to stay fresh by whatever he did today, it's great. You know, it's an asset to the team I think.

Q. Was the '96 Open here your first Open that you played?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it was my first Open.

Q. Can you talk about that experience and obviously the course setup was probably a lot tougher and maybe what you took from that and how it can carry over into this one?

STEWART CINK: Well, I played well that time. I was on the Nationwide Tour and I qualified for the Open. So it was the first time I had seen that kind of course setup. The rough was the deepest I've ever seen, except for Carnoustie, but the rough on that soil was the deepest I had ever seen. The greens I remember being really chewed up because of softness and a lot of players, a lot of feet. Overall, I just remember the brutality of the course, it was something else. It was, back then, it was a true monster, like they say.

Now, the ball is rolling a lot so it's playing a little shorter. The balls are going farther anyway and we are all hitting it better hitting farther. Length-wise, it's not that challenging anymore. But you still have to hit the ball very straight, and being in the fairway will be a premium because of accuracy, control into the greens. From the rough -- like I heard Kenny Perry mention everybody can have a lash at it, but that's what it is, it's a lash. From the fairway you can be precise and hit it closer.

JULIUS MASON: Questions? Questions twice?

Thanks for coming down, Mr. Cink.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297