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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

May 27, 2004

Stewart Cink

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stewart, for joining us for a few minutes. You're the first player that we've had in this afternoon. Obviously the conditions out there are fairly difficult. Why don't you share with us a little bit about today's round.

STEWART CINK: Well, the conditions were really tough out there. I think it was probably blowing hard this morning, too. It blew all day long, so it wasn't a morning-afternoon switch or anything, it was just a tough day to play out here. The greens are really firm and the fairways are firm, and the wind is blowing, so you have to be real precise with your shots, and if you don't you're just a fraction off.

Q. You were kind of a late entry here. How did this fall into your schedule and what made you decide to play here?

STEWART CINK: Well, I committed late but I really was intending to play earlier, I just forgot. This is the closest tournament to where I grew up, Florence, Alabama, so I like to play here sometimes.

Usually the tournament is at a different time of the year and it comes right after I've played a whole lot so it's tough for me to play that one extra week, so I usually decide to spend this week at the lake. But this time it worked out well because they moved it earlier and it's at a stretch where I like to -- I guess it's in the stretch where I play a lot instead of just after the stretch, so it just made sense for me to play.

A lot of people from Florence, Alabama, like for me to play here. I get a lot of calls the week before asking me if I'm going to play. I hate to say no every year to those guys. They've watched me play since I was a little kid.

Other than that, St. Jude means a lot, too. We have a charity at our tournament where I live in Atlanta that is similar. It's called the Children's Health Care of Atlanta, and it's a similar situation to St. Jude. It means a lot to me to support and play here.

Q. You mentioned you go to the lake. What lake?

STEWART CINK: Lake Weiss.

Q. Where is that?

STEWART CINK: It's about 25 miles west of Rome, Georgia, and 25 miles west of Gaston, Alabama.

Q. How are you playing?

STEWART CINK: I'm playing well. Today was a good test because I really haven't played that great for the last two tournaments, but today I felt real good over my shots and I felt like I was hitting the ball where I was planning on hitting the ball, and so the wind was affecting my ball -- let me back up. The wind was affecting my ball, but it was predictably affecting my ball, so I was able to judge it well and use the wind to help me instead of trying to fight against it most of the day.

Q. What was your best shot and your worst shot?

STEWART CINK: My worst shot had to be my shot on the 8th hole, par 3. I hit it way left with a bad 7-iron. I was totally uncommitted to the shot.

And my best shot was about three shots later on 9, my last one of the day. I hit it down there about three feet short of the hole on that hole. There was no spike marks anywhere around, so I'm sure no one was there. The balls were bouncing over the green there all day, and I had a perfect yardage and hit a really crisp iron sand wedge and stopped it there just short of the hole, which is just not happening out there today.

Q. Was that a hybrid you hit off the tee on the 9th?

STEWART CINK: Yes. It's a Nike -- it's called the Pro Combo.

Q. And then you hit a pitching wedge from about 125?

STEWART CINK: Sand wedge from about -- yeah, right at 125.

Q. I didn't see your front nine, but the back nine you were scrambling beautifully except for that little missed putt on No. 8. You almost pulled out a par there. Your short game has been strong?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it has. If you look at the Money List, the guys that are in the Top 20 or 30, all the short games are really strong. I've worked really hard on mine the last couple years and it's starting to pay off. I'm feeling comfortable on a variety of different plays, and today I was able to make a lot of good saves.

Q. I was noticing on a couple of greens on the back nine after you finished putting, you were still looking at other areas of the green, and I was thinking, well, maybe you're checking the slope for tomorrow and seeing how putts might break when the pin is moved?

STEWART CINK: That's exactly what I was doing.

Q. Getting ready for tomorrow?

STEWART CINK: Getting ready for tomorrow. I'm a pro and I try to prepare myself like a pro, and if I can give myself just a little bit of extra information out there, I try to gather what I can. Tomorrow when I go to the course I won't be surprised at where the flags are.

Q. How far away is Florence from Memphis?

STEWART CINK: It's about two and a half hours, maybe less, from here. Just 72 east just across the state line.

Q. Probably a little quicker than it was when you were growing up?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it's four lanes most of the way.

Q. Did you come here for the tournament growing up?

STEWART CINK: I came here -- before I was old enough really to remember. I remember seeing Gary McCord. That was at Colonial, the other course, and I remember seeing him, but that's because my mom used to always say he was a cute guy (laughter).

But I don't remember much else about it. It was the only tournament I ever went to as a kid, and then when I got a little older, I went on a trip with my dad to Atlanta and we watched that tournament.

Q. It seemed like on the 8th hole when your tee shot landed, you were about the only one who wasn't really upset when the golf cart drove over the top of it. Did you happen to be pretty unflappable out there?

STEWART CINK: Everybody got uptight about it. It was an accident. He was about to run over my ball, and if everybody would have just calmed down, he would have kept going and he would have run right -- his wheels would have straddled my ball, he would have gotten out of the way. Instead everybody had to scream and yell and make him feel bad. It's not necessary to yell and scream at somebody. He didn't know there was a ball there. It's a par 3. Why would he expect the ball to be way over in the trees (laughter)?

Q. How close are you to the top of your form? When were you playing the best and how close are you?

STEWART CINK: Well, I played my best probably that round at Hilton Head this year when I came back and won that tournament. That was about as good as I can play for 18 holes, and then since then in Charlotte I was probably about 25 percent of my form, and last week about 60 percent and today I was probably 85 percent. I hate to put it like that because every shot is just so different, but I played well today. I was in control for the most part, so I guess I could play a lot better than this because I wasn't anywhere near perfect, but I'm pleased with that.

Q. So you went straight to the range. What specifically were you working on?

STEWART CINK: Just a couple of little things. My swing I've been working on for two years, so I always like to hit a few balls after.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stewart, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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