BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 14, 2004

Stewart Cink

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart, thank you for joining us. Great position to win the golf tournament. Start with some opening comments.

STEWART CINK: I think you're right, I'm in good shape. It almost feels a little bit more at ease to come in one shot back than one shot ahead. I feel I can be more aggressive tomorrow, for some reason, although the golf course is not going to change overnight. I feel I'm in good shape. I'm playing well, I'm thinking well. I'm looking forward to the challenge tomorrow.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We�ll take questions.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: Well, you know, we haven't quite reached the stage in the game yet where you don't want his putts to go in. I'm a golf fan as much as I am a player, and to see him hit the fairway there and then make a long putt for eagle, it's spine tingling. I had a great vantage point.

Q. (Inaudible) Is that part of your thought process?

STEWART CINK: Well, actually, it's not really part of my thought process at all. I don't want to think about that too much. I think that my game is in such better shape now than it has been any of those times when I was leading. I think I've been in the lead maybe like four times or something, five, six times. I just I had more weaknesses in my game. Right now I don't have as near as many weaknesses. I'm stronger throughout my whole bag than I have been at any point in my career. I feel a lot more confident going into tomorrow and also not really being too concerned about falling down the leaderboard. I might go out tomorrow and shoot a high score. I'm prepared for that, as much as I'm prepared to shoot a low score to win.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: I wouldn't rule out the possibility. I doubt I will be calling him tonight. He and I talked earlier today. He called to wish me luck. He thought I was going to be asleep but I was awake. He was going to leave me a message, so we talked for a minute or so. I doubt if I'll talk to him tonight. I have a scheduled meeting with him every week, and it's not like we it's not like he calls to prop me up when I need it. We're both in the same place and I can anticipate what he's going to say to me and he knows what I'm thinking.

Q. You played in front of a large gallery (inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: It is a lot like it. This is the first time I've played with John when he was in contention. We've played together before, but this is the first time the crowd got involved. It's a little bit like NASCAR. There's a lot of hooping and hollaring out there. Being from Alabama I feel at home with that, too. I'm hoping tomorrow that they'll hoop and hollar for me a little bit.

Q. This week forget tomorrow, is this week the way you handled yourself, the process you've gone through (inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: Well, in a way. Golf is such a strange game. You have got little minor battles to accomplish, minor battles to fight along the way. I've handled the minor battles so far pretty well, there are a few more battles to go. I guess you can say in a way it has been successful so far. I've put myself in position to win a tournament and that's one of the minor battles.

Q. Are you getting more comfortable on this course now?

STEWART CINK: Well, I've only played here once before, and that was in 2002, and I missed the cut, so I've only played the South once, so I'm still learning it. You feel like you can you have a grasp of a golf course a lot better when your game is in shape.

Q. Would you rather play a golf course where 70 is a very good day's work?

STEWART CINK: Yes, I definitely would. I think it tests you mentally here. It tests everything, mentally, physically, it tests your whole bag. To think of other courses where you have to shoot 7 or 8 under just to keep up, in its own way it tests you, too. You have to play way better here to shoot a low score.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: I would take a 63 tomorrow, yeah.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: Everybody who is in contention had played a pretty decent round there, probably. You have to to be high in this tournament. There's a 63 out here on the South course, too, probably. I know Greg Charmers I think shot 63 out here my first year, and I was shocked it could be done, but it can be done.

Q. (Inaudible)?

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Let's go through your score card. Three birdies, two bogeys today. Start out with a bogey on No. 3.

STEWART CINK: That hole was playing hard today. The green not just the green, but around the green was brick hard. I hit my ball a little long there and had an awkward chip, missed about a 10 footer for par.

6, I was in the green side bunker in two, and made sort of an ordinary bunker shot, but then holed a 15 footer.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Bogey on 12.

STEWART CINK: We had that incidents out there where somebody kicked my ball. That was on 11. And to be honest, it shook me just a little bit. It was an accident. I hit a good shot on 11, just past the flag, maybe a foot or two off the green, and as the media procession came by, one person kicked my ball. And I had my putter out, I was about to putt because I was this far off the fringe. And the way the rule is, I had to drop, and my ball got into a bad lie. I ended up making par anyway, but I had a realistic birdie opportunity.

I think the 12th hole was a little bit of a result of that. I don't think I calmed down until after that. Anyway, the way I made bogey, I hit it in the rough, caught a flyer into a right bunker, had a really awkward shot again and I made a pretty decent bunker shot and didn't make the putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Came back with a birdie on the next hole, par 5.

STEWART CINK: I missed the fairway there, too, and had to lay up, hit a really good wedge very tough pin placement there and hit it about four or five feet and made that one.

17, hit it down the fairway, good drive there and left myself a pitching wedge in, and hit it about six feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Any more questions?

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: I didn't see it happen. I went up there and looked at the ball and went around to look at the break and then I heard everybody say Oh." Then I looked up and saw my ball tumbling into the rough. As soon as it happened, I knew I wasn't going to be able to place it because you didn't know exactly where it was, and I knew I was going to be dropping it. And I went from having a nice lie with a putter to my ball bouncing into the rough.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: I don't have anything against the media. I dropped it into a rough lie. I had to chip with an L wedge.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEWART CINK: Another unusual situation, someone had slammed their club into the ground, not really not bad enough where the ground was broken, but there was a pretty good indentation where my ball was sitting because someone had slammed their club. I didn't think I would get relief from it, but I thought I would ask, to just get the doubt out of my mind. It turned out I didn't get relief and that committed me to the shot more.

Q. That was a pretty agressive play?

STEWART CINK: It was really a wedge. It wasn't like the ball was terrible. I would say it was equal to how a divot lie would be. With a wedge I was okay to go ahead and be aggressive. Actually, I brought the official over there and asked him the question, not because I would get relief, just because I had doubt in my mind, and I wanted to get rid of the doubt, so I used him in that way. He doesn't know it yet .

Q. John Daly, can you speak to how big of a story you think that is?

STEWART CINK: Well, I saw a lot of great things in his game. He's driving the ball really well. I think one of the major things I saw out there today was on 17, after I hit driver down the fairway. John got up and hit an iron. And I think John Daly maybe a few years ago would have taken that driver and swung away. Hitting an iron there, he was disciplined there. Seeing him with that kind of game management, in a way, it's scary. He's got such talent. His short game today was phenomenal. He got up and down when he needed to and he made it look really easy. I think it's great for John and great for golf. He's exciting to watch. I like playing with him. He's a good guy, got a huge heart.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart Cink, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.