BUICK CLASSIC

June 22, 2001

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: Well, it was a long day and an early start, no question about it. I am glad it is over. I am glad I had a couple pretty decent rounds. More good than bad anyway, so I have got myself in position for a run at this tournament on the weekend. That is all you can ask for after two rounds.

STEWART CINK: Second round, okay. I started off pretty nicely. After 65, I hit three feet on No. 1 for birdie. 6-iron on one. Then hit a bad iron shot on 4, out of the fairway and into a really bad spot, made a bogey. 8-iron. Then 8, I was on in two, played the hole great, had a hard putt, had about a 40-footer with eight feet of break and left it short, 3-putted that. Then 9, I was up in the bunker by the green in two and got up and down for birdie. Made about a 5-footer. 11, played the hole well, just left myself a really hard long putt, that's a tough hole and 3-putted. Left the first one way short. 12, I hit it in the fairway, blocked out by a tree, hit 3-iron left of the green in the rough, and was not able to get up-and-down. 14, hit a 9-iron about 15 feet, made that. I think that's all the interesting stuff.

STEWART CINK: I think I know what you are talking about. Talking about the last little putt I missed.

STEWART CINK: I am going to answer your question in two ways. First of all, I am not thinking about the little short putt on the end because as far as I am concerned, I had no business being in the playoff after I made a bogey on the last hole. Retief was going to 2-putt, I was just trying to get out of his way, that is over. I have talked enough about that. Now, am I still thinking about last week? Absolutely, because I played great and I have a lot of confidence about all my shots. I have got a good pre-shot routine going, my putting is solid, and I am absolutely thinking about last week. Drawing a lot of confidence off of that.

STEWART CINK: Well, I guess you can say if you know, if everything else was equal and I make my putt obviously, I am in a playoff. But I really believe that if I had made mine, that Retief wouldn't have had much trouble because I think my putt shocked him a little bit. So I don't think that I was -- the putt I needed to make to get into a U.S. open playoff was the par-putt and I did everything I could do to make it. Just didn't go in.

STEWART CINK: Does it add pressure?

STEWART CINK: Not really, because I mean I had a lot of 3, 4-footers, two-footers today, a lot of them.

STEWART CINK: Are you asking me if there's going to be more pressure on Sunday because of last week?

STEWART CINK: Well, I performed pretty well last week under crunch time. So this week, if I am in the situation again, then I will just think about how great I played last week under the pressure, and I will just play at least as good this week. I don't know what else to say. That's the way I think about it, maybe not giving you the answer you wanted, but --

STEWART CINK: No, I came from Tulsa Sunday night. I had to be here at on outing nearby here for Deloite and Touche so I was out playing my outing that day. I wish I could have seen it because I really like watching those situations on TV. But I was unable to.

STEWART CINK: I think so. I really prepare for the majors and the courses are usually incredibly difficult. And so being really focused and really prepared with my game and everything and confident, and then you come to a course that maybe seems like it is a little easier than what you are used to, you have a tendency to perform pretty well. That for me that's how kind of the situation unfolds - both my wins on Tour have been after majors and one of my three BUY.COM wins were after a major, I just enjoyed always playing the week after.

STEWART CINK: Well, okay, talk about it one more time. I played awesome at the U.S. Open. I don't see how I have any reason to be anything except upbeat. I just I couldn't wait to start this tournament because I had so much confidence.

STEWART CINK: Yes.

STEWART CINK: Yeah.

STEWART CINK: Hotel.

STEWART CINK: We are used to it. 4:30 in the morning to them is no different than 7 o'clock in the morning because they are not awake at either time. In fact I can make as much noise as I want to at 4:30 this morning. No someone is stirring in my house. At 7 o'clock I may wake up a little kid or two. But we try to stay in suite hotels, or in, if we can't we stay in a place we get two rooms adjoining so the kids stay in one and we stay in the other. So there's no problem.

STEWART CINK: The first thing you do is the night before you really try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Sometimes it is tough to do when you have got little kids and it stays light outside 'til 9, 9:15. It's really hard to force yourself to go to bed early. Last night I wasn't asleep 'til 11. That's still early for me. But so it starts there and then obviously you try to eat enough. You don't want to go out there and run your tank to empty. So you are snacking all day, healthy snacks, of course, bananas, stuff like that. And you just really try to stay energetic. I guess. It is hard to do that sometimes. Even if you are in great shape. There's a lot of golfers who are in really awesome shape. It is still hard to just keep on going combining the long walk and the wet conditions with trying to concentrate and focus a lot. It is tough. It wears on you.

STEWART CINK: I wouldn't say I ran out of gas. But I think maybe my mind stopped really it was probably about 80% on the second on the back nine.

STEWART CINK: Well it wasn't only frustrating, it was boring. I ate about 4 lunches, so it was fattening. Yesterday was just awful. I mean, I sat in the clubhouse -- luckily my wife was in there most of the time with me, and we probably covered the same conversation about eight times with different couples, you know, it was just a boring day. I am glad that was over.

STEWART CINK: I think the golf course handled all the rain very well. In fact we didn't play lift clean and place in the first round, you know. I think that is puzzling which they can let us play it down this morning and let everybody play it up in the second round when the course dries out. But the lies were fine. Very little casual water. In fact I took no relief from casual water in 35 holes today. That's pretty impressive considering all the rain we had.

STEWART CINK: Yeah, you are very accurate on that. The putts were slowing down like they were on velcro. It was very slow. I don't know if they got a chance to cut the grass in between the rounds or not. But the greens were really slow. I think this poa annua grass up here it really kind of pops and gets spongy when it is wet so the ball just really slow down like it is on shag carpet.

STEWART CINK: No.

STEWART CINK: No, I just hit it -- a lot of really good shots and made a few 10 and 5-footers and 2-putted a couple of holes for birdies and it was an easy round.

STEWART CINK: It was. It was an easy round. I hit almost every fairway. I think I missed one fairway about a foot in the first cut of rough. And I just had a great feeling. Like I said, coming off last week the way I played there I just was -- I was like a thoroughbred waiting at the gates. Couldn't wait to get started.