BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

March 28, 2001

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: It's nice to play the BellSouth here in my backyard. It's nice to stay home. The golf course I'm comfortable with, and it's in great shape. If we can get around this weather, the forecast, maybe it will be a great week. I'm sure even if the weather does come in bad, it will still be a good tournament.

STEWART CINK: Well, you have the opportunity to create your angles into the greens here just like you do at Augusta. The greens here can be pretty hard and fast, because of the rain. That will get you warmed up. But really I don't think the players come here to get warmed up for Augusta. I think it's an enjoyable place to play golf, and it's a nice event. And the players come here for the BellSouth classic. I don't think there's too much Masters warm-up going on here.

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it is, especially since my playing hasn't exactly been where I want it lately. It would mean a lot to me to get four good solid rounds where I feel confident coming off this week. But I'm just -- you try to keep your mental activity sharp, your competitive tenacity, I guess, you try to keep it sharp going into any tournament, and that's what you really use the first three or four days of the week to do. You get yourself ready to go out and think about nothing, really. That's what I've been trained to do. You try and release all the thoughts out of your mind, except where you want to hit the ball, your target. You take all your thoughts from inside of your golf swing to out into the golf area.

STEWART CINK: I didn't practice any Saturday, but I started back in Sunday. I don't feel too bad about my game. That golf course has always gotten me -- I always feel like I'm behind the eight ball there, and it's a shame.

STEWART CINK: I have no idea. I never have felt very comfortable about it. It's going to take a couple of years, maybe. I've only been out here, what, five years now, played it five times and I haven't had much success there I just never have gotten going at that one. I'm still waiting. I'm not disgusted with my game to the point where I would put the clubs away and say forget it. I'm taking off a while. I'm not at all like that. I'm still enjoying the way I'm playing and coming out here to hit balls Sunday and Monday, I really enjoyed that. And so I was out here.

STEWART CINK: I played here enough. I feel very comfortable here. And I feel like I can make the right club selections off the tee. Some of the holes where you have to lay back, too. I feel comfortable and I just feel like --.

STEWART CINK: The tree was a nice feature there. The feeling is split around the membership and around the TOUR players about whether that tree stays or goes. I think the hole was better with the tree. But now it made us kind of more of a narrow driving area, and it's a longer tee shot.

STEWART CINK: There's no back tee. The back tee has been gone for almost two years. So the tee will be -- it will never play over 550, downhill. Unless it gets really wet, it's reachable. It needs to be reachable. It needs to be a dramatic type finish. It's pretty tight on that hole, and it's not that hard to hit it down where you have a 9-iron on the green. If you miss that green, going for it, you're in trouble. You've got some work cut out for you.

STEWART CINK: What I want to know is does the everyday hacker have any idea how maddening it is for us who play for a living? I think we have a lot more understanding of the intricacies of golf and its fickle nature than the 15 handicappers do, because they play for enjoyment, and really the difference between 105 and a 97, are you going to feel different the rest of the day, if you shoot those two scores? Probably not. If I shoot 68 or 77, am I going to feel differently? Definitely.

STEWART CINK: It's a long course, and that fits right into his game because he hits the ball -- I always put him in the Top 5 in the distance. He may not be there in the statistics, but he's long. He can hit the ball a long way. And, of course, he's got the short game and his putting, and his creativity, that's part of it. If you have a golf course that doesn't require you to hit the ball in pinpoint accuracy, you can hit the ball hard and use the short game, too. It's right up his alley. And I think that's why this one fits.

STEWART CINK: Well, this year I've been struggling on putting a little bit. Not that I'm making bad strokes. I'm just not making a whole lot -- I'm not making a whole lot of middle length putts and you need to do that to compete in championships. And I'm burning a lot of edges. It's hard to stay confident when you're missing. I know my mechanics are fine and everything is okay. I'm just being patient, that's all I can do. I'm waiting for it to happen. And I think when I start making a few more putts, and start making my share again, then it's going to kind of elevate the rest of my game. When you're missing putts it puts pressure on everything.

STEWART CINK: Yes, this is my favorite time of year, I've always said that. Playing here in the home, Augusta is always fantastic, and having won that WorldCom Classic is just another -- I can't think of the right word here, but, yes, it's great to play these three events. They're a cornerstone part of the year for me, and hopefully I'll use some of these good finishes here to kick-start some wins, and maybe some big-time things coming up.

STEWART CINK: It's interesting that the player that uses the ball that's winning, that's the ball that becomes the best ball. Last year Tiger's was the best. And then several players played the Titleist ball, and theirs was the best. And maybe the Callaway ball is the best because Annika was winning. She shot 59. I think it's funny how that happens. But the truth is the Nike ball that I'm using, I think it's the best ball for me. I think it's the best ball for a lot of players that aren't using it, too. I've really enjoyed using it this year. It's helped me control my shot, distance, chipping is excellent, everything has improved over the ball I used last year. And there are a lot of good golf balls on the market right now. I happen to think this one is the best for me. And they've made such great strides in technology in golf balls in the last four or five years it's just amazing.

STEWART CINK: I haven't had one since --.

STEWART CINK: Yeah.

STEWART CINK: Well, first of all I think someone can shoot 58, and I think it will happen one day. I don't know when. And the answer to the same part of your question, I have no idea who it's going to be.

STEWART CINK: 64. But the course is set up quite differently now. The fairways are running pretty well, and the greens are pretty hard, at least now. So I don't see that there is a course record type score out there, because it's playing pretty difficult. The rough is easy, but it's always been easy at this tournament. It's so dormant, there's nothing there. But the greens being firm is what makes this course hard. And you just can't find --.

STEWART CINK: Favorite hole? I like 5. I like 5 a lot. I like 1. 1 is my favorite par-4s anywhere. I think No.12 is a good hole. There's a lot of creative type holes that are unique. 13 with the green slope from front to back, very unusual design there, and I think you'll see a lot of interesting scores on that hole, some players getting a little greedy, might take 5 there.

STEWART CINK: I think 9 is the toughest because there's so much trouble. You have to hit a straight drive and long, and the second shot if you miss it by a fraction, you're just -- it's very demanding. It's a par-5 green on a 470 par-4.

STEWART CINK: Yeah, I'd like to spend about five years changing stuff on it. But the first thing I would do is cut the rough back. I think the course is designed with hard and fast greens that they achieved there, they take hard and fast to a new level at every year at Augusta. The course being set up that way really needs to allow the player to choose their own angles into the green. That's why the course is designed with those big wide fairway corridors. And to go in there and add rough really just cuts the character of the golf course. But that's just my opinion.