WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 5, 1999

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: Well, the golf course is not nearly as difficult today because the wind is just not blowing as much. The greens are smooth. I played earlier, so they're smoother. The greens haven't improved or anything, they're good earlier in the day, they're better. So I was able to make a few putts and hit the fairways a little more often. And when I got in trouble I scrambled for pars. It was -- I hung in there and played well.

STEWART CINK: How would I assess the year I've had? The golf course, I think it's an excellent golf course. It's one of the most beautiful courses I've ever seen. The trees out there, if I could put three or four of those trees in my yard, I'd pay a million bucks. The golf ball doesn't like it very much, but these are some of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen. They didn't cut down too many of them when they built this golf course. There's not much room in between there. I think it's the trees that make the golf course. You hit the ball in the fairway and you're rewarded with a pretty short, fairly straightforward approach on most of the holes. And that's the key. The greens are small, but the golf course isn't that long. Put the ball in the fairway, you're going to have a short iron into the green usually, and you can shoot some decent scores. It's difficult to get in those fairways. As far as the year I've had, it's been a decent year, consistent year, but still didn't visit the winner's circle. That's my goal now, every year when I start out, I want to get back to winning again. I won in '97, but I want to do that more. I feel like I've gotten better in that I haven't been near as satisfied with my play this year, but -- and I still finished on the same position in the money list, and I still had more top-10's than I had the previous years. So I've played well, I just haven't busted out yet. Maybe a round like this might be something I need to gain enough confidence to kind of snowball the rest of the way. It would be a great way to finish the year for me.

STEWART CINK: You know, I don't know the European PGA TOUR regulations, so I don't know how our money affects their cards and this and that. I don't know if I'm going to be bumping anyone out of the top 115. I'd have to look at the regulations on that. But I don't think that having an event like this diminishes anything. I don't see how it could possibly diminish it. It reinforces golf in its growing state that it's in now. To have an event like this after two world class events that were last week, THE TOUR Championship in Houston and the Volvo Masters here in Spain, I think that just says even more about the state of our game right now. That we can have three tournaments in two weeks that are of this magnitude, and have such great fields play in both. I think that means a lot and I don't think anything is diminished by it.

STEWART CINK: I don't know. Well, Tiger Woods is on Tour now, that makes it a little more difficult to win. He's playing golf at a level that's never been played before, I don't think. I don't know if it's harder to win now. It's been harder to win ever since I've been out here. Gosh, there's a lot of good players now. There were a lot of good players then. I don't think it's harder to win now, I think it may be harder to win multiple times in a year, maybe. But I just feel like I'm ready to go back into that winner's circle again, and I feel like I'm close, I just need to keep it going four days.

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