CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 29, 1999

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: Well, today was a good day for me on the golf course. It was a day where I didn't make very many mistakes. In fact, I don't think I made any mistakes. I hit the ball in play, all day, and hit it on the green most every hole and made a couple putts, but I wasn't hot with my putting or anything. I just made a few. With the weather out there like it is today, there's almost no wind. If you are just kind of get out of your own way, you're going to shoot a pretty decent score.

STEWART CINK: 1st hole, I got off to a nice start there. Hit a 7-iron into the green about 10 feet and made that one. Then I was kind of slow. I made a lot of pars until 9, and I hit a wedge to 9 about two feet. 11, I hit a 9-iron to about 20 feet. 13, the par 5, I hit it -- going for the green there in two and I hit it just right of the green and in the fringe. Just had a little pitch from the valley over to the right of the green and chipped it about three feet. Made that. 14, I hit a wedge about four feet. And 17, I hit a 7-iron there about 15 feet and made that. So I didn't make a mile of putts or anything. I just made them when they were available.

STEWART CINK: Well, yeah, I guess it is. The fairways are soft. They are in great shape. The greens are the best I've ever seen them. Thinking back to last year, it played real easy last year the first day or two as well, because I think we had some rain earlier in the week. I haven't seen it rain here this week, but I think it may have rained out over the weekend or something.

STEWART CINK: They have got the course set up for some serious scoring out here this week.

STEWART CINK: I don't want to jinx myself, but yes, I have had over-par rounds. I shot 71 the first round I ever played here.

STEWART CINK: Yeah. Then again, I don't want to jinx myself.

STEWART CINK: I just answer it the same way. I like the way the course fits my eye. I like the greens. There's lots of nice targets out there to choose and focus on. I just feel comfortable here. I don't seem to have many doubts when I hit shots on this course.

STEWART CINK: No, I was much nearer to the hole on my second shot there.

STEWART CINK: Well, shots look easy. The slopes, everything seems to be -- it's almost like a funnel. Everything looks like there's no way I can do anything but hit the ball straight. I can't explain it other than it fits my eye. I look out to every shot and I just see a very nice, acceptable target. I think the tournament record here is 14-under par; so, it's actually one of the higher scoring tournaments on our TOUR. It just seems -- it just fits my eye. I don't really know how to explain it. It just is inviting.

STEWART CINK: Very. There's twice the golf course out here than there was at Carnoustie.

STEWART CINK: The thing about a place like Carnoustie is you can't go and shoot 82, 80 and miss the cut like I did and come away thinking: I have to resurrect my game, because I didn't hit the ball very badly. Every shot, the errors were magnified so much. I just didn't choose to let that place affect me, even though I missed the cut and shot terrible scores. I came away from there thinking: I can't get down, because I hit the ball well. There's nothing else you can do there. So coming into here, it's a place I've played well in the past, and my game seems to be turning around from not really a slump, but not playing great golf the last few months; this is a good place to come bring yourself out of a little hole.

STEWART CINK: Well, you rely on your pre-shot routine under pressure. And pressure comes in many, many different forms. There's pressure to win; there's pressure on a hole like 17, where you don't want to miss a certain direction. You have to hit a straight shot. That's pressure. Pressure on putts. All different kinds of pressure. But you just treat everything the same. You line up your shots using the same pre-shot routine. You try to stay aggressive and pick out the same targets every time. If you get into your routine, you don't worry about pressure on your shots. You worry about your routine. It automatically lifts the pressure off.

STEWART CINK: You still feel nerves. But nerves are just something you learn to deal with when you play on the TOUR.