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FBR OPEN

February 3, 2005

Stewart Cink

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

JOHN BUSH: 3-under par 68, nice opening round, Stewart. Thanks for coming by for a few minutes. Let's just get you to comment about the round and about the conditions this morning.

STEWART CINK: I don't think many more comments need to be made about the conditions. It was really windy, especially the first half. It was just -- well, a weather delay because of wind says it all. It's only happened to me one other time, at the British Open in 98. Now I've got two.

JOHN BUSH: We'll get you to take us through your birdies and bogeys.

STEWART CINK: Well, 4 was one of the more benign holes today with the wind. It was just across and fairly forgivable pin placement, made about a 20-footer for birdie.

Then hit the lip coming out of the fairway bunker on 5 and left it in there, so just a standard bogey there.

9 was probably one of my all-time career birdies. That hole is not designed for a long iron coming into the green, and I hit a 4-iron into the wind there and hit it about five feet. It was a definite theft of a birdie there. There won't be many on that hole.

11, difficult hole, but today down-breeze it wasn't that bad, so I hit a 9-iron in there and only left myself about 20 feet, made the putt.

14, just another brutal hole. Didn't even reach the fairway with my drive, in the rough, just hacked it out to the fairway and wedged it on the green, two-putted.

16, a more unusual birdie because I used that black ball today that guys have been using. The first time you see that black ball up on the tee it looks a little weird, but I just told myself to trust my swing and hit a good shot, and I made about a 20-footer there.

Q. What did you hit in?

STEWART CINK: A 6-iron.

17, laid it out in the fairway. That's a challenging tee shot today, even though it's just a lay-up. The fairway is not very wide and the wind is just howling in your face. I left myself a wedge and hit it in there about three feet.

Q. What was the reaction on 16 when you pulled the black ball out?

STEWART CINK: I didn't really hear much. I'm sure there was some murmuring, but the crowd is not that boisterous today. I think the wind pretty much cut right through them like it cut through us. Actually I heard more yesterday because I think it was unexpected.

Today the crowd sort of expected the Nike players to pull it out, and I decided to give it a whirl and made birdie.

Q. Anybody else in your group say anything about it?

STEWART CINK: Well, I warned Chad about it. I warned him early on that I might be pulling out a black ball at 16.

I never got around to telling Mike Weir. After I hit, we just got a few steps off the tee, and he said, what is that? He hadn't heard anything about it. I heard more from inside the group than I did from the fans.

Tomorrow afternoon, after they've had all day to soak it up, I'm sure (laughter) there will be some cat calls. I don't care, though. I'm ready for it.

Q. Is that the first birdie anybody has made with the black?

STEWART CINK: Well, one guy said it was the first birdie anybody has made on that hole.

Q. What about in other tournaments?

STEWART CINK: I don't know. I'm not sure.

Q. Do you think the afternoon people will have a better advantage with the conditions?

STEWART CINK: It's hard to say. If the wind goes away, then obviously yeah, but who knows? You can't predict the future. Right now it looks like the wind is dropping out there, so it looks like they'll have an easier time. It's just not an easy course, even if the wind drops to 20 miles an hour.

Q. What do you think about them watering the greens between the afternoon and morning guys? Is that fair?

STEWART CINK: Not really, no, it's not. I think today the way the wind was going this morning, if they hadn't watered we may still be sitting over there on 8 green just waiting. When they get the greens cut down fast, this is the risk. If it gets windy, the course doesn't play. I don't think it's fair. It ruins the integrity of the competition to have balls blowing off the greens.

Chad Campbell's ball got blown all the way off the green on 8 and he had to play it.

Mike Weir's ball, he chipped it up past the hole and the wind was coming up towards the hole. When he went to putt, he replaced his ball at the mark and the wind blew it about six inches from the hole, so tell me that's fair. It's not.

It ruins the integrity of the competition when the greens are suit down so fast and then the wind blows this hard. I don't think the answer is to let the greens grow and be slow. That's not the answer. It's just kind of unfortunate that the wind blew like this.

Q. Can you talk about the rough a little bit? You didn't find much of it? How do you experience it this year from years past?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, you can hit it about maybe 150 yards if you have a pretty good lie. If you don't, you can maybe hit it 80. I've never seen rough here like this before. It's really thick, and it makes you want to hit the fairway, that's for sure. It's just not much fun at all to be in. It's pretty much a shot penalty.

Q. On 18, how far was the putt that you had there for the birdie?

STEWART CINK: It was about 12 feet.

Q. You said today that you didn't hear much from the 16th hole because it's kind of quiet today. Just your thoughts about the 16th hole in general, just what goes on.

STEWART CINK: I love it. I think it's one of the great spectacles in golf, especially like tomorrow afternoon and Saturday when they really get going and the crowd gets into it.

It makes golf really feel like a true stadium sport like other sports, like football and basketball when they have the huge arenas. It makes me feel like I'm playing in a huge arena. In a way it adds a lot of pressure because you don't want to be a goat there (laughter). Especially when you tee up a black ball (laughter). The pressure is on. If you're going to have the guts to pull out the black ball, you'd better step up there and handle it. It's actually pretty good training for Sunday if I'm in contention on that hole.

Q. Why did you pick 16, just by coincidence?

STEWART CINK: Well, I didn't really pick it. Nike sort of gave us the nod to do it there. It's obviously the most focused hole in the tournament. It's just a brand awareness thing. It's me being part of the team.

Q. Did you finish out your round with the ball?

STEWART CINK: No, I just used it there. You can't really see it that well if you hit it more than about 180.

JOHN BUSH: All right, Stewart, nice start to the tournament.

STEWART CINK: Thanks

End of FastScripts.

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