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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALAugust 1, 2007Stewart CinkAKRON, OHIO JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stewart, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational. Back after losing in a four-hole playoff to the No. 1 player in the world, great effort there, and right there in the Top 30 in the FedExCup. STEWART CINK: Well, thanks, Joan. I love playing here. I mean, I've been here now for about ten or so years in a row, and it's a great place to play golf. It challenges all parts of the game, and if you feel like you're playing pretty well, you know you're going to have a shot at being in the lead. A couple times coming in here I've felt really confident, and I've had a win and some near misses. It's always a great place to come back and rekindle the confidence. JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: And you're also playing very well with that T4 finish coming off of the British Open. STEWART CINK: Well, I have been pretty much on vacation except for the British Open. Four of the last five weeks I've been off. I was very fortunate over there. I had a great attitude at the Open this year, which has not been my best tournament, and it led to a great finish, and hopefully some momentum for this very important playoff series coming up. Q. With such a stretch like this coming up and playing a course here where you've had so much success in the past, do you like kicking off that stretch here? This has been an event that in the past had been after the PGA. Do you like playing this here with a strong field going into the last major? STEWART CINK: Well, this is always a strong field. I don't know. I always liked it the week after the major because I tend to play best the week off majors instead of the week before them. But who knows, I just like playing at Firestone. It's definitely the kind of course you want to play to get ready for a major championship because it's as tough as any major basically, with the rough high, and the fairways here are just almost impossible to hit, some of them, as narrow and firm as they are. You come off this week feeling like you got beat up by a major championship course and then you get to go to the PGA to playing a major championship. You're mentally going to be ready after this week, after four rounds on this thing. If it doesn't rain, if it stays like it is now, it's going to be mentally very stressful and quite a challenge all the way. Q. Would you rather it be after? STEWART CINK: No, I wouldn't. I don't have a preference. In the past here I've played well when it was the week after the PGA, so I kind of liked that. Q. There always seemed to be a sense of majors are over, free money, pardon the term, but this is a free week for you, but do you notice a difference of people gearing up for this week when the PGA is the week after, or do you think you can tell? STEWART CINK: I can't really tell that there's a difference because I always thought that players got up for this tournament. I know there's no cut and it's a big purse, so yes, free money you could say it is. Q. Not for us (laughter). STEWART CINK: There's a lot more of that free money available if you really play great and grind your rear end off. That's the way I've approached this tournament in the past, and I think most players have. I don't think that will change, really. I don't know, I don't really expect much to change at all. It's a great venue for golf and it stands alone whether it's before or after a major championship. Q. Do you have any thoughts about going back to Southern Hills where you had a chance to win at the U.S. Open? STEWART CINK: Have I thought about it, sure. Q. In this whole scheme of things now, this whole series, you're here, you're going there -- STEWART CINK: I guess I've had a moment or two to reflect on it, not a whole lot. I'm looking forward to playing there because I've got a lot of good memories from there. Obviously the one standout memory is not very good at the last hole, but still, the whole tournament I played really well, and I felt comfortable on the course. I can't think of a better place to start my major championship winning ways than Southern Hills the second time around. Q. I was just curious, when you think about the bad ending, you're essentially just trying to exit stage right, in your mind the tournament was over. Do you think back to the tap-in putt that you missed or missing the green long? I think you were tied for the lead, weren't you? STEWART CINK: Yeah, and the shot that I think cost me the tournament was the second shot from the fairway. You know, the tee shot is hard to hit the fairway, and I hit it, but then I missed the green with a 5-iron and that's the shot that hurt because Retief hit it on the green and it led to what happened. The shot that lost the tournament for me was the second shot. Q. When you think back to it, do you think more to the 5-iron or more to the cleanup? STEWART CINK: Well, the little putt that I missed wasn't more than like 18 inches. I mean, it was a tap-in. So it stays in my mind the most because it's the one that caused the most scars. Like I said, the shot that I think really cost me was the second shot, not hitting it on the green. If I hit a decent shot there, a good 5-iron, middle of the green, maybe 20 feet, then there's suddenly a lot more pressure on Retief than there was earlier. Who knows, he may have missed the green or hit it closer than he did, but it probably would have changed the situation quite a bit. Q. Going back to maybe the British Open and proceeding through last week, this week, next week, then the Wyndham and then the FedExCup starts, that's a pretty tough stretch of tournaments and competition. Could you give me your thoughts on that? STEWART CINK: It is a tough stretch. It's a lot of golf to be played, especially when you're playing at the highest level. You've got majors, you've got World Golf events, FedExCup Playoffs, all are very, very important events to us. I think the best thing we can do as players to stay fresh for it is to not overwork. I don't love practice rounds that much myself anyway, but I think I might just gear back on the practice rounds in a major way over the next, whatever, six tournaments, six out of seven weeks. I might just rely a little bit more on my caddie and just conserve a little energy. I'm not really known for getting there too early and playing a lot of practice rounds. But I might even curtail it more just to sort of be fresher and -- you can almost turn a five-week stretch into what feels like three weeks if you take it to the course a little bit less. Q. Would you think that doing that -- is it more mentally taxing or physically taxing or equally? STEWART CINK: Mentally. Golf is not really physically taxing. I mean, we walk around, it's hot; that's physically taxing. But swinging the golf club and hitting the ball, it's not that physically taxing. The tough part about what we do is the competing against the very best. That's tough. You try to get an edge, and then you realize that everybody else has already got that edge, then you've got to search somewhere else, just try to squeeze every little bit of juice that you can out of your orange (laughter). It's just not an easy thing to do, and mentally it wears on you. When you're talking about big tournaments with a lot at stake, it means a lot more to you, and the failures mean a lot more to you and the successes mean a lot more to you. So you've got a lot more emotional ties, and it just wears you down overtime. Q. One last question along those lines. What's the most number of tournaments you've played in a row, can you remember? STEWART CINK: I don't remember exactly, but I've played six or seven in a row. Q. Have you? STEWART CINK: Yeah. I tend to go home in between all my tournaments, almost like a weekend, Monday, Tuesday, and come up Tuesday night or something like that, like I did this week. You know, it helps when you play several in a row to break it up and go home, unpack, repack, do the laundry, walk the dog, whatever you do, kiss the wife. You know, it freshens me up a little bit to where I feel like I can sustain a level longer. Tiger, he's at the top of the leaderboard all the time, he's under the most intense scrutiny probably in sports, or in golf at the very least, so a guy like that, I don't even know how he can get 18 tournaments in a year without being completely worn out. I play 50 percent more than that, but I feel like I can stay fresher by going home, staying away from the course for a few days, and just trying to be a little bit more mentally excited about playing when I come out. Q. Do you think that everybody understands the FedExCup? STEWART CINK: No, I don't think everybody understands it. Q. Well, apparently Choi didn't know -- he wanted to donate the bonus if he won it to charity, and I guess you get it in retirement. STEWART CINK: I read that article today. If he makes a promise that he's going to donate $10 million if he wins it, then he's going to have to take out a loan (laughter). Q. Do you think everyone knew that you didn't get it? STEWART CINK: Well, you know, I'm on the board, right, policy board? We can only educate people to a certain extent, to the point that they want to be educated. So no, not everybody knows how the money is going to be distributed. It is going to be distributed on a deferred basis where it's going to be retirement money basically. Not everybody knows that because not everybody has chosen to want to know that or to pay attention. That's their prerogative. It doesn't bother me if they do or not. But the fact is if you win the FedExCup, you're going to have a lot of money from just playing great in those tournaments, but you might not exactly have $10 million to donate to charity right away. Q. But does that take away from the public's interest in it? STEWART CINK: It might take it a way a little bit. I was just asked that question on the range by a TOUR executive, whether it diminishes it a little bit. I don't know. I don't know that people that are watching golf, the fans, are watching us to see how much we make. I don't think they care. I think they watch what we do because they can't do it and they want to see us hit shots that they can't. Whether we get cash or checks or stacks of gold coins, I don't think anybody cares how we get paid. It's more they want to see us hit shots that they will never, ever be able to hit, and they want to say, "Wow, did you see that shot." Q. Does all that go into your retirement or a percentage of it? STEWART CINK: Now I'm going to be one of the players that doesn't understand. I'm supposed to be one that does understand. I think once you get down to 5th place it's 100 percent deferred money. Maybe the Top 5 there's some portion that's not. We talked about it a bunch of times and went back and forth, and finally I said, "Enough. I vote yes." Q. How many tournaments consecutively do you anticipate playing? STEWART CINK: Whatever I can get in. There's no guarantees that I'm in the last, I don't know -- I guess through the TOUR Championship. I'm 27th, so there's no guarantees I'm in that, and there's no guarantees I'm in the Presidents Cup, but I'm going to play if I qualify. That will be like seven of the next eight weeks. I doubt I'll play the week after that, though. Q. Getting back to the FedExCup for a second, do those last four events, do they have a Pro-Am on Wednesday? STEWART CINK: Yeah, I think they all do. They all have. Q. You talk about playing well here. Do you play well here because this is a good course for you, or do you play well here because you just happen to be on your game that week? Tiger plays well here every year because he likes the course. Is this one of your horses for courses for you, or have you just played well here because you happen to be playing well? STEWART CINK: Well, I think for me it's been more that I'm really prepared to play golf because I just came out of a major in the past. You know, I really try to focus my efforts on the biggest tournaments, the PGA, the four majors that are right there. All my wins on the Tour have come after majors, one week after, as well as one win on the Nationwide Tour. I've got a history of playing well the week after majors and not the week of or the week before. So I think that had something to do with it. I felt like I get finished with the Presidents Cup or the Ryder Cup race, whatever is going on that year, and there's a lot of stress, and after the PGA it's always been a relief because it's over and you know who's on the team. I just always have felt very relaxed about coming here and also enjoy the course quite a bit and like the greens. That's a very important part of it, too. But relaxation and knowing that my game has already been sort of prepared because of the major I think has a lot to do with it. Q. Given that week after thing, are you all over the Greensboro event now? STEWART CINK: I'm not all over it, I'm not scheduled to play. Q. That would be seven or eight or nine in a row? STEWART CINK: That would be eight or nine, I think. Yeah, I like playing the week after, but sometimes scheduling just doesn't work. Q. How did you handle last year, the playoff? Did you try to turn that into a positive, or can you? STEWART CINK: I don't see anything about it that was negative, to be honest. I mean, I was pretty far out of the picture with three or four holes to play, and I came back and tied the No. 1 player in the world and took him to a four-hole playoff. I didn't win, but I wish I had won. If you had asked me after the 15th hole if I would be settled with being in a four-hole playoff and losing it, I would have said yes. There's nothing but good things I can take away from last year, and just another great memory from Firestone and the Bridgestone Invitational. Fantastic tournament. We had that Ryder Cup practice round immediately after that last year, too, so the whole team got on the plane and we had a great time over there for two days. It really was not only a great tournament here, but it stretched into a good two or three days in Ireland. It was just wonderful memories. Q. You were talking about how mentally taxing it is trying to get the edge on better players. The caliber of player you are there's a lot of guys trying to get an edge on you. Are you aware of that and how do you feel about it? STEWART CINK: I'm not so worried about the guys behind me as much as I am the guys in front of me. If I look at the list of the FedExCup there's still 26 in front of me, so I've got my hands full with those 26, and one of them is Tiger. I figure if I'm trying to be better than the ones in front of me, then I'm probably going to take care of the ones behind me along the way. If they're trying to get ahead of me -- I don't doubt guys are trying to set their sights on being No. 26 in the FedExCup at the end of the season. I doubt guys -- Q. If they're lower than that -- STEWART CINK: If they're lower than that they'd rather be 26th, but everyone sets their sights higher than one spot ahead. I'm trying to get a little bit of an edge on everybody, whether they're in front of me or behind me. Everybody starts the week at zero, and you just try to do the best you can, and sometimes it looks a little weird out there. You see guys doing all sorts of weird routines now, putting with weird grips like me and using weird-looking clubs. Whatever works. These days, anything goes. Q. Talk a little bit about how Southern Hills sets up for you. A lot of guys look at you as one of the better middle iron players. The doglegs there you're all forced to hit to the same spot and hit mid-iron in. Did you find that appealing and feel like it played to your strength in '01? STEWART CINK: To be honest, I really don't remember the holes specifically that well. I think I putted really well that week. Everybody remembers me as being the guy that missed the 18-inch putt on the last hole, but believe it or not I had a great putting week. But I just thought the course -- I just felt comfortable on it. I can't explain exactly why that is, whether it was because I hit my irons good that week or putted well or drove it well or whatever, but something about it. It's very similar to Colonial, a course that I've enjoyed playing over the years, a few more hills. I grew up on a really hilly golf course. It reminds me a little bit of that. Other than that, it's hard to put a finger on it. Q. Is it because you're such a good mid-iron player, did that 5-iron shot particularly frost you? STEWART CINK: It may have, yeah, I guess so. I didn't think of it like that. I don't think of myself as one of the best middle iron players because I don't really play that much attention to the other players. The shot frosted me because it just did (laughing). Q. Monty once said, and I'm not sure if he was kidding or not, but it's hard to win majors because Tiger takes two of them, Phil, Vijay and Ernie take one of them, and that only leaves one for everyone else. Would you agree with that? STEWART CINK: I don't know. If you average out since Tiger started playing, maybe it would be almost true. I don't think that's true. I mean, I don't really think that I have my one shot a year at winning a major because Tiger is going to take two and those other guys are going to take whatever you said. I don't think that's really the case. It's interesting that Monty said that, though (laughter). Q. Kind of following on that, when you have a year like this where we've had first-time major winners in the first three, does that do anything for those who haven't won one yet? STEWART CINK: I think it does. Like what I read in the paper about Andres Romero, he said something about watching Cabrera win his major and that helped him at the British Open when he was in contention. I think so, that looking back on one of my best friends out here, Zach, winning The Masters, you almost feel like those tournaments are untouchable, rarefied, rare for players that have never won them, because The Masters always produces such a high caliber, pedigreed type player. You look at Phil, Tiger and the guys that have won that thing. So when a guy that's lesser known wins The Masters, I say, sure, I play practice rounds with Zach all the time, why can't I do it? It gives me the belief, and less fear probably. I didn't feel like I was out of place at all at the British Open this year when I was in the hunt. I really enjoyed that because it's never been one of my strongest tournaments. Q. Was there a time early on in your career when you thought you didn't have the pedigree to win a major? And if that was the case, when did you begin thinking I'm just as capable as anyone else here? STEWART CINK: Well, I surprised myself in '97 at the U.S. Open in Congressional because I played really well for two days and I was in the last group on Saturday. So when I started I was still really young, I was 24, 23, something like that, and when you start, at least when I started my career, I didn't really think too much about whether my game had what it takes to win a major or win tournaments out here on Tour. I was just playing to play and see how good I could become. I'm still sort of trying to do that. I really haven't taken stock of what I have to figure out whether it's good enough to win a major or not. I think it is. I think I just need to be there at the right time. Yeah, I think -- I can't even remember what you asked now, sorry. Q. At what point in your career did you show up in majors? STEWART CINK: Well, it was in '97 at Congressional, I surprised myself by getting in the final group there, and all of a sudden here I am looking around at the leaders and they're in my group, and I'm one of them. Suddenly I thought, well, okay, I don't feel like I've done a whole lot different. I think the more I play, the more I found out that you don't have to play perfect to win these tournaments. When I look back on the ones that I have won out here, I haven't played great. I didn't play really great when I played well at Carnoustie. I wasn't like on all cylinders, I just had a good attitude and I fought hard. I think that's what it takes. The older I get and the more I mature as a golfer, I think I realize that fighting hard and just competing means a lot more than being perfect. Q. Which points list have you looked at more this year, the FedExCup or The Presidents Cup? STEWART CINK: I looked at the FedEx a lot all year because -- mainly out of curiosity to see how it compares to the Money List. But also obviously to see where I'm standing. And then as of about the last three weeks I started really looking more at the Presidents Cup. Q. When you won here, you talked about how -- that great feeling walking down the 18th hole, how pretty it was and all that stuff. Do you ever try to conjure that up, just the memories? STEWART CINK: Yeah, I think about that all the time. It's still a vivid memory. I still have the exact picture in my mind of when it happened. I'd like to conjure it up really soon again by repeating the same exact situation (laughter). But I haven't done that yet since then. Maybe it's about time to revisit it. JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stewart. End of FastScripts |
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