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BUICK INVITATIONALJanuary 25, 2008Stewart CinkSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart Cink, thanks for joining us here, 7-under par through two rounds. Maybe some opening comments on a good start for you. STEWART CINK: Well, thanks. Yeah, it was -- the last couple rounds have been pretty solid. Today I played a little bit better on the South, even though my scores were higher, but the course is difficult. Overall I think the windy weather and soft conditions are adding up to a little bit higher score than usual, and I'm pleased. Q. I can't remember what year it was, might have been in '06, I think you had the first-round lead here, so you've obviously got some comfort around here. You see Charles Howell up there again, he's done well here, Tiger, Nathan Green. Something about this course where familiarity breeds comfort, I guess, making up clichés here? STEWART CINK: I would say yes, but it's the same for every course, though. If you've had some good finishes here, good rounds, good memories, anything that gives you a positive outlook on the tournament, then that will always increase your likelihood of playing well. Actually it was a few years earlier than that, it was about 2003 or 2004. They run together. Honestly, yes, the tendency to play well exists even more strongly if you have played well in the past. Q. That's just a lack of -- more positive memories than scar tissue, I guess, whatever the case may be? STEWART CINK: Yeah, but first of all, there's a reason you played well in the first place. It's not just that your game is in great shape. Having a course that the tee shots fit your eye and you feel comfortable with the way the ball is carrying distance-wise, you know, the greens, even though these aren't the smoothest greens, there's almost an art to playing some of these poa annua type greens. The steep hills, you've got to play a lot of break, and it's just a certain way you have to let your ball break. If you feel good on the course from the tee and on the greens, then that's a big key to playing well the whole course. Q. Playing the South Course today, is that going to help you a little bit going into this weekend knowing you're going to play that course two more times? STEWART CINK: I wouldn't say that's a big difference because we've played here enough times. It's not like it's a new course. I would say if we were in last week at the Hope, those two courses I had never played before, so I would like to play more rounds in a row on those two, but here, I've played here year after year and the course hasn't changed that much, with the exception of the 4th hole on the South. Everything else is pretty much the same. I don't think the rotation matters too much. Q. Did you happen to meet Kevin Streelman yet on the highways and byways of the first two weeks? STEWART CINK: I have not. I only played last week, and when you play with the amateurs you don't get to see a lot of the new pros because you're not playing with them, so I haven't met him. Q. Can you talk about the dual challenge of weather and chasing Tiger? STEWART CINK: Well, chasing Tiger Woods is always the tallest task on the PGA TOUR, so I get a chance to try again. And as far as the weather, it sounds like it's a serious storm coming in this weekend. I hope we get it in. No one likes to go to Monday, but the way it looks, I think Sunday is going to be a pretty bad day. I've seen floods up to almost covering entire cars here before a few years -- well, probably ten years ago, but I hope that's not the case this time. I know it can happen, but hopefully we'll get more San Diego-like weather instead of San Francisco weather. Q. Obviously you're close to the top of the leaderboard. Do you like playing in big groups with a lot of attention? STEWART CINK: I like playing with Tiger. I think playing with Tiger, it seems like you up your focus a little bit more. And there's a lot more movement in the crowd, but that's typical. If you're playing in the later groups on the weekend, there's always going to be that extra little bit of movement and people -- not everybody knows exactly what to do when they're out watching golf, and why should they? It's great to have people that maybe don't play a lot of golf come out and watch us play. But playing with Tiger you have to ramp it up a little bit anyway. I enjoy playing with him, plus he's a good guy. I've known him for a long time. Q. The South Course hasn't been nearly as difficult as it has been in years past. Is there a reason for it? STEWART CINK: I think relatively, relative to the North Course, the North Course has gotten more difficult over the years, and that's why. Since 2002 there hasn't been a lot of change on the South, but on the North Course they've changed tees, narrowed fairways, and they've enhanced that course and tried to bring it up to the level of the South. That's the reason. It's not the South Course that's changing, it's the North Course. Q. Going into another weekend with Tiger, do you ever change your mentality going into it? Do you tweak anything else or do you just go out there and play and try to post a good score? STEWART CINK: Yeah, there's nothing you can do. If there was something I could do to enhance my game a little bit, hopefully would have already done it before I got here. You go out there and you hope that you can really stay focused and centered and play to the very best of your abilities because that's what it's going to take to put some pressure on Tiger. It's going to take my best, and hopefully I can show up this weekend. Q. Do you have a score in mind going in? STEWART CINK: No, especially if there's weather coming in. You don't know. If it's a downpour out here, this course is so long and the rough is substantial that somebody could go out there and you could shoot even par on the weekend and pass almost everybody if the weather is bad. So there's no score in mind, no. Q. I'm working on a story for next week. For those of us who have never been there, could you be describe what the 16th hole is at Scottsdale? STEWART CINK: Well, when you say stadium golf, it has two meanings. It means stadium effect, like mounds and big bleachers around the golf course, and then it means the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open. There's two different sets of stadium golf. When you can pack in, I don't know how many, I'm just going to guess, maybe 60,000 people. Q. I've been told the record is like 22,000 around 16. STEWART CINK: You broke my bubble. It sounds like that. But it's really quite cool playing there. A little scary. As soon as you make impact with that ball, they're going to yell. But I have to give them a lot of credit because there's a lot of kids, young people, I guess, not really kids, but young guys, they do a lot of thought, put a lot of thought into what they're going to yell out to the golfers. Everybody has their little comments they get, and they're very entertaining. Q. What have you gotten? STEWART CINK: Well, they'll comment on your shirt, they'll comment on -- maybe, for instance, I went to Georgia Tech, so they'll start yelling out a guy's name that's playing basketball for Georgia Tech at the moment, maybe a guy that's a star. They're just really good about picking out little tidbits to chant. Q. Did you ever get booed? STEWART CINK: If you miss the green you get booed. Q. How did that feel, if you have missed it? STEWART CINK: You might think it's insulting personally, but I try not to take what I do with my shots very personally. I've hit some really bad shots there and some really good shots. It's just like any other hole. You really don't let it affect you. If you get booed, you get booed. If you hit a good shot and it bounces over the green by two inches, you get booed. But to me that's a pretty good shot. Q. Have you ever said anything back just in fun? STEWART CINK: Oh, no, you don't want to do that. You don't want to provoke them (laughter). Q. Talking about this golf course, like you said, there's the potential for a downpour and rain that will make the course even longer. Do you go out there and does it play like a couple strokes longer, four strokes longer? Is it tough to say how difficult it might be with rain? STEWART CINK: It's tough. It's tough. We haven't really experienced a whole lot of rain around here as far as the kind of rain you have to play in. There's been days where it's been washed out but not like a steady rain where you have to keep the umbrella up and the rain gear and all that. It's hard to put a score to it. You go out there and grind away and try to do the best you can. In that kind of condition you know you're going to be missing some fairways and you're not going to reach the green on the par-4s, certainly not on the par-5s because the ball just doesn't travel. You have to get ready to get up-and-down for some pars and grind it out. Q. This being an election year, I'm kind of curious how much you guys talk about politics amongst each other, or is it sort of a taboo subject? And is it a situation where a lot of guys -- I think a lot of athletes because they're public figures, they want to stay quiet about who they're supporting. I'm just kind of curious -- you seem to have a good rapport with a lot of players. How much is that discussed? STEWART CINK: Let's see, I can estimate zero. Not one player has said anything to me in an election year about any candidate. There's a couple of caddies that are pretty up on things, though. They'll talk. Not a big issue. It is a big issue, but I think everyone is just sort of forming their own opinions. There's some that are probably not paying any attention at all to it. I'm a little late getting caught up on the candidates myself. I'm just trying to educate myself now. Players aren't talking about it very much. There's a lot of players that aren't U.S. born that aren't voters, so they aren't concerned obviously. I think the biggest issue, just like the whole country, is taxes and how much it's going to hit you in the wallet. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart Cink, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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