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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 23, 2008Stewart CinkTUCSON, ARIZONA CHRIS REIMER: Stewart Cink, in the championship match at the World Golf Championship, Accenture Match Play Championship. Out in 29 today. Just talk about the hot start. STEWART CINK: Boy, it was a hot start. It was a lot of fun. I felt like everything was going in, and it was pretty much; everything was going in (laughter). You know, when you get off to a start like that, sometimes you almost find yourself in a position where you don't really know what to do. I think the long day sort of caught up with me, plus I was a little sick at the start of the week, stomach virus that sort of left me short of energy. I think I ran out of gas a little bit. Good thing I had a big cushion because I was leaking a little oil. Q. Starting with Monty yesterday in the back nine, you just started making birdies like crazy and a couple of eagles. I think you said on TV or you said on one of the quote sheets that the rest of your game wasn't real strong, but boy, the putter was? STEWART CINK: Well, the match against Monty, that's the case; I putted very well. I didn't drive it very well that day. It was bad, as a matter of fact, and I just scrambled all day and made a lot of birdies from places you shouldn't really be making birdies. But the other matches, the two before that and then the two after that, I've been very good off the tee. I've driven the ball very well, long. I've used my power that I've developed to my advantage. I'm pleased. I mean, I've putted well every match. I'm just really looking forward to tomorrow. Q. If memory serves, did you play with him both weekend days at the Buick? STEWART CINK: With Tiger? Q. Yeah. STEWART CINK: Yeah. Q. Is that something you want to think about, or do you just want to block that out at this point? STEWART CINK: I've always said I love playing with Tiger because I like watching him play. He and I have known each other for so long. I've known him practically as long as anybody else on TOUR has probably known Tiger Woods. He's just fun to play with. I like playing with him. When you play with him in the later part of the tournaments it means you're doing something well, so I'm happy to be there again. Q. We tend to look at those who use the long putter as having had problems at some point. You may be the best long putter in the world, one of the best putters, period. What changed with the long putter, and why are you so good at using it? STEWART CINK: Well, going back to about 2002 when I switched over to it, I was just struggling with my confidence in my putting. I've made a 180-degree turn with my attitude and my thought process on putting, and that's really what made a big difference. I also changed to the long putter at the same time, but I think physically it was -- or I should say mentally, it was a bigger difference that I just turned over a whole new leaf. I put the old Stewart to rest and I started all over. It was a whole new outlook on putting. And that's really what -- you know, I'm still trying to get better with putting. Even though I've putted well this week, I'd like to do this more often. Who wouldn't? But I think rather than it being a long putter thing, it's more of a mental attitude thing. Q. Is this where you should have been? You came out of Georgia Tech, and people said, boy, you were better than Duval. You had that near miss at the '01 Open, and I just wonder, do you think you're -- I hate to use the word underachieved, because you haven't -- STEWART CINK: I use that word all the time because I consider myself to be an underachiever so far. I don't believe that I've lived up to what I know I'm able to do, and I keep waiting for it to happen. I'm patient, but it's been a long time. Q. This is a big -- whatever happens, reaching the finals of this has to be very -- STEWART CINK: It's huge. I mean I've played very well when I needed to this week. Towards the end of the matches I've really tightened the screws and put my guys away. With the exception of the Harrington match, where I went to 18, I got a cushion and kept it pretty much. And it's been a lot of fun to really perform when I had the lead and when I needed to. Q. That new outlook on putting that you mentioned, can you describe that and the sort of evolution? STEWART CINK: Just to put it simply, I just -- I stopped focusing so much on the results and I started focusing a lot more on the process and just moving the putter through the ball. And just like with my full swing, and every player out here on TOUR, when you make a good swing the ball just gets in the way of a good swing and there it goes. Well, it really should be the same with your putting. That's in a nutshell the way I sort of just -- I started thinking that way instead of got to make this, got to make this. Q. That was '02? STEWART CINK: Yeah. Q. I was just curious of the times you've played with Tiger in the last group, how much more fun it is to at least start the final round even (laughter)? STEWART CINK: I don't know that I've ever started the round even with him. Well, Akron, we had a playoff there. Shoot, you know, it seems like more often than not I've been trailing by like eight or ten shots, but I'm still in the last group. There's a lot to play for. Even when you're trailing by that much, you're still trying to finish as high as you can, and usually it's a pretty good race for second. So tomorrow I just want to keep doing the same thing I've been doing, keep enjoying myself and see what happens. Q. Is there any part of match play -- on the one hand you're thinking, don't waste all these birdies now, but on the other hand you can't because you're just trying to bury the guy you're playing? STEWART CINK: I just find it easier in match play to stay focused on the moment and not -- I don't tend to get ahead of myself much in match play. I don't know why. Q. And you do in stroke? You fight the urge in stroke? STEWART CINK: Yeah, a little bit more. I think match play, so many times it seems like you have a putt that all that matters is that putt. And if it doesn't go in, you pick it up, a putt where you have to tie the hole. I wish I could just train myself to think that way on every single putt my whole life. I'm learning a lot this week. Q. As well as Tiger is playing, what do you try to tell yourself mentally tonight and tomorrow about what you want to do against him? STEWART CINK: I think the best thing I can do is just to go out there and play golf like it's stroke play. That's what I've been doing all week. They say match play is so different because you play your opponent. I don't buy into that at all. I think you still play the golf course. You do the best you can on every single shot. The lowest score wins, whether you add them up at the end or hole by hole. Lowest score wins. And you can't get the lowest score without playing the golf course to the best that you know how. I don't see why I shouldn't just do the same thing tomorrow. Q. Do you think that's why you can throw up like a 29, because you're last on the course and you're not worrying about where he's hitting? STEWART CINK: Yeah, I've played five matches this week. I can count on one hand how I've changed my strategy based on where the opponent is. You're not doing that. Q. Can you expand a little bit on why it's just so much fun playing with Tiger? STEWART CINK: Well, it's exciting. It's a competitive thing. He's the best that's ever lived in golf, and just being able to get a front row seat and watch him play is fun. I'm a golf fan, just like I'm a golf player. He's just a good guy to play with. But personally I like him. I like him as a person, he's a nice guy. We spend a lot of time together. We have a lot in common now, a lot more than we used to now that he's got a baby. I don't know what else to say. He's just a good guy to be around and I enjoy watching him play. Q. You mentioned early on that you developed a power game. You sound like that's something recent. Did you go through swing changes or retraining? Can you talk about that, please? STEWART CINK: Well, it's a little bit of everything mixed in there. I really have worked a lot harder on my fitness. I'm not a fitness nut, but I'm a lot stronger than I was five or six years ago, and that's helped. I've been working with Butch Harmon now for about the same amount of time, which has helped a lot. I've learned so much about my swing. I feel like while I don't always hit the ball in the fairway, I at least know what I do wrong. I'm able to make adjustments on the course now that I wasn't able to do before, and I've also improved my power through that. But also another big part of it is I work really closely with Nike and their golf ball engineers and club designers, and I'm really involved with their new products and everything they come out with with testing and feedback. I feel like the more you can be involved with your equipment, and with Nike, for me, I don't see how that can't benefit me as a player. If I'm the one giving them information of what I would like to see and no one else is, then maybe the golf ball that comes out may be a little bit skewed toward what I like. I'm using this new Nike One Black. It's a longer ball off the tee for me. I get great ball flight. I'm just way longer than the guys I used to not be longer than. My game has changed because I'm hitting the ball a lot longer. Q. To date, what's your most significant victory in match play? STEWART CINK: I'd probably say the '06 Ryder Cup. Q. Because -- STEWART CINK: Because it was a Ryder Cup and we -- against Sergio, and we needed the point really bad, I thought (laughter). I was the second match. I don't know what we were trailing by, but we were trailing. I was the second match to tee off and I just knew that we needed something and we needed points early, and I went out and got mine. Q. You killed him, but didn't you birdie the first four, something crazy? STEWART CINK: I did that against Nick O'Hern in The Presidents Cup last year; I birdied like the first five and had the clinching point. Q. You pummeled him. STEWART CINK: We were ahead -- I did beat him pretty well. But he played well, too, that day. I made like seven or eight birdies, and he also made a lot of birdies. Q. Don't kid yourself, that was a significant match, because if you don't win it, you guys would have lost by a record margin. STEWART CINK: At the time it was very significant and meaningful to me. I thought it might be meaningful to the team, but it really, except for the thing you said. But personally to me it was very meaningful. And it might have been meaningful to Sergio, too. Q. Puggy was telling Rosaforte about I guess it might have been the first time you ran against Tiger. Stanford flew out and you played at Druid Hills. I was wondering if you could give us your memories of that; and then secondly, what were the circumstances of your win at the NEC in '04 when Tiger finished T2? STEWART CINK: First of all, the college match deal, it wasn't the first time I ran across him. We had played in junior golf together, a little gap because of our age difference, and then we played a couple of rounds in college golf early that year. And we had like an exhibition match where the top five from Stanford or their playing five, they had come in to play at our tournament in Dalton, Georgia. The day before, or the day before the practice round we played a match down in Atlanta. I played against Tiger and I won the match. But that's a while back (laughter). Q. What year was that? STEWART CINK: I think it was in '95 or '94. Q. He was there in fall of '94 to the spring of '96. STEWART CINK: Okay, then I think it was in '95, because that was my senior year. Q. Where was that match? STEWART CINK: It was at Druid Hills in Atlanta, where they have the dogwood. Q. Do you remember the scores? STEWART CINK: I think we were both under par pretty well. It was not that hard a course. CHRIS REIMER: The second part, the NEC. STEWART CINK: I was leading by five shots, I think, starting that round. Q. Final round? STEWART CINK: I think so, yeah. I think that's one of the rounds there that I really didn't give a lot of credit to Butch because I was hitting it crooked the first few holes and made an adjustment in the middle of the round. And I don't know if I missed another fairway after like the 8th hole. When you're leading by a lot of shots, you start hitting a lot of fairways. Especially a place like Firestone, it's hard to catch up. Q. You mentioned earlier that you used the word "underachieved." Is that a thing that athletes do to fire themselves up, or do you think that you really honestly believe that? STEWART CINK: No, I really believe that. I think if you look back over my career, I mean, I've made a lot of money out here on the TOUR. I've had a lot of high finishes, but I haven't had as many wins as I felt like I had a chance to capture. I think just -- it's a nuance to the game where I feel like I haven't closed the deal as many times as I've had the opportunity. That's a disappointment to me, and that's why I feel like I've underachieved. Q. Does everybody feel that way about their game? STEWART CINK: No, I don't think everybody does. I know everybody would like to have won more. And Tiger has won, what, 70 times, and he's probably wishing he'd won 150 (laughter). But, no, I think in my case, I just feel like I could have done more to this point. I still have a lot of golf to play ahead of me. End of FastScripts |
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