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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 20, 2008

Stewart Cink

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

DOUG MILNE: Stewart Cink, we'd like to welcome you in. Great round today, 6-under par 64. It wasn't looking like that after the first two holes. Just a couple comments on the round, on the day.
STEWART CINK: Well, you're right about that. It didn't start out very promising at all with those two bogeys. Those were ugly. Middle of the fairway on 1, and just in the first cut on 2 with like 70 yards to the hole. Not the way you want to start out when you play a decent round on Thursday, just to give a couple shots back.
But I was able to right the ship and salvage quite a bit and actually got on a pretty good roll and got very confident in the middle of the round and finished off strong, too.
DOUG MILNE: I know they'll ask you more about it, but do you remember the last time you had two eagles in a round?
STEWART CINK: Actually, I do. It was at THE PLAYERS Championship. I think it was one of the early rounds a couple years ago, and I missed the cut. But I had two eagles on one of the early rounds, and it didn't help me at all (laughing).

Q. Have you led here at all since you won here?
STEWART CINK: Well, I was in a playoff here the year after that. That was a while back. And I don't remember if I have been in the lead or not since then. I had a bunch of Top 10s there for a while here. I'm not sure.

Q. Do you feel like the spot you're in, obviously just --
STEWART CINK: Well, what feels good is to start off the way I did today and then come back and end up posting a good score and salvaging -- somewhat covering up for those mistakes. You can never totally get rid of what you already have done, but there's some level of permanence that exists when you hit bad shots to make bogeys. But when you're able to come back, make a couple of eagles, take advantage of some pretty benign holes, then that feels good, and definitely leads to confidence into the weekend.

Q. Can you talk about your putting today, especially on those two eagles?
STEWART CINK: Well, you know, actually I learned a lot last week at the U.S. Open on my putting, and I think a lot of players probably did. But the greens were quite bumpy out there, and if you got into trying to force the ball into the hole, then you were just going to wreck yourself mentally. All you could do was just make a stroke at it and get the ball rolling, and then you were sort of at the mercy of the bounce. But you also sort of take the pressure off.
So I came here with that same sort of an attitude. These greens are pretty smooth, but you're not always going to get the nice roll that you'll looking for. So today, even though I made bogeys on the first couple holes, I just kept on staying down and staying focused on just doing what you can do, and that's just stroking the putter through the ball and almost not even looking up to watch it. The balls were tracking nice, and some of them went in.

Q. I was going to say, after the 2nd hole did you give yourself some kind of talking-to that we can publish, or was it just, it happens, or what were you thinking after the 2nd hole?
STEWART CINK: Well, I definitely wasn't thinking this happens, because I would not consider what I did on the first two holes something that passively just happened to me. I made bad mistakes there. It was all me, there was no question. Just made a couple of bad decisions and not very good shots.
So I did somewhat give myself a talking-to, and I can't print every word, or you can't print every word, but I was pretty upset because I was really looking forward to coming out here today and starting off strong and playing a good, solid round. As it turns out, looking back, I did end up with a good round, but after two holes if you had told me I was going to be 6-under at the end of the day, I would have told you you were from Mars.

Q. You had a good final round at Torrey. Can you bring something like that to this week? Or the course is so different that that really doesn't happen?
STEWART CINK: It's hard to bring momentum from that to here because it's a few days, East Coast, West Coast, there's a lot of factors. It's almost like you leave that behind. What you can bring is confidence in the way you're swinging the club and what you're doing with your form. So I had some confidence out there.
I did drive the ball okay out there on Sunday and hit some shots kind of where I was looking, some curves that I was looking for. I just kind of hit the ground running when I got here, from Torrey straight to the range, where it was just kind of a similar feeling with the swing and tempo and everything. I didn't really skip a beat.
You can bring some feelings here. It's hard to bring the momentum from the round, but the way you're feeling about your swing and maybe even some thoughts like I just mentioned with the putting, you can bring those from the tournament before.

Q. Just talk about your year, a lot of Top 10s. Do you get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you win one?
STEWART CINK: I hope it's just a matter of time. I hope it's a matter of about two days (laughter). But I'm patient. I've been out here for 12 years, and that's one thing I've definitely learned is to be patient. I haven't won that many times, but I have tasted victory a few times.
I know that the last thing you can do and expect to win is to force it, to try to wrestle home a win. Guys like me, I'm not Tiger Woods. I think that the best way for me to go out there this weekend is to still try to let it happen and just to be myself and stay in the present and go after it, you know, and just leave everything out there. That's the main thing.

Q. Are you part of the plane crew that came back?
STEWART CINK: I was -- you mean the charter, the Travelers charter? No, I wish I could have gotten on there because they had televisions.
We actually had a board meeting on Monday, and I'm on the TOUR board, so we had to leave a little bit earlier than the charter, the six of us who were affiliated with the meeting. So we came on a separate charter and no televisions. I think the charter left at 8:00 o'clock or something.
That was a good example of what Travelers has meant to this tournament, doing something like that. That's a major, major commitment to get players from there to here and to get this field as good as it can be. I think all the players definitely appreciate that, especially those that wanted to watch the U.S. Open.
It's not an easy place to get to, Hartford, especially from the West Coast. There's no direct redeye, and when they announced they were doing that, I think a lot of players were very relieved, and a lot of players therefore decided to put it on their schedule.
DOUG MILNE: If you wouldn't mind running us through your birdies and eagles and just give us the clubs and a little description if you don't mind.
STEWART CINK: I'll probably need to look at the notes today. Well, I've already been through No. 1 and 2. I hit it about the worst place you can hit it on 1, dead center of the fairway, over the green with a 6-iron, just a very poor choice of clubs and just very disappointed with that one.
2, I drove it down the left edge of the fairway, only had 70 yards to the hole in the first cut. It wasn't a hard shot at all, just not committed to the yardages, sort of decelerated and left it short in the bunker, made bogey.
And then 3, that was a rebound birdie down the middle and a wedge to about -- not a very good second shot, but hit it about 30 feet and then canned it. Kind of got me turned around a bit.
6 was playing into the wind, kind of a long hole today, driver in the middle and then from 265 out, I hit another driver about 20 feet past the hole and made that.
7, I hit driver, wedge to about five feet, made that.
8, I hit 6-iron about 15 feet to the back fringe, made that.
10, I three-putted from the right fringe from about 30 feet, left it short and missed about a five- or six-footer.
13, I drove it in the fairway and hit 3-wood about 50 right of the hole pin high with a big break right-to-left and made that.
15, I hit 3-wood off the tee on 15, trying to hit the green but didn't hit that great of a shot, left it a little right down in the valley, chipped up about 12 feet past the hole and made that.
And 17, put it in the fairway with an iron and then 9-iron to the green about 15 feet right of the hole and made that.
DOUG MILNE: Stewart Cink, thanks very much. Congratulations on a great round, and good luck on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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