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THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 5, 2009

Stewart Cink

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA

DOUG MILNE: Stewart Cink, thank you for joining us for a few minutes after round one of the Honda Classic. Obviously tough day out there, but you hung in there and capped it off with a great birdie at 18 to get to 3-under, which is currently tied for the lead. I don't imagine that it's going to get much lower, if any lower. Just a few comments on the round coming off your great finish last week.
STEWART CINK: Well, today was the exact type of round that I've been looking for, actually, where I didn't hit the ball that great. I started off well, but then middle to late part of the round, I kind of hit it all over the place. But I actually shot as low as I could have shot today.
Going back to the FBR, I felt like I was shooting as high as I could shoot. I was hitting okay, but not making any putts or not getting up-and-down and shooting as high as I could shoot, and I was really sour. Took off three weeks and just really worked hard and sort of regrouped.
Now I'm starting to see the results of, I guess, a rededication.

Q. Is that a veteranship thing when you can get the job done with less than your best stuff? It seems like a lot of the young guys really have a time -- anybody can play when they are on it, I guess.
STEWART CINK: It's all about managing your game. On a difficult course like this one, no one is going to be perfect. Guys are not going to be hitting all the fairways, 18 greens, you're not reaching the par 5s; well, at least the last hole you're not reaching.
It's the kind of course where you are going to be thrown some curves, and you need to adapt and roll with the punches, so to speak, and that's what I was able to do today out there. I made birdies when I had opportunities, and then when I hit it crooked, I was fortunate a few times where I had a shot from the rough or from the trees. But also, I hit my shots up on the green and 2-putted from long range, or I made a good up-and-down here and there.
But like I said, you know, I squeezed a decent score out of a not-that-great-of-a-day. That's what you see the best doing, when you see Tiger and Phil, you know, they don't always hit it perfect. But they seem to always hang around par or better, even on the tough days.

Q. You said you were sour after Phoenix and you took that time off, including two weeks that you would normally play, I would think, at the Buick and Riviera. What did you do to sort of collect yourself there, and what difference did all of that make going into last week?
STEWART CINK: Well, what did I do; I was really sour. And that's putting it mildly, the way I felt. (Laughter).
After missing the cut there, immediately, I told my caddie, I am not playing the Buick, even though I was planning on playing.

Q. You were second place there last year.
STEWART CINK: Yeah. I've had some good finishes there, and I've also had some missed cuts, I think. That course there is a lot like this one here; it's very demanding tee-to-green.
I told him I'm not going, and there's no way I'm teeing it up again for a few weeks thinking this way, because you just get to where you expected bad things to happen.
I realized that I needed some work. My short game just was not producing and my putts were weak and not very authoritative at all around the hole, and I was not making anything. It seemed like whenever I had a crucial situation in the round, I would hit a bad shot, and I got to thinking, you know, expecting bad things.
So decided to go off and see Butch for a couple of days. Also went skiing, twice, during that time, relaxed a little bit. Had a good time. I went from playing golf, which is very unenjoyable, to doing something I really did enjoy. It was just good to cleanse my mind a little bit.
Worked really hard with Butch for a few days and got to practice at home, and just came out refreshed last week and got ready to go. I was eager to play again instead of dreading.

Q. So how different is your outlook now after last week's performance today than was at the beginning of this year?
STEWART CINK: The big difference is, match play offers up a lot of crucial moments where you have putts that you have to make to keep the match going or to tie holes. And you have shots where you really need to hit the green or need to hit the fairway and put some pressure on your opponent, and a lot of those little moments that are hard to pick up on television, those work away on you inside, in the mind and in the heart.
When you pull those off at the right time, it just loads you up with confidence. And I did a lot of those last week, minus the Geoff Ogilvy match where he steamrolled me. Who wasn't he steamrolling, though?
I drew upon a lot of those good moments last week. And it doesn't take a whole lot for the tables to turn in your favor, and all of a sudden you feel a flood of confidence.

Q. Out here, on this course, especially, it doesn't take a whole lot for it to go the other way quick. By the end of the day today, we might see a lot more guys on the wrong side of 80 than we will the right side of 70. Can this place get much harder than it is already?
STEWART CINK: Well, the greens are pretty soft out there right now. So if they decide not to water and the greens get firm, we may not finish this thing until next Wednesday. (Laughter).
There's a lot of demanding shots out there. You have to be pin-point with your iron play and you have to drive it well. Like I said, you have to be ready to make some good up-and-downs and saves and keep the round going.

Q. Having played Ogilvy last week and got your nose right up to the glass with him, he's won a major and a couple three WGCs now in the last three or four years. What, if anything, is keeping him -- what's the final piece to the puzzle to make a guy a member of the elite-elite, if anything? It looks like he has all of the shots, is it just he tends to show up intermittently and fade away and come back?
STEWART CINK: If you look at what he's done around the world: Australia he has a pretty good record recently. And obviously this year, he's the only guy that's won more than once. He's got the major. He's pretty high up in the World Rankings.
I think really the only thing holding him back is his own personality, his own personality. He's very quiet and unassuming. He's not a loud-mouth. He's not out there -- he's not flashy. His game is real simple, but he's got power, a good short game, and he doesn't do anything fancy.
So really, the only thing keeping him considered to be in the elite group is perception by all of us and everybody out there that reads and watches golf, because far as I'm concerned, he is in the elite group. I mean, I would kill for his short game, the pressure putts he makes (laughter). He hits the fairways when he needs to. He's got it all. He's just got a very quiet, lethal kind of game.

Q. After the marathon of match play, did you total up the number of holes you played?
STEWART CINK: Three or four rounds.

Q. 111.
STEWART CINK: 111 holes I played? No wonder I'm tired.

Q. Did you think maybe of not coming to PGA National?
STEWART CINK: No, I never thought that. I grew more and more eager to come here and play as the week went on last week.
I wasn't tired after last week. I have to say, I was a little bit beat up on Tuesday here after the snowstorm in Atlanta delayed my flight till the next day. And then I was only home for just less than 24 hours and before I got down here and I felt like I was a little bit rushed and practicing, and never seen the course -- well, at least since I was 15.
When I got back to the room on Tuesday night and checked in and had something to eat, I just pretty much collapsed and didn't want to get up on Wednesday morning. I was really tired. That's when it hit me. But I got a good rest and now, you know, the adrenaline kicks in. Here we are.

Q. You are the kind of guy that just likes to play and play and play in your career?
STEWART CINK: I wouldn't say that. (Laughter) At certain times I like to play. I'm not the guy that sets up my schedule at the start of the year, either and says I'm playing from Tournament X to Tournament Y and playing these weeks.
There's a handful I definitely will play in, and other tournaments fall into the 'maybe' category where I just listen to my body and say, okay, when is it a good time to hit it and when is it not.
That's really the reason I'm here, because I took off the three weeks on West Coast and I wanted to use the Match Play as a springboard for my confidence, which worked out well. I was not planning on playing here originally, but now I am.

Q. Age 15?
STEWART CINK: PGA National Junior.

Q. How did you do?
STEWART CINK: I didn't do great. I don't remember exactly, but I know Chris Couch won, and that as one of the first times I ever played with a guy named Tiger Woods -- well, against him.
Tiger was leading but I think Chris Couch threw a 63 at him on the last day to win.

Q. Through the first four months of last year, speaking of Tiger, I believe you spent three Sundays playing with him, including the Masters.
STEWART CINK: And one of those, I played with him twice.

Q. I take it as barometers go, that's pretty good. That clearly shows where your game was, because he was in peak form at that point. Do you feel like you're getting close to that level where you were the first part of last year?
STEWART CINK: I think I feel close to that. I'm not quite where I want to be hitting the ball right now as far as my swing. I feel like I'm just changing things up on the golf course a little bit too much.
And last year at this point, I felt really strongly committed to one swing thought, and fire away on every shot. I'm still behind.
But my short game I think is better than it was, and I've just started with Butch, really hammering the short game, and that's where I'm going to keep my focus, well, for the rest of my life, I hope. Because it's a lot more fun being confident around the greens than it is being timid.
If I could do what I did last year for the first half of the year, I would be pretty happy putting myself this contention a lot. But I was totally dissatisfied with the second half of the year.

Q. What did playing with him on Sunday at Augusta, and being in that hunt, because that was really the first time you were in that spot going into the final round, I take it, at the Masters; what does that do for you going back there last month?
STEWART CINK: I think it opened up a door in some respects to me, because I really never had a very high finish there. Not that I was really close to winning the tournament last year, but still, only a couple of guys beat me.
I hung around and I think looking back, I said, well, I can play with the best here. This is a course that's never been really up my alley as far as finishes, but I think I can play.
And so that door was opened last year for me.

Q. With the short game work you're doing with Butch, do you think you'll be even better prepared?
STEWART CINK: I think around there having a better short game doesn't hurt, and having some shots and go-to moves around the greens doesn't hurt around Augusta National, because of all of the different shots you're presented with there, yeah.

Q. Did you read much of the aftermath of Trevor's final round last year; there was a good bit written, because the golf course has gotten so hard, the final round was a little less theatrical the last two years with Zach and Trevor. Obviously nobody is raining down 65s like Jack and coming from behind. Is too much being made of that, because we all want to see some guy do something heroic and hit the hero shots at the end; more a product of the golf course or weather or both?
STEWART CINK: It's a combination. The weather the last couple of years has been windy on the last day, so the scoring is up.
But the golf course, too, is a big story there, since 2002, it's just been brutally hard and almost does not matter what kind of conditions you have on the grass, whether it soft or hard or whatever. It's going to be difficult either way.
There's talk that they might sort of be going back to easing off a little bit and maybe widening the 11th hole and shortening 7 to make it a little bit more like it was.
But it's always going to be tough over there. When the greens are fast and pressure is on, you know, it just so -- it's such a fine line between heroics and disaster over there. You almost are forced to play safe now.

Q. Do you look forward to going back, say, as much as you did in the day to playing it? I know obviously there's the luster and the lore and all that, but as far as the golf course goes, it seems like more and more guys would put that in the class of perhaps the toughest thing they play all year, maybe outside of whatever the U.S. Open is doing.
STEWART CINK: I would say you're right.

Q. It's become less fun.
STEWART CINK: It's not as much fun to play over there. It's still fun, but you don't feel like you have a chance if you're six back going into the last nine holes anymore, because you're just not going to shoot a 28.
David Toms I think shot a 28 on the back nine about ten years ago, and you just don't see that happening right now. It's longer than ever; it's narrower than ever; and the greens just always seem to be faster and faster.

Q. Just for clarity sake, if The Match Play had not gone like it, if you had been one-and-done, would you have still been here?
STEWART CINK: No, I would have been here. Because when I took off the three weeks, I decided that day in Phoenix, because I was on my way to Colorado to ski, I said, all right, I'm taking off San Diego and I'm taking off the next two weeks after that. And I'm going to pick up Honda and I'm going to use the Match Play as a springboard to get ready for a warmup for Florida.

Q. So you didn't necessarily need to see something specific?
STEWART CINK: No. I basically took out San Diego and put in Honda. Lost a Buick and added a Honda.

Q. What are you doing the rest of the Florida swing?
STEWART CINK: Doral and Bay Hill.

Q. Have you figured out happened in the second half of last year, what went wrong or what was missing?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, I really just didn't strike the ball quite as well. My putting also was not quite as sharp. I never felt like I was putting really, really well at the start of last year, either, but I was hitting it so well I was keeping myself in tournaments. The tournaments I played well in were the most difficult tests that we face, like Transitions, Tampa, and the Masters, and then having the win later on in June. It was a function more of me just having supreme confidence hitting the ball well.
Then when I lost a little bit of that at the British Open, I felt like the British Open was sort of a turning point for me, where I developed some bad habits over there, and I brought those habits back.
Also, I kind of neglected to see Butch and really get on top of things in the latter part of the summer because I was sort of still in vacation mode and I just won a tournament, pat myself on the back, and I got lazy. Not that I wasn't practicing, but I was just doing the wrong things.

Q. Is it ever weird to you, it occurred to me when you were on the range with Phil last week, Butch was going, you; and Ernie; and Phil; and had Adam been around, he would have gone to Adam. You have to face a guy with the same swing coach and battling a guy down the stretch, because his stable of guys is pretty large and pretty prominent.
STEWART CINK: It's actually smaller than it was. He's cut down to where now he's only working with, I think, five. He had about ten.

Q. Who is the five?
STEWART CINK: Adam, me, Ernie, Phil and Watney.

Q. He's doing pretty good so far this year, isn't he.
STEWART CINK: He is. Yeah, it can be a little weird, you know, but like Phil made light of it when we were playing last week. Butch was over there with me right before we teed off and Phil walked over and walked by and said, "Trying to get it long and narrow, right?" Because he knows exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do; so tongue-in-cheek. (Laughter).
So all of that stuff, put it this way: It could be a little awkward playing against a guy that has same coach I do, but I would rather have the same coach that I have and go against a guy like that, because I trust what Butch says. I feel like I'm at my best with a guy like Butch Harmon, because he's taught me a lot about the swing and the short game and everything. Plus, he's got some good stories, too.

Q. Was when was it that you got to the crucial part of the round and expecting bad things to happen?
STEWART CINK: It was really this year where I did something about it and said, I'm not playing next week. But it was a carryover from the end of last year where I just didn't feel like I was clicking.
But really this year, the two tournaments in Hawaii, I just didn't feel like I performed that well. And then the Phoenix Open, the FBR, that was really where it was nasty. And I just said, all right, enough.
Luckily I built a career where I could take three weeks at the start of the season, and say, okay, I'm backing away. I don't feel the pressure to play in every tournament like my first couple of years on TOUR. You feel like if you stay home a week, the world is passing you by.
Maturity has allowed me to see it for what it is; that it's a long year. It not just one tournament.

Q. I was going to ask if that was more a maturity thing or a status thing.
STEWART CINK: It's both, because without the status, I don't have the luxury of doing it. I'm 35, but there's 35-year-olds out there in the field this week that don't have the luxury of saying, all right, I'm in these three tournaments, but I'm not going to play in them.

Q. Where do you think Harrington ranks on the self-made man scale? That seems like a guy who has driven himself Vijay-like and he's gotten better as he's got older; is that fair to say?
STEWART CINK: I don't know. I really don't know much about his background and what he did growing up. I don't know much about him, except I don't know much about his golf. I know he's got an unbelievable short game. He's gotten so much better at that part of the game over the last five years. He's not the straightest hitter off the tee or anything. In fact, you would think being a guy from Europe he would be a low-ball hitter and all that, but he's not at all. He launches it to the moon and he carries it forever. He's got an American-style game.
But his short game is so reliable, and he's got a tough mind. Not the kind of guy you want to play in match play, at all. I've played him the last two years prior to this year, and not to mention a few Ryder Cups here and there, and he's a guy you don't want to see on the other side of the tee, because he's just a gritty competitor.
DOUG MILNE: If you would not mind running us through your birdies real quick.
STEWART CINK: Started off with five pars. And then 6, that's one of those converted holes that played into the wind today. They had the tee moved up but it was still driver, 4-iron, about ten feet there.
7, I hit a 4-iron about ten feet also.
9, I hit a 5-iron about 25 feet.
10 was a wedge to about six feet.
Then 14, I drove it in the hazard off the tee to the right and had to take a drop, 2-putt bogey.
16, I hit it way left off the tee and had it on the front of the green, but about 100 feet, 3-putted. Missed about, I don't know, a 10-footer for par there.
And then 18, the tee was up on 18, which me not being experienced around here, it was quite an indecision-fest on the tee. I didn't really know what to hit. I hit driver and hit it through the fairway. Still laid up okay. Even though I laid up in the rough, it's a very narrow lay-up area, and laid up in the rough in a divot, but hit a good third shot about 15 feet and made the putt.

Q. What did you hit on 15 and 17?
STEWART CINK: 15 was 180 to the stick and I hit 4-iron. And 17 was 190 to the stick and I hit 4-iron.

Q. Into the wind?
STEWART CINK: Oh, yeah.

Q. It's kind of the same hole, isn't it?
STEWART CINK: Well, it's about 90-degree angle difference, so 15 was coming into it and off the right, and 17 was into it off the left.

Q. Visually, do they look similar?
STEWART CINK: When you're standing up there with a 25-mile-an-hour wind blowing, visually it doesn't mean anything, because the type of shot you have to hit is totally different. You're almost trying to hold a little strong fade into 15 and a strong draw on 17 just to keep it.
I hit right after Davis. Davis hit a beautiful shot on 17, started off left of the hole, kind of solid and got up there and the wind, just, see ya, took it right in the water.

Q. Two quickies. Match play, you have such a great record there, have you thought about any way of applying that finishing power to stroke-play tournaments?
STEWART CINK: If I'm awake, I'm thinking about it. (Laughter) Of course. Always trying to figure out how to translate that into the for common format, which would be great.
Match play just has some kind of a finality to it that I just tend to stay in the present a lot easier and focused on nothing but one shot.
Stroke play, it's a lot easier to get ahead of your game a little bit and think about what's to come, and the consequences and the benefits of club selection, aim, all of these things.
Definitely I'm trying to figure out, because I've done this now for a couple of years where I've played okay in the Match Play at times, played okay in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup at times, and I just want to translate into that finality and that do-or-die mentality into stroke play, and maybe I'll get there.

Q. What's the marine tell you, your boy in Fort Lauderdale?
STEWART CINK: His mantra with golf is to stay in the present. There's no such thing as the past. There's no such thing as the future.
In match play, naturally I just fit in there and fall there. That's where my mind is, it's on the shot. In stroke play, I have to fight that. I have to fight getting out in the future and in the past.
So it just the more natural comfort level for me in match play that that's just where I tend to reside.

Q. And big picture on the golf course. Would you like to see majors closer to where we are this week than the extreme edge that they get to? Would this be a good test for a major?
STEWART CINK: Yes, it would. Just like it is out there today every day, yeah. The course is a good test for a major.
I would like to see some where they go right to the edge and over, and some where they go a lot less than they should have. I don't think it always has to be the hardest course of the year for every major. Sometimes where not shoot 20-under for a major and see who can have a birdie-fest and make birdies to win majors.
If you make the majors everywhere where it's the hardest course of the year like Oakland Hills was last year or Birkdale or the Masters, you are going to end up with the same type of player winning every major, and I don't think anybody wants that. I think we want to spread it around a little bit.

Q. What was your third shot on 15?
STEWART CINK: I hit an 8-iron from 120, out of a divot, out of the rough.
DOUG MILNE: Stewart, as always, we appreciate your time.

End of FastScripts

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