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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 24, 2010Stewart CinkORLANDO, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: Stewart, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. We just kind of wanted to catch up to you and have you comment on the state of your game as you're heading into the week and just a few general comments as you're ready to start off the week here. STEWART CINK: Okay. Well, yeah, we are always excited to be back here. This is one of the great old venues, and with Mr. Palmer as our host, it's great. So firstly, for me, my game last week stunk. I missed the cut. But there's been the flicker of excitement there, at least. I've had a couple of good finishes this year. Match Play was definitely good. Had a good round at Doral the last day but was way back and didn't really account for much. This week it's about being ready to go on a new golf course. We see a new Bay Hill this year, and I hear the changes are pretty good. I haven't seen anything yet except for about four holes, so I'm looking forward to today to get out there and check it out. Q. Between Tiger's injury and his absence for other reasons in the last couple three years, you're one of the few Americans that have kind of won a major during that span, international players have won majors, last seven our of 12, Europeans have won the last two PLAYERS Championships; is there any collective disappointment that the American players haven't been a little bit stronger in the bigger events, and like I say, you're kind of one of the guys who have broken through and won a major during that span. STEWART CINK: Well, the only time I really care if players are American or European is in The Ryder Cup. So if it's not me winning majors, then to be honest, it really doesn't matter who it is. That sounds selfish, and it is selfish, but that's okay; it's an individual game out here. (Laughter). So I don't feel like there's any disappointment at all in the Americans not winning majors. I'm glad I got mine. Q. Have there been any issues you've been working through your game? You mentioned you didn't play well last week; you seem like you're okay but maybe not ecstatic. STEWART CINK: I haven't been ecstatic. All you have to do is just have look at my finishes and to see that I'm not ecstatic about it. At the moment, I just came off a missed the cut, so I'm less ecstatic now than I was before last week. But there's just been little -- I feel like I'm getting in my own way out there. I'm turning 69s into 72s two often and you can't do that and be very successful, and I'm also very hard on myself. A lot of players probably would have very much enjoyed being in my position at this point in the year but that's not why I'm out here to play, to finish a couple of times in the top ten. I'm always working, trying to improve. My short game still not as good as I want it to be. I'm always working hard on that to try and improve it. And I think that's where you look at the very top players, players in the top five or six in the world who are just on fire, it's almost always coming down to short game and putting. We can all drive it pretty well for the most part and hit our 8-irons in there pretty close sometimes but they really separate themselves around the greens. We all know watching Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington that those guys get the ball up-and-down like crazy from everywhere. Tiger, too, before we couldn't watch him; he's been on indefinite leave. Those guys separate themselves on the greens and that's where I haven't separated myself, and that's what I'm always working on. Q. Talking about separation, Ray Floyd told me a long time ago is that by winning majors is how golfers separate themselves. You've won a major now, is that a huge load off your shoulders do you feel like if you never win another tournament, which I'm not saying you shouldn't, do you feel like you've gotten something that's important for your legacy and has it I think changed how you feel about yourself when you approach the game? STEWART CINK: Well, the third question, yes, it's definitely changed the way I feel about the way I've come to terms in my attitude towards tournaments. I feel like if I can get myself in position, that I'm like -- I just want to get a chance to get back there again so I can exercise what I learned at Turnberry, that I can do it. The second question, I can't remember what it was. The first question, was it a load off, no, because I didn't feel like there was a load on me. I didn't feel like I was -- I never really thought of myself -- I have to be careful how I put this because I don't want you guys to get the wrong impression. I didn't live my life and play TOUR events with the one pinpointed goal of winning major championships. I just wanted to try to be at my best all the time. I didn't really know and I didn't really put any thought into whether I was going to be a major championship winner or not in my career. I just wanted to play my best all the time. If it was at Turnberry, I wanted to play my best at Turnberry; if it was at THE PLAYERS Championship so be it. I just played really well last year at Turnberry and won that, and I am extremely proud of that and that's something you can never take away. Oh, I know the second question now: If I never do win another tournament, will I be satisfied with what I've done? And I have no choice. I have to be happy with what I've done as long as I've put forth the effort and been as good as I can be. I would like to win a lot more, and I feel like I definitely have the potential to win a lot more tournaments or majors or both. But it certainly irons out the roughness of not playing well when you have a major championship under your belt because a lot of players don't. Q. There are a few players who finally broke through and seem to exhale and never really -- not a lot of players, never really perform at that level again. How do you avoid that? STEWART CINK: I don't think you can avoid it. It's not -- as soon as you start trying to avoid that, then it's in your head and you're probably not going to avoid that. So one thing for me is the Claret Jug is something that you get for a year and it's temporary. So I have to work my butt off constantly to try to do my best to try to keep that thing for another year. And it actually motivates me seeing it at home and knowing that it's not going to be there forever; that I've got to keep going. At the British Open last year, I just happened to be about two months into a totally new style of golf for me and practicing a different way; short putter, just completely overhauled my game around the greens and especially on the green. And so that was immediate feedback. I changed everything and boom, I win a major. What else can motivate you to keep on practicing that way for the rest of your career than winning a major championship? I'm still going, still working hard on the same things. Just trying to put it into play and have better results. Q. What do you need to show yourself here to know -- what do you need to see this week to know you're ready for a couple weeks down the road in Augusta, and when you get there, I'll ask one of the Tiger questions here, do you think he can be a competitive factor at Augusta? STEWART CINK: I'll answer the second question first. Do I think Tiger Woods can be a competitive factor at the Masters? I can't believe you're even asking that question. We're talking about Tiger Woods, the best player that's ever played golf. I've seen the players who are usually in that conversation. I've never seen anybody that plays golf like Tiger Woods does. So the answer to that question is yes, I believe he can be a factor. And the first question was whether what I need to see here to show me that I'm ready, it's nothing. You don't need to see anything here. It's two totally different events. Drastically different styles of golf course. And I would like to drive the ball really well here and put really well here and then I can go home saying, well, I can't wait to play the in Masters and then I have to wait seven days and that will probably go away. I'm not playing the next tournament. So I just want to play Bay Hill for Bay Hill and try to have a great finish here, maybe win and just get myself some confidence going into the Masters. But as far as what I need to see out of my shots, there's no correlation. Q. If you weren't playing, is the pairing of Jack and Arnold for the ceremonial tee shot something you would want to see, and what do you find compelling about the Palmer/Nicklaus union? STEWART CINK: Well, I guess the -- I don't really know much about the ceremonial shot. I don't know who is scheduled to do that this year. Q. Jack and Arnold for the first time together. STEWART CINK: Jack and Arnold, the two of them? That's great. Well, I think that just -- that crystallizes their relationship and their careers. I don't think they were the best of friends, but they were also really close especially at the end. They understood each other and their importance in the game. I don't think that the top two players in the world now as far as -- well, Phil and Tiger, they don't have that kind of relationship yet but they may one day. So I think that the relationship between Jack and Arnold is really special, and they understood each other, they understood their importance to the game and their competitiveness, and they both have great tournaments on the PGA TOUR today. And now being paired at the ceremonial tee shot at Augusta, that crystallizes that. Q. You said you're unhappy with your short game. Could you be more specific? Is it the putting, the wedge play, the chipping? Just run through what parts you would like to be better right now? STEWART CINK: My putting has been up-and-down. When I changed back to the short putter last year, I putted well right away and like every golfer does, I go through stretches where I played poorly and I had a couple more stretches where I played well, so I would like that to be a little more consistent. Other than that, the statistics that I look at show me that I'm not as proficient and efficient as I need to be inside of about 50 yards. And that's bunkers, shots out of the rough, fairway, everything. I just want to get up-and-down a little bit more often on those and really the key is not hitting it -- it's not making the putts. It's really hitting it closer more often, because if you give the golfers out here 100 putts from eight feet, they are going to make more than they are from nine feet out of a hundred. So it's all percentages. Just trying to get a little bit closer and be more committed on the types of shots I'm hitting and just trying to figure out why I've been lacking. Q. You know, the initial time winning The Open, there was disappointment among fans media that Tom did not do it. In time, are you finding people appreciate more what you did that week by remembering who won, as opposed to who lost, as time goes on? STEWART CINK: No, I think it's more Tom Watson's Open. It's fine. I don't have a problem with that. It should be. He was the biggest storey that week. I don't think people's perception has changed that much since the Open and mine hasn't, either. But people are definitely respectful of the fact that I won and played well and I've had tons of well-wishers, and also a lot of really awesome comments from people about Watson and just a lot of funny statements that people have made to me, joking around about how I whooped up on Watson and all that. It's been really funny for me to hear all of the comments, just a constant reminder. Q. We are looking at one of the bigger Masters fields this years, 97, 98 players right now. Does it hurt the exclusivity of the Masters to have that many guys in the field? STEWART CINK: No, because I don't think anybody really cares if there's 92 or 97. It's still the Masters. Tiger Woods is the biggest story. The golf course is the second biggest sorry, and the field size is not a big story at all, I don't think. Q. Sort of along those lines, this is becoming -- it's already a big event but it's becoming like really, really big now with everything going into it. That's our perspective. What's your perspective? STEWART CINK: The Masters? Q. Considering everything going into this Masters this year. STEWART CINK: I think it's going to be one of the biggest events in golf history, because the biggest player in golf history is going to come back from this absence, and everybody is going to be scrutinizing his game and what he says and where he goes and where he has dinner, everything. It's going to be a big piece of scrutiny on Tiger Woods and the Masters. So I think it will also end up being a great golf tournament, because he will probably end up in the mix, and it will just be really compelling. Q. Would you be okay with a first and second round pairing with him, or would you prefer to not have to deal with that? STEWART CINK: I'd be okay with it. I've known him for a long time. You know, it will be -- well, you have to remember this; at the Masters playing with Tiger Woods is always a little different than it is anywhere else, because there's always more of the people that want to see him play there, than anywhere else. And so it's always a little bit different. This year, I don't expect it to be a whole lot different than other years just because it's always a little different. There will be more scrutiny and all that, but I'd be fine with it. Q. What about the fact that there's nobody inside the ropes there; it's the only tournament that's like that. Does that make it a lot less of a big deal because of that? STEWART CINK: Well, all of that probably needs to be more movement outside the ropes, because the people inside the ropes are usually the ones usually moving around; the photographers and everybody, they have to move around. So if you put them outside the ropes, it just means more movement outside the ropes. It won't change much. All you're talking about is just the difference in where the rope is located. Q. Since we are asking you so much about other players, Fred Couples is having an outstanding career already on the Champions Tour. Just winning out there, can that transfer and between hit him Augusta week? STEWART CINK: It absolutely can, definitely. Because Fred had not won a lot of tournaments from, I don't know, in the last ten years. He won Houston and may have won one or two other ones, but he's dominating out there, and he has that mind-set where he can go out and dominate. He even had some good finishes on TOUR this year when he played out here. So it's definitely affecting his confidence and he's hitting the ball well. You've got to remember, too, since they changed the course at Augusta, it's no longer just a putting contest anymore. You have to drive it great and it's really long, and that's Fred Couples' cup of tea. DOUG MILNE: As always, we appreciate your time. End of FastScripts |
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