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THE RYDER CUP

September 28, 2010

Stewart Cink

NEWPORT, WALES

Q. Have you been Tweeting?
STEWART CINK: Not recently. No, slowed down since we left.

Q. Direct messages?
STEWART CINK: No. Haven't checked my messages at all.

Q. It's a whole new world without social media?
STEWART CINK: Yeah.
GORDON SIMPSON: Shall we commence then?
STEWART CINK: Yes. I thought we did already. (Laughing).
GORDON SIMPSON: Stewart, welcome to Celtic Manor, and you had three experiences of losing The Ryder Cup before finally at Valhalla, the guys came through. Having had that experience, how good was it, actually, being on the winning side for that first time.
STEWART CINK: Well, it reminded me of Tom Lehman, when he was captain, what he told his team before we went over there. He said, "Guys, it's really special to be on a Ryder Cup Team. You've made the team and you will experience a lot of great stuff this week. But it's an even more valuable memory to be a member of a winning Ryder Cup Team.
It crystallised the thought to me, that, yes, this is my third one; in '06, and I had not won one yet and going into '08 after we lost that one, too, I was really hungry to get that one. It was the sweetest feeling probably in my career as far as how long it lasted, because you share it with other teammates. When you win an individual tournament, it feels great, but it ends quickly because you don't have anyone to share it with. The Ryder Cup win was special and lasted for a long time.
GORDON SIMPSON: Turnberry was a completely different feeling for you.
STEWART CINK: It was different. It definitely was a huge feeling of satisfaction and triumph, but the way the team atmosphere is after a win, I felt that in Presidents Cup, but at The Ryder Cup, the atmosphere and the connectivity with the players was just awesome.

Q. With regard to the captains pairing guys for the team competition, foursomes and fourball, obviously you have to play well and roll putts in, but is there something to this where the proper chemistry and pairing the right guys with the right guys can have an influence on the matches?
STEWART CINK: I think you hit on it when you said that you have to roll putts in and you have to hit it well to win. You do have to execute well, but the key to the pairings is you want to put players with other guys who they are comfortable and will free them up and increase their chances of doing that and hitting good shots.
You don't want to put guys together that don't know each other, or, goodness, don't like each other, that happens. You have to do what you can to free everyone up to be at their best for the longest and that's where the pairings come in.

Q. Can you give us a list of who you don't like?
STEWART CINK: Who I don't like?

Q. Aside from us?
STEWART CINK: Check Twitter. It will be on there. (Laughter).

Q. The pod thing Azinger used that was very successful, do you think that works -- obviously it did work because you won, but is that something that can be executed again?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, it could be executed again. I think so. I think it would be a little risky for a captain to just copy that system exactly, just because, you know, that was Paul Azinger's plan. That wasn't like the U.S. Ryder Cup Team official agenda. That was Zinger's deal, and he did that really well and the players really took hold of it well.
To copy that system, I don't know, would be the right thing to do. But without so many, like, hard boundaries like Zinger had for us, I think certainly some sort of adaptation of that would be very successful.

Q. Isn't that kind of the way Corey is going a little bit, though?
STEWART CINK: I guess, but there's been a lot less -- there has not been the kind of communication about it. They may be doing that more in assistant captains and captains' meetings, but there has not been quite as much black and white expressed to us.
But like I said, last time it worked really well because it was something that was unique and new and we were all sort of desperate for something to hang onto because we had lost all those Ryder Cups in a row and we just latched on it and went with it all the way. He.

Q. Two-part question. I just asked Jim Furyk if he was frustrated by the Tiger Woods bandwagon; you're an Open Champion and we only have a handful of people in here; if that was me, I would be frustrated. Are you?
STEWART CINK: No, I think most of the writers are out there probably listening to the (Opening Ceremony) warmup.

Q. What do you think the crowd will be like for Tiger Woods? When there's something to play for, do you anticipate that yourself and especially Tiger will get a little bit more of a hostile reaction?
STEWART CINK: I would, except there's one common thing in this Ryder Cup that's existed for a long time, and that's the game of golf. I think that the character level that exists inside the ropes between us and The European Team and the captains and all of the people involved, to a certain extent that extends outside the ropes, too, to the fans. You just rarely hear that kind of stuff in golf. I don't think it will be common here. I would be surprised if it were common.
And people love watching Tiger play golf no matter what, and I count myself among those. I love watching him play. He does things with the ball that I've never seen anybody do. I love and respect that, and I think people will be cheering for him either way.

Q. Just to continue the Tiger thing, if you had been Corey, would you have picked him? And secondly, why do you think that it seems difficult, his partner record has not been very good in The Ryder Cup? Singles record is pretty good, but playing with him, obviously there's been some guys that have done it, but generally, it has not been very good. What is the explanation for that and would you have picked him?
STEWART CINK: I don't have an explanation for it otherwise I would have offered that advice to Corey already. I think one thing, it's sort of like playing over in the States, our college football is a big deal. The No. 1 team always gets the very best out of the opponents, so they play against the better team than anybody else if they had the same schedule, because the opponents rise to the occasion and play their hearts out against the No. 1 team.
I think that can also sort of be applied to Tiger Woods because the opponents know that they have to be at their best to beat the great Tiger Woods; and in Ryder Cup play, we have seen it countless times how wonderful the level of play is. Guys just find extra gear. Tiger, he's been beaten by that sometimes. But you know, he's a human being, too.
So he's a tremendous player, and going back to the first part of your question, would I have picked him, you can't forget that the guy has been through a whole lot recently, and he still had a relatively good record compared to most players that were in consideration for picks. And he had some Top-5 finishes in majors and he played consistently down the stretch, even though he was not spectacular. He's still ranked No. 1 in the world. Yeah, I would have picked him.

Q. You played with him, I remember, the weekend or the Friday at Quail Hollow where he was -- that was the first time we really saw him kind of fall apart and I asked you about it afterwards and you said, "I have seen him hit it poorly, but I've never even him not get up-and-down," like he didn't that day. As you look back on it, is that an indication of the fact that all of the outside stuff had impacted him?
STEWART CINK: More than that, it was his second tournament back. I think that was just more of a sign that he had not played that much. When you are rusty, the tough shots like around the greens and the wedge shots, those kind of shots that you routinely hit inside five to six feet from the hole, you just maybe hit them eight to ten feet. If you add them up over a tournament, it's a lot, and I think that's where he was.

Q. I'll throw a couple at you very similar. Apologise if I asked you this before. What are your recollections as far as nerves and pucker factor on your very first Ryder Cup shot, and now as the follow-up, I assume you see the bleachers set up over on No. 1, looks like a Minor League baseball stadium. Is there any element of the Christians being led into the lions because it looks like it could be nervous for particularly Jeff and Bubba who are pretty high strung to begin with?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, they are prepared for it, but it's one shot. It's the first shot and it will take, you know, five seconds or whatever and it will be over.
It's always a nerve-wracking experience and a little scary at first, but it's a privilege and an honour to be able to experience that.

Q. Do you remember your first one?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, my first one, I was playing with Jim Furyk in 2002, and we were playing alternate-shot, and my first shot was an 8-iron from perfect 8-iron yardage out of the first cut, had a nice little cushion under the ball. It was as easy a shot as you could imagine and I got behind the ball and took my line and everything and had to ask myself, "What's my pre-shot routine again?"
I forgot what to do. I forgot. (Laughter). It took me a second to collect my thoughts and remember what to do. And I hit it good. Hit a good shot just over the flag, went about ten yards too far into the middle of the green, and I thought, well, I can calm down a little bit now because I put it on the green, and Jim is putting, and, oh, boy.
Of course, what happened? Jim knocked it about five feet past. So heart rate came backup and I had to go putt, and I made that one. So, we were off.
GORDON SIMPSON: Good, and you're off now. We have the next member of your team waiting.

End of FastScripts

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