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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 22, 2009

Stewart Cink

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Good afternoon, thank you for joining us on this PGA TOUR conference call with Open Championship winner Stewart Cink.
Stewart, congratulations. I'm sure it's been a whirlwind since your win at Turnberry, but if you could start with a few comments about the last few days, holding the Claret Jug, as well as your outlook on rest of the season. You've moved into the Top 15 in the FedExCup standings and the Top-10 of the Presidents Cup standings, so you have an opportunity to make a dream season even better going forward. Maybe a few opening comments.
STEWART CINK: Thanks. It's been really a tremendous experience. It's almost indescribable. The outlook for this year has certainly changed. I had pretty much given up on 2009 because I played poorly and just could not get anything going. Really made a lot of major changes in my game, especially my putting, around May, after PLAYERS.
So had no real expectations going into the rest of the year, except just to try to get myself ready for 2010. And then had a good couple of weeks there at Colonial and Memorial, and got a little bit of confidence, and now this.
So this has just flooded everything back into sharper focus for the FedExCup, and means a lot more to me coming up than it did. Just a wonderful experience. The last couple of days have been a little fast-paced for me, but that's okay. You know, this is something I really am honored to do, and going around New York yesterday with Letterman and with the XM Studios was really cool.
And then today, here we are in Atlanta. Luckily I've got some really sharp folks that are handling my day and making things very easy, and you know, this is just a small part of what's to come and I'm just really honored to do it all.

Q. In the aftermath on Sunday, when we were all over there, didn't really tell us what you were about to be doing. Can you just kind of take us through the last few days? Did you stay overnight at Turnberry? When did you leave? When did you get back over here? And you just referenced Letterman, I guess you were on the show. Can you just take us through the last 48 hours or so?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, well we were going to drive from Turnberry down to Manchester to catch our flight, and that all started because our return flight got messed up, even before we left to go over there. So that's another story.
But we had the room all packed up and ready to go, and I knew that I was in contention and there was a chance I could win, and just my wife and I decided, let's just pack up and get ready to leave, just like it's a normal day, and then you know, if I win at the end, then we'll have to just make other plans.
So what we did was we spent the night there. That's also another story. The Turnberry Hotel reserves a special suite, like a custom-made suite for the Open Champions that have won there, so they had the Price Suite, the Watson Suite and the Norman Suite, and then you had the 2009 Sweet, that's what they called it.
So after all of the media obligations and the cocktail reception with the R&A, trophy presentation, all of that was over, we got back up to the hotel to finally sit down and actually have something to eat and a few drinks. And the hotel general manager came in and said we had like, if it's okay with you, we would like to move your stuff into the Cink Suite, which they had recently named for me thank goodness. So they did. They moved us in there and we got to spend the night in my own suite, which is probably something that will never happen again. You know, you win a tournament and you get to stay in the suite that's named after you so recently. So that was really cool.
We got up early, flew down to Manchester and met our Delta flight, came back home, and had about 25 people there waiting for us at the airport, our closest friends. Really like our best group of closest, core friends were there to surprise us at the airport which was awesome. So we started celebrating right away. Moved it into town at a restaurant, took over about a quarter of the place, filled it up with Guinness, the Jug, that is, and had a good 'ole time for a few hours and went back to the house and basically collapsed and began making plans for the next day.
Yesterday we went up to New York and did Letterman. I took Lisa and the kids up for that experience. I just did the Top Ten List, and that was a great experience, and flew back home. That was just a one-stop deal, and now here we are today.

Q. You had mentioned in the post-game when they brought you in that you had kind of this odd sense of calm, and that you had heard other players talk about that after they had won. I think you had four birdies on the back nine and then two more birdies in the playoff, so you were clearly doing something the other guys were not doing. Do you have anything idea what the root cause of that was, and is that kind of a variation on the zone that people talk about, or could you just sort of elaborate and articulate what you were kind of going through?
STEWART CINK: It must be some kind of a zone thing. I don't really know about that. But I did feel some kind of sense of calmness over there, and really more of like an acceptance. I was just totally willing to accept anything that happened. And part of that I think is the nature of playing on links golf courses.
You don't have to be quite as precise over there on links because it's more about increasing the percentages. Like hit it in between the bunkers. Keep it in between the left and right edge of the green on your approach shot. You don't have to be dead-on with all your approaches or your tee balls, not like over here. It's just more of a percentage game you play.
I think the fact that you don't have to be absolutely dead-on precise, I think that calmed me down a little bit, and I knew I didn't have to be perfect. I just could play my shots and be ready to accept the outcome. Whatever it was, I just felt great all the way through to the last hole.
And then the last putt was a pressure-packed moment, but I just felt so calm on that putt. I even was joking around before the put with my caddie. I had been working so hard on my pre-shot routine for the last couple of months, ever since I pretty much scrapped 2009 and rebuilt everything, before that putt, I asked my caddie jokingly, I said, "Do you think now is a good time to abandon the pre-shot routine?"
And he kind of laughed and he laughed to me, too, and he just said, "No, just go ahead and do it and knock it in." And what do you know, that's exactly what happened. It was really just a great experience.

Q. You're talking about the 72nd hole there?
STEWART CINK: The 72nd hole, yeah.

Q. I've seen your wife at dozens of tournaments over the years. I don't know how often the boys get to come out. How often do they get to go with you, and how much of an extra kick was it that the whole family got to be there for this?
STEWART CINK: It was bigger than most people are thinking it is, really, for me. Not just because they were at the tournament and I won. They have been at three of my wins, my kids have.
But this one, you know, we went to Ireland the week before. A lot of people say, oh, you went there to prepare for the British Open. I went there because I enjoy playing links courses and I wanted to share that enjoyment with my children, because they started playing golf, a little more often and a little more seriously about a year or two ago. And I really wanted to share that with them and that's the reason we went to Ireland.
So I got there and I got to start telling them, look at this, how the ball bounces, how the wind is, look what happens when you hit it high or low. And they understand. And that was the coolest thing to me. And then for me to go on the next week and play a links course, as great as Turnberry, and so win, that really was icing on the cake, and then some.

Q. You dated some changes in your putting the week of THE PLAYERS. What was going wrong and aside from going to a conventional putter what, other changes did you make in your putting stroke?
STEWART CINK: Well, I was just not putting well. You know, I just didn't have any confidence. I was just -- I couldn't seem to make clutch putts, and when you start doubting yourself in that situation, it's time to do something about it. And the first thing I wanted to do was change my mental outlook on the whole putting -- the world of putting, long putts, short putts, putts from off the green, all kind of different putts. I just wanted to change it up.
I really had not been utilizing much of a pre-shot routine, so I instituted one of those with the help of Morris Pickens, Zach's sports psychologist, and also Lucas's, and this was back in May right after PLAYERS. So I figured the best way for me to really take the step and really go head-first into the new way was to scrap the old putter and go to the short putter. Because if I just kept using a long putter, it would be too easy to fall back into the old habits.
So I decided just take that step. It was somewhat of a leap of faith, because I had been using that long putter for about six or seven years, and using it pretty well most of the time. For me, bad putting, it's not exactly atrocious putting. It's just not what I'm accustomed to and not what I want to have happening.
So I really practiced hard on my pre-shot routine with my short putter and I got comfortable really quickly just because I had practiced so much. I probably practiced more in the last, say, three months on my putting than I have in my entire life put together; and my back was sore; and I got some blisters in places on my hands that I never had them before. But I just worked really, really hard on it, and it really did pay off. And I'm a little surprised that it worked this quickly, but I was really able to lean on that pre-shot routine when I needed to last week.

Q. And briefly, what's going on with that pre-shot routine? What are you doing that you were not before?
STEWART CINK: Well, anything can be considered a pre-shot routine, but the goal of one is that you have your mind occupied with the thought of doing a pre-shot routine, as opposed to letting your mind be occupied by the meaning of a putt when it's made or missed, or being in the situation like, this is for a birdie or a bogey or for the British Open.
You know, if you can occupy your mind with the thoughts of, okay, I take one look and then two looks and I skip to the ball and then I take one look and I go, you know, your mind is not thinking about anything except your pre-shot routine and you don't have room. We're talking shop now, but that's basically the whole idea of a pre-shot routine, to give you something to lean on and basically you reduce all of the putts and the shots to being the same, whether it's the 72nd hole, first hole or a practice session.

Q. I know that you were caught up in trying to win the British Open, your first major championship, and yet there was this unbelievable drama going on around you. How difficult was it to sort of block out just who it was you were trying to beat, and what that would mean to a lot of people?
STEWART CINK: That really never got to be difficult until the playoff. The playoff, though, once it became apparent that there was going to be a playoff, I was going to be playing against Tom Watson. That's when the bizarre stuff really started to hit me a little bit. Like, what? Tom Watson? You kidding me? I'm playing against Tom Watson, he's 59, he won his first major I think right around the time when I was born, and he's been winning tournaments ever since. You know, it was very strange.
But I knew that the people were really pulling for Tom to win, because that was the story that everyone wanted to be written. It was, honestly, as a sports fan, it was a tremendous story. Maybe the biggest sports story in the last couple of generations. I was the one standing in the way of it. I had to really put that aside, though.
And I took some time before the playoff, specifically, to get ready for that, just to know that, okay, mentally, how am I going to handle that; how am I going to handle the crowd. The crowd thing was nothing new, because I had played with Lee Westwood the day before; obviously the home guy, everybody was behind him. I played with Tiger; played with Phil; I know what it's like to be the guy who is sort of the unnoticed one in the group. That's nothing new. That was nothing.
But then I didn't want to -- because I was playing in Tom Watson and the story was there, I really didn't want to allow that to let my guard down at all.
So it actually shored me up, and I made sure that I was focused and ready to go and vigilant. I was totally on task and as it turned out, I played probably those playoff holes, I played better than any other holes I played the whole week.

Q. You mentioned the changes in your putting, and also the calmness you mentioned. It looked like it all kind of came together on that putt on 18, especially considering that you had missed two putts on 16 and 17 that looked like even shorter, but it also looks like it kind of -- you played into how the whole tournament was, because it looked like you got that first round of 4-under, and then was pretty steady throughout the tournament. Just talk about how that all kind of came together and how all that tied together and really kind of helped you out in those last three holes.
STEWART CINK: Well, it did come together right then, but it really never was disjointed the whole week. I had a good feeling on the greens all week. I mean, I didn't make everything. I putted well, but I also missed some short putts. That's the nature of that course. You have wind, and you have some greens that are not exactly the same kind of manicured greens we putt on over here where you have just dead, smooth surfaces, and you'll get a bit of a weird bounce here and there.
I just felt very comfortable with everything around the greens the whole week. And really, that gave me the confidence at the end to know that, yeah, I missed putts on 16 and 17 that were makeable, that were not very long, that were like six to eight feet long. But working this pre-shot routine and knowing that one putt really does not mean anything to the next one, they are all separate events; I just leaned on the routine and knew that I was able to make it.
Making or missing didn't really enter my mind. I just wanted to make sure I did a good pre-shot routine and give the ball a chance to go in, and after that it was really not up to me.

Q. Obviously you didn't really dwell on those missed putts particularly since, like I said, how much were you conscious, like I said, every time you made a bogey in that final round every time you would come back and make a birdie. Was that on your mind at all?
STEWART CINK: No, it really wasn't. That's just playing golf. I was just playing as pure of golf as I've ever played, and I'm not saying that in the sense of I was hitting everything pure.
I was just saying that playing pure golf means that you're going to win some, you're going to lose some. And the course is going to give some and it's going to take away some. That's exactly what was happening to me, and to the rest of the field, too, really. The course was really tough. I was hitting a lot of really good shots and still you're going to make some bogeys.
You are going to make some birdies. I did a bit of both. I hit a good shot on 10 and thought it was well executed and planned and just got a screwy bounce and rolled 30 yards further than I thought it would straight into a bunker, and I had no play except straight sideways and I made bogey.
11, straight downwind par 3, and it was a 170-some yard wedge, if you can believe that, and I hit it up there and it just goes crazy, bouncing and flying up there towards the green. It rolled about 30 feet past the hole and I make it. So that's the golf course giving and taking away. That's the way you just have to be ready to accept everything. That's when I do the best job of doing that. It was the best of my career, no question, and I'll definitely learn something from that.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart, thanks a lot for your help today. Hopefully you'll get some rest and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. Again, congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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