U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 28, 2025

Stewart Cink

The Broadmoor (East Course)

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Stewart Cink, 2-under 68. Stewart, your playing partners were both in here and just talking about the momentum and the feel in the group felt really good today. Can you speak to that?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it did, especially the front nine. We had it going. We were confused about whose tee it was after the little delay because we'd all made so many birdies. We'd forgotten who made birdies on what holes. That was a good thing.

Unfortunately, it didn't last more than another two holes after that because the back nine was a little more -- it played more difficult, but it was also a little scrappier.

Q. There's been front nine/back nine splits, obviously the par-5s on the front. How much does that factor into your mindset that you need to get off to a hot start tomorrow, or how does that factor in?

STEWART CINK: The front nine/back nine thing doesn't factor into at all for us. But the course does have this little rhythm to it where the first three are kind of gettable and it gives you the opportunity, and then there's some difficult greens, and then there's some fairly simple holes, and then there's some really just difficult, pretty brutal holes actually on the back nine.

It's just got a really neat flow to it. The course doesn't ever just stay in one lane. It kind of is all over the place.

Q. I just wonder how the delay and then the winds that followed impacted momentum and just playing out there.

STEWART CINK: The first two days we played with almost the exact same wind direction, so we got very accustomed to the shots off the tee and the targets and the clubs. Today it was just all over the place, and there was moments out there where it was howling. Not for long, but I had to hit one shot on 14 off the tee that was just -- it was so hard right to left. Then the second shot was left to right and in. So it was completely switched around. Everybody dealt with all that.

The delay was not really that big of a deal. I think most everybody, at least the ones that teed off the front nine today, had enough adrenaline to kind of keep you going. It was a little weird coming up and hitting a touchy little iron shot on a par-3 after not hitting a shot for about, what, 40 minutes or so. A little weird, but it's nothing we can't overcome.

Q. I know you're a sports fan. When you play somewhere like this where Jack Nicklaus has won, Annika Sorenstam, Juli Inkster, does that mean something to you that you could be in a position to join that list? I know you're a major champion, but do things like that still mean something?

STEWART CINK: The history of this course means something to me. The fact that it's a good old test of golf that's hosted a lot of tournaments and produced great winners, not the least of which is one of my good friends, David Toms, don't leave him out. It would be great to join that list, but even more importantly, just to claim a USGA Championship, a Senior Open.

It feels like a really big tournament. I love the energy in the crowd. It's a really sporty golf course, and we're having fun out there.

Q. The fact that it's a three-way tie for first, you all are going to be paired together heading into the final round, is this kind of exactly how a USGA Championship should be, a U.S. Senior Open should be, this kind of drama?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it should be really. It's only right it's a dogfight. There's some holes out there that can produce all kinds of scores. So I'm sure tomorrow we're going to have quite a bit of ups and downs, all of us, and in the end, somebody's going to have to stick their neck out front. I would love for that to be me. I'm going to be trying really hard.

It's going to be a good day tomorrow, good fun. Mark and Padraig played pretty good golf today too. We all had our moments.

Q. Because of what you said about the course, how does that affect preparation tonight?

STEWART CINK: I just actually did it. I went over while you were talking to them and did my little putting drill and kind of got that out of the way, so I'm done with it. It doesn't affect anything. We already know what the course is probably going to do.

If it's super windy tomorrow, which is not in the forecast, that could be something we change. But we're used to that. We kind of game plan on the fly all the time. Today as a good example, when the wind came up, in altitude, wind acts differently on the ball than it does down in lower elevations. So it is quite a challenge to figure out how far your golf ball is going to go when you have these winds across and into you and down.

We hit some shots out there that we really didn't know what to expect when the ball was in the air. There was one where on a par-3, on the 12th hole, I hit my shot exactly like I wanted to hit it with an 8-iron, and I think it kind of flew out of my mouth, I said, I have no idea what to say to that. It was a 228-yard shot, and I hit an 8-iron. How do you figure that kind of stuff?

Q. Obviously you know Padraig's game really well, by now extremely well, but Mark, were you -- how well do you know him? Were you expecting him to push you guys and to keep pushing you guys as much as he had today?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, for sure. Mark is a quality player. I've played with him several times. We go back actually more on the PGA TOUR than we do on Champions. It's been a little while since we've played together, but he's always had a really solid game. To be a PGA TOUR winner, and I think he's got a PGA TOUR Champions win, at least one on his resume too, so it takes good solid golf, and he's done it for a long time.

He kept the ball in play today and did a really good job. I thought all of us played really similar. No, I'm not surprised. The level of golf on the PGA TOUR Champions and especially at a tournament like this is just really, really high, and you've got to play really good golf to even be in the mix, much less win.

Q. I asked this of Padraig too. I was wondering the last time, even in a major or any TOUR event, that you've been paired with the same guy for four straight days?

STEWART CINK: It happened last year at the Senior PGA Championship to me with Steve Stricker. I can tell you that. Before that, I have no idea if it ever happened. But I did play with Steve Stricker. I love Steve, but I especially remember because his daughter Bobbi was caddieing the whole time and I really love her.