THE 154TH OPEN

July 16, 2026

Stewart Cink

Mixed Zone

Q. Having played a lot of these, I want to get your perspective on Birkdale specifically, what makes it a challenging course and what the difficulties are out there.

STEWART CINK: Well, this is my fourth time playing at Birkdale, and the first three times it was very similar each time. It was kind of lush and green and extremely windy.

This is not the Birkdale I've ever seen before. Lush would be the opposite of the way to describe this place right now, and obviously very calm. The wind was kind of not there and then when it picked up it shifted about 90 degrees or more today. It's a different Birkdale. It's way different.

But that's kind of what you expect over here. The golf courses are just -- they are how the weather goes. They're either fast and firm and dry and fiery and dusty or they're -- they're never really soft, but they can be lush and green and a little slower, and this week we've got it very dry, and it's a lot of fun.

Q. People are hitting fewer drivers and stuff like that, but what does it change strategically when the course is in this condition?

STEWART CINK: Well, the main thing is if you're going to play conservatively, you just need to know how much your ball is going to roll when you hit the fairway. You're landing it way short of the bunkers. If you're going to try to lay up to the bunkers at, say, 280, you're only going to land it at like 220. But the problem with that is is if you are offline with that shot you're going to land it 220 in the rough and it's going to stop.

Q. So now you've got a long shot from the rough.

STEWART CINK: The difference between a ball that lands in the rough versus hits the fairway with the same club back-to-back is a mile.

Q. Could it be 50 yards?

STEWART CINK: Easy 50 yards because if your ball is in the fairway it's got nothing to stop it. If it lands in the rough it's going to immediately just grab.

Q. So there's a risk to playing safe in a weird way?

STEWART CINK: In a way, there's a risk to playing safe, but it's also a really good championship-type setup because you're rewarded for hitting the ball straight. You're rewarded with distance. Sometimes you're just rewarded with a clean lie and you can hit the ball with a lot of control.

But here you're rewarded with distance if you hit the fairway.

Q. What were some ones that got you today and maybe what were some ones that you played well?

STEWART CINK: Well, the biggest one was my first drive I hit to the left and lost the ball and made triple. Right out of the gate, it's like a kick right in the jaw. It took me a couple holes to kind of feel like myself again, honestly.

I worked pretty hard to not let the results affect me, but damn, it's hard.

Q. Is that because of nerves? Do you still --

STEWART CINK: Well, there's excitement and anticipation, of course. It's a major. It matters. I love playing here. You don't get to play here forever. I get to play here until I'm 60; I'm fortunate to have won. You don't get to do this very often.

Just a bad swing. You hit it into a place where you don't want to hit it and made triple, and it took me a couple holes to get settled down. I made a lot of birdies but I just kept on making mistakes. Just not very excellent out there and not myself.

But hey, sometimes golf teaches you lessons and today was one of those days.

Q. On the positive side is there a hole you feel like you played perfectly in these conditions? Is there one that stands out?

STEWART CINK: I birdied the 18th hole. I hit a really good approach in there with a hybrid and made a birdie, which is unusual, to have a long shot like that.

I almost holed out on 9 with my second shot. Hit a beautiful iron in there about three inches from the hole. The par-3, 12, I hit a beautiful iron shot there exactly like we planned and rolled back to about five feet from the hole.

I hit a lot of good shots, too, but my bad shots were kind of unacceptably bad if you want to play golf at this level.

Q. Bob MacIntyre was in here saying that despite what you were talking about, the risk in it, he is going to play safe and conservative, play short, and hope on some holes to scramble for par. Do you still think that's the smart play, to take a conservative approach?

STEWART CINK: Most of the time I do. I wasn't trying to say that there's as much risk from doing that as there is in hitting driver, not at all. Because you have way more control with your 4- and 5-iron off the tee than you do with the driver.

There's a lot of holes where the cross bunkers, the second set of bunkers is not just on the edge of the fairway but it's in the fairway, and if you hit driver you're just going to mindlessly roll into those, which is not smart.

So I think the course still is going to demand mostly conservative play, but there's times where you can hit drivers and you just have to be on the correct side.

The rough is pretty trampled down and dry and thin so you can play from the rough most of the time, but you don't want to play from the rough all the time. It will bite you; it's just not going to bite you every time.