MCI HERITAGE

April 19, 2003

Stewart Cink

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Past champion, Stewart Cink; thanks for joining us.

When you won from 2000 you came from behind. Entering the final round tomorrow, you have the lead. If we could get some opening comments from you about playing with the lead at the MCI Heritage.

STEWART CINK: Well, I did it today and I think that's going to help me tomorrow, being in the sort of same position as today. Teeing off with the lead.

Hopefully I can just keep a game plan going and just keep focused and not being protective. Actually by the time I tee off tomorrow, I have a feeling I won't be leading anymore, so I will need to play catch-up.

Q. What we saw out there, on the front nine, it looked like Hal had a little momentum going and you were struggling to get things going your way, but you were able to turn it around. Is that some of what you were talking to us about yesterday, that kind of mental focus that gets you through tough situations like that?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, it's part of that. But I didn't really consider my start to be that rough of a start. You know, I didn't really get it going much earlier. I made five or six pars in a row. This course you don't really consider that to be a bad start. I bogeyed 7, but still, not a disaster. To come back on 8 with a good putt and birdied 10, 11, that's where I really have been helped quite a bit and I really have grown.

Q. Any thoughts on all the low numbers that kept going up in the morning? You were able to keep pace with that; no 64s out there?

STEWART CINK: I didn't know there were any low numbers until -- I don't remember what hole it was, but I saw the leaderboard and I saw someone was minus 7. I think Jeff Sluman was minus 7. That's just golf out here on TOUR. No matter what course we play on and almost no matter what kind of weather we have, someone is going to shoot a low score. Definitely not something I didn't expect. I wasn't trying to keep pace. I was just trying to shoot the lowest number I could today to give myself the best chance tomorrow. It just so happened that when we add them all up, I'm one ahead.

Q. Are you somewhat surprised that somebody didn't get out there a little further in front today, to shoot 69 and keep the lead?

STEWART CINK: Yeah, if you asked me yesterday if I thought 2-under par today would be good enough to stay in the lead, I probably wouldn't have thought so but it was playing pretty hard soft today. The wind came out of a different direction. It was about 90 degrees different from the other days. It was tricky and blowing a little harder. We are used to seeing this course with a south wind and today it was out of the northeast. You've got to make adjustments here and there. Low scoring in the afternoon wasn't available.

Q. Seems like a lot of players are going more to that now, using a putter off the green; is that just the conditions here?

STEWART CINK: Yes, they have around the green on holes like 8 -- well, some of the holes, there's a few out there, where they have got the grass cut really low. It seemed like the practice rounds, from Tuesday until today, the grass just has gotten shorter and shorter and shorter, so it's almost like green. It's a no-brainer. If you try to take your wedge out and hit it up in the air on that grass, you are probably going to fat it or skull it. It's just so tight. Putting it is a no-brainer today. I did it a lot of times today. Hal did it a lot of times today. It's really the most effective shot.

Q. Did you think when you approached that putt that that had a chance to go in?

STEWART CINK: As soon as it left the putter I felt like it had a chance to go in. Yeah, I did.

40-footer, and half of it's fringe, and then I have to go over a little hump and I had to play about three feet of break but I still felt like it had a chance to go in (laughing). That's confidence. That's the way I've been feeling over a lot of my putts is that I have a really good chance to make the long ones. Doesn't necessarily translate into making a lot of them but you do end up making a lot of putts and you're not so worried about the next one.

Q. You've been around the lead for pretty much the last month. How much of a help is it to do it here where you've won before and take that into the final round?

STEWART CINK: I'm sure tomorrow there will be a few times when I think back to 2000. I remember it, just about every shot of that round. I mean, how can you not? You win on TOUR, it's pretty hard to forget. My strategy has been successful so I know I can trust it. That's one thing I know I won't be doubting.

Q. What about the last several weeks where you've been close, how does that help?

STEWART CINK: Well, just being in contention, and not that I have really been close to winning for the last few weeks. But there's not been a whole lot of guys finishing higher than me in tournaments. Finishing in the Top-10, Top-5, that means a lot. It helps your confidence, because you get nervous, get the juices flowing and see how your body reacts, how your mind reacts and you can forecast what you're going to do in that situation when it comes around again. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be nervous and I'll be having butterflies and for a good reason.

Q. What about the tee shot on 16 and what did you have left in there?

STEWART CINK: Oh, gosh, I pulled my shot on 16. I hit driver because it was into the wind, and like this course does so many times, I think it's into the wind; and when you get out into the fairway I pulled it downwind and I hit it in the waste bunker. It turns out it landed in there and bounced up out and I had 78 yards to the hole. Just a flip wedge. I hit a little L-wedge and hit it about five feet and made the putt.

Q. How many times did you hit 3-wood?

STEWART CINK: I hit 3-wood a lot more times today. Mainly because a lot of the longer par 4s were playing across the wind instead of into the wind. Like 10, 11, 1, those holes were playing across and you could actually drive your ball into areas where it's too narrow for drivers there. So I probably hit my 3-wood six times today and I've been hitting it three.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your hole-by-hole, starting on No. 7 where you had a bogey.

STEWART CINK: 7, I hit one of my best shots of the day there; 201 yards and I hit a perfect, solid 6-iron. I ended up in the back burner, tough spot to be in and I missed it, made bogey. Made about an 8-footer.

8, hit an 8-iron and went to the right of the green a little bit and had to putt through the fringe and was probably 40 feet and I made that.

10, I was in the fairway, hit 7-iron about 20 feet and really made a good one there. That was a -- had a lot of good thoughts going there.

11, basically played the same way: 3-wood, 7-iron, 20 feet. Again, I just felt so calm on those putts. I was not surprised to see either one of those go in.

12, I put my ball in the fairway, but behind the trees which is so common on this course. Played the low shot and just hit a little too far. Rolled through the green into a really tough spot, downslope on the bunker but not in the bunker, in the grass. Played a good kind of flop out of there about five feet and missed the putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You're playing with Jeff Sluman tomorrow. Maybe just talk about his game and what you know about his game.

STEWART CINK: Well, he's one of the guys that I really feel like playing with him over the last five years, he's really gotten a lot longer. He used to be considered kind of a short hitter because he's not a very big guy. I guess he's about 5'8" -- I may be giving him too much credit. And he can't weigh much over a buck-fifty. But he really gets it out there. You hear them on TV, "Oh, this guy is one of the shortest hitters." Well, he's not; he hits the ball very far. I played with him at the Hope this year and he was killing it. I was very surprised to see that.

I think he's really done something to help him keep up with the younger players that hit the ball a long way.

Q. Could you expound on that a little bit? Jeff mentioned a 200-yard shot that he hit 6-iron and it had not been that long ago where the average club out of the bag on TOUR for that distance was a 4 for most players; is that the golf ball or the equipment?

STEWART CINK: It's hard to just say a 200-yard shot. You have to consider where the pin is, what kind of green surface, the wind and all that. It can range anywhere from a 7-iron to 2-iron, you just never know.

I think the ball is going a lot farther. The players are a lot better. Iron lofts are coming down a little bit, especially what you buy. It's hard to say what is contributing the most. It could be all equal.

Yeah, like I said earlier on 7, I hit a 200-yard shot with a 6-iron which is normally about 15 for me and it landed pin-high and bounced on the back burner. That is probably not something I would have had to worry about ten years ago.

Q. Including you and Jeff, there's about 18 guys within four shots of the lead going into tomorrow. Was it that bunched up in 2000 when you won and how does that -- having that many people in contention, how does that affect how you approach the rounds?

STEWART CINK: Well, I don't think it was that bunched up because I think I was in about fifth or sixth place going into the last day and I was four shots behind.

So, there's more guys close to the lead. Really, it's going to force me to go out there tomorrow and play to really put a stranglehold on the tournament and go out and grab it and not just kind of fend off the other guys. I'm going to have to go out there and play and shoot a low score tomorrow. Someone is going to shoot a low one. The classic leaderboard is set up where somebody you guys are not even writing about for tomorrow's papers is going to come up and win this tournament. It's the classic setup. Someone is going to go out and shoot 8-under par and they are going to win, so I have to go out and prepared for that and just try to keep going lower and lower and lower myself.

Q. Are you a scoreboard watcher?

STEWART CINK: I'm not like a scoreboard-blinders guy. I don't really study the leaderboard until the last couple of holes. If I know I'm close and need to know where I am, I'll find out.

But I don't really study the leaderboard. During the rounds, I'm not too concerned with what other guys are doing until the 72nd hole. If I need to do something, I want to know.

Q. Conventional wisdom on this course is if you are going to get it going you have to do it on the front nine. How important is it for you to get it going early tomorrow?

STEWART CINK: Well, it will be important for my confidence to get it going. I mean, I'm playing with a lot of confidence right now anyway. It never hurts to get out there and make three or four birdies early. That's a great feeling.

So that will be important. But like I said, there's going to be some guys that are really going to shoot at us, me, the course. They are going to be shooting lights-out tomorrow. I'm prepared for it. I know that when I step on the first tee someone is probably going to have already gone past me, and that's actually going to be a good thing because it's not the easiest thing to do to stand up on the tee with the lead and keep that focus on, trying to keep settled down. It takes practice.

Q. You said earlier that you remember just about everything from three years ago. Is there any one shot or one moment that kind of stands out for you that maybe you kind of remind yourself of every so often when you're in situations?

STEWART CINK: The second shot I hit on 18 really was a good one for me. Because that hole, you can obviously mess it up, pretty bad, especially the way they resigned it with the hazard on the left side of the green. It's unplayable left of the green. That's a dangerous shot coming in there.

Knowing I had a one-shot lead, I hit a great shot there. It's not just that I made a good swing but my mental thoughts there and my game plan was so strong. I go back to that shot all the time, not just here, but all the time. It's something that I kind of keep in my back pocket.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you, Stewart.

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