DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 7, 1998

Stewart Cink

STEWART CINK: Well, today was a difficult day, I'm sure everyone knows that. The wind was blowing, and the greens are hard and fast. And I think anything under par had to be satisfying today, and I was one under, so I'll take another one tomorrow, and let everybody shoot at it. I think it's supposed to blow again or more.

STEWART CINK: It's up there. The changes they made really didn't make that much difference, except for the drive on 18. Everywhere else, if you miss, you're hitting in the sand. And these guys can play out of the sand. The wind, it makes it hard. And this course -- it's hard enough without wind, and when the wind blows like that you've got a pretty tough task on your hands.

STEWART CINK: We waited there on the 18th hole for a while, and it's not a very good tee shot to wait on, thinking about everything. And I got up there and I was just going to swing aggressively and make a good, hard swing with my driver, and I came over the top a little bit and hit a pull, and when you do that it's wet, and the work just starts, because then I had 240 to the pin on my third shot with dropping. And with that wind blowing in my face, it was hit it solid or drop it again. Luckily I hit a better 3-wood, hit about 13 feet from the hole. Told my caddy I had an easier par-putt than if I had hit the fairway.

STEWART CINK: I don't get that pumped up when I'm playing. But it was definitely a springboard. I had been 8 holes without making any birdies and I made some good shots, and then the 9th hole, 30-footer drops, and suddenly I have confidence.

STEWART CINK: I do. I think I have a better chance when -- what's leading, 8-under? Well, a lot of tournaments 18 under is leading by now. I think I have a better chance with these tight conditions, because it takes a lot of patience, and you can't ride that roller coaster out here emotionally on a course like this.

STEWART CINK: I love it, I think it's great that the galleries are out, even if they're not watching me, I hear a lot of who is that guy and where did he come from? Is he an amateur? I hear a lot of stuff like that. Obviously these people don't follow that much golf. I still hear those things. And that's fine with me. The galleries don't pump me up necessarily, they pump up the purses. And that's nice.

STEWART CINK: Unless they have some night light golf balls out there, no, I wasn't planning on practicing. The wind kind of tires me out. I've got to do some things, I've got to go to the gym. The days are only so long.

STEWART CINK: I'm still going to go out and play aggressive, and go out and do my best. But I'm not going to play safe anymore than I normally would. But yeah, on this type of course you don't have to go out there and if you don't make 3 birdies in the first five holes you don't have to be kicking yourself.

STEWART CINK: No, I know I've played that hole like an idiot. I've played it even par, and I bogeyed it today, that was terrible. But if you start having trouble shaking those kind of things off, that's going to get you in trouble. And I just treated it like a bogey on any other hole and I was like, okay, let's get started here, on No. 2. Those typically don't bother me too much. I make those dumb mistakes occasionally.

STEWART CINK: I hit it right off the tee, just a little bit, almost in the fairway, but it landed in the bunker and rolled up in the lip about an inch out of the bunker, I had no stance, I had to hack away. And I hit it about a hundred yards in the rough, and then from the rough there straight downwind I had no chance stopping on the greens, it went over in the bunker, missed about a 6-footer for par.

STEWART CINK: 9 was 175 today, dead into the wind, I hit a 4-iron about 30 feet right of the hole and made a putt, which was, as we mentioned before, kick start for me. 14 was downwind, I hit a driver and wedge about six feet and putted there. 16 was dead against the wind and I hit a good drive there in the fairway, and I had 110, hit a full pitching wedge about 10 feet.

STEWART CINK: No, I wouldn't say there is, not for us. He represents one spot. If he's ahead of you, then you're one spot worse, it doesn't matter who it is. I don't think it enters into the mind of anybody out here.

STEWART CINK: Typically I probably would have a score in mind, if the course was playing easy, you know. But since you don't really know what's going to happen with the winds and the greens and everything then I don't think that's the right way to approach it, I think you have to go out and stay present and focused and patient. And if you make a few key putts, and if you play smart, then you're definitely going to be there at the end.

STEWART CINK: You know, tomorrow if I'm close at the end I'll be drawing on those Nike Tour wins and Hartford, I'll definitely be going back to those. Just knowing that I've done it before helps me. That's what they say about experience. You just draw on your experiences before. So I'll do that, and I feel like I've done it before, so I don't see why there's any reason why I can't do it again.

STEWART CINK: Sorry, I don't quite follow the question.

STEWART CINK: San Diego and Phoenix?

STEWART CINK: I shot 9 under at the Buick Invitational and shot 1 over in Phoenix.

STEWART CINK: They're wrong.