WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 23, 2006

Stewart Cink

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Past champion of the Bridgestone Invitational, Stewart Cink, thanks are for joining us here today. I'm sure you have some good vibes coming back to Firestone Country Club where you won here two years ago, and also recently picked for the Ryder Cup team by Tom Lehman. So I'm sure it's going to be a good week for you. Maybe some opening comments.

STEWART CINK: Thanks. I do have a lot of good memories coming back to Firestone, not all of which include it's a great place to play golf and a great tournament venue over the years here. A lot of good memories, and the last time we were here I got picked for the Ryder Cup the last time I was in this pressroom I think I got picked for the Ryder Cup and I won this tournament.

So far things are unfolding the same way, so I'd like to continue that trend for about five more days, and then we can go on and reverse the trend of losing the last Ryder Cup.

Q. What are the challenges that this course presents this week?

STEWART CINK: Well, it's very similar to a U.S. Open or a PGA, a major that we see. The only difference is we play here on a consistent basis, year in and year out. It's a long golf course, a lot of rough, narrow fairways, a lot of trees, very traditional style, and I think one unique feature of this golf course is you don't have very many level lies.

A lot of fairways slope severely right to left or left to right. It's difficult to hit the fairways, and when you do get in the fairway it's hard to hit your second shot because you're always standing a little awkwardly. So it's just a very solid course, traditional, a lot of really good shot values, difficult test. That's why you see the winning score here usually not too far under.

Q. Are these some of the quickest greens you see in the entire year?

STEWART CINK: They can be. If it's dry, these greens can get very fast. Just on the way in I haven't been here yet I saw the North Course looks a little brown, the rough looks a little dried out. So I would think that the golf course is pretty fast and dry and could be looking at a really tough test out there.

Q. We understand that neither Brett Wetterich nor Vaughn Taylor have any experience in match play golf, even at the junior level. Is that likely to be an issue for Ryder Cup?

STEWART CINK: Well, I don't think it will be that big of an issue because whoever hits the best shots usually wins. Those guys have a lot of experience hitting really good shots, and so I don't think it'll be that big a deal. Really you've got a partner most of the day until Sunday. Something tells me that they might be playing match play between now and the Ryder Cup. I don't know, that's just a hunch of mine. With Tom Lehman as the captain, I don't think there's going to be very many stones unturned. That will be a stone that's turned between now and then.

Q. What is your take on why the U.S. hasn't done better in recent Ryder Cups, and do you have a better feeling about this time?

STEWART CINK: Well, we've been the favorites on paper every time I think since history started, and now this year I think you probably will see that the European team should be favored on paper. They're pretty highly ranked players, and they're always good. They always play really well.

This year I think we need to go into it with a "what do we have to lose" attitude. The last couple Ryder Cups it seems like everybody thinks we have everything to lose. This year I don't see that we have anywhere to go but up because we're going to be, on paper, the No. 2 team probably in this deal.

All we have to do is just go out and relax and remember that, just, hey, remember what got us here; we've all played pretty well to get on the team. Just remember what got us here.

Q. That underdog mentality can be a positive, can't it?

STEWART CINK: Well, it can. Really, it's not like it's a strategy or a ploy or anything, but it's just the truth. The past couple Ryder Cups, our team individually stacks up very well against their team, but then when you put us on the golf course, it seems like especially Detroit, I think, was the biggest place where we just felt like we had so many things that we had to try to defend: We had our home turf, we had lost the previous three out of four, now four out of five, and we were just we weren't very loose.

There was a lot of things, I think, that Tom will probably try to have covered before we get to the Ryder Cup. So hopefully this year we can just go out there and relax and do what we can do because we didn't play near our potential last time.

Q. You've played Presidents Cups. A lot looser in the Presidents Cup, different thing?

STEWART CINK: It's pretty nerve wracking, too. It's not the Ryder Cup's Little Sister, as some people like to think. It's just not a "go out and hit and giggle" golf at all; it's serious.

The one common thread between the Ryder Cup and The Presidents Cup, the Walker Cup, the Curtis Cup, the Solheim, all these Cups, is nobody wants to lose, no matter what. This Ryder Cup is going to be that's going to be a very significant factor. We don't want to lose; we're tired of it.

Q. How difficult is it for players coming into this week as a big event being WGC, but having come off a major, many guys pressing hard last week to advance to the Ryder Cup, do you just want to come in it's a challenge?

STEWART CINK: It's a challenge, but there's also a lot of extra stress out there that's sort of removed. The Ryder Cup is settled down; we've got this tournament that we can just play for itself. The Bridgestone Invitational is a huge tournament, and it feels great to me to come back here to just play for this tournament and not have to think about all the repercussions, Ryder Cup and all that. It's tough in a way, I guess, if players get so amped up about the PGA and Ryder Cup that they can't seem to focus or perform this week. But really, to me, we've had a couple days to get over it. Everybody has taken a day or two off, I know I have. We're golfers, we're professionals, we play successive weeks all the time. I don't see that that is really that big of an issue here.

Q. Sort of a related topic, I'd like your take on your general impressions of the FedEx Cup, its significance, and also in particular toward the end when there is going to be a tremendous demand to play a lot and how you think that will in your own case play out and collectively how it will play out?

STEWART CINK: Well, there will be a lot of stress towards the end of next season. First of all, you wanted my comments about the FedEx Cup in general. I think it's fantastic. I think it'll reposition golf among the other sports as far as fan interest because there will be a lot more to play for and a lot more link between our events. It'll be a real strong chain of events instead of a lot of individual events. So I think it's going to be great.

As far as playing a lot at the end of the season, it will impact players' schedules, and if certain players that don't usually play very much might be inclined to play more and they might be inclined to skip a few controversial ones, who knows. I think we won't know the answers to those questions until after next year and a few years down the road we can look back and see what everybody did.

As for me, if I'm in the race or close there, I'll be playing everything. I don't think that it will be worth it for me to skip a tournament just because I need to focus on the next one. It just doesn't seem to play out mathematically. We've done all the models.

Q. Do you feel like the top guys, as far as box office, will feel an extra obligation to make sure this thing succeeds?

STEWART CINK: That's hard to say because at the end of the day, it is an individual effort. The top guys have to do what they think is best for them first, and then what they think is best for the Tour comes somewhere else after first, and I don't know where that falls. For me, I've always been a company guy so I believe in trying to promote the Tour the best I can. I don't think I'm the box office hit that you're talking about.

I think it'll probably weigh into their thinking somewhere, and if it's not in their own thinking then someone else can put it in front of them, but I would expect the guys to play more overall.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stewart, thanks.

End of FastScripts.