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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 17, 2008

Stewart Cink

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We would like to thank Stewart Cink for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Verizon Heritage. Great start to the week. And you made a bogey there on the first hole. You started on 10, right. You finished up on 9. 67, you've had a lot of success here, won here a couple of times. How does it feel to go out and shoot a nice round early in the week?
STEWART CINK: Well, it never feels bad to start off with a good round. Today I felt like I was in control most of the way. And I hit a lot of good shots where I was looking and made a few good putts. A couple of key saves out there, too, especially early in the round it could have gotten away.
All in all it was a very pleasing day.

Q. At Augusta you talked about coming in here with a lot of confidence after the way you played at Augusta. Can you talk about how that played out today?
STEWART CINK: Well, I played very similar to the way I played up there: I drove it really good. I hit a lot of good iron shots, the kind of shots you need to hit, not necessarily a lot of stiff irons, but just put it in the right part of the greens, made a couple of putts. I made some saves, like I said, when I needed to. That's kind of the way I played last week, too. You don't always shoot at the flag there. You don't always shoot the flag here. You have to sometimes play smart.

Q. What were those saves?
STEWART CINK: Well, I had a couple of long putts early on in the round, and I had trouble getting speed. I mentioned something to my caddie about how difficult it is coming from The Masters to here, because the greens here are some of the slower greens on Tour, and they're of course the fastest. So I had on 10, I hit it about 30, 40 feet short of the hole, and left my first one about five or six feet short.
Then on 15 I did the same thing. I had a long one and left it short. That's when I made the comment about how difficult it was.
18th hole I had about a 50-footer and buried it. I'm glad I mentioned it because I jarred myself out of it in that mental state I was in. After that I was actually good with my speed.

Q. You played so well all year long. Can you talk about this stretch you're on of just every week being consistent?
STEWART CINK: I think I can point probably to my driving has been really good. For the most part I've driven the ball better than -- I've gotten a lot longer, but I'm not hitting the fairways. I'm not going to be Fred Funk or Joe Durant out here, and that's okay. I've been keeping the ball under control a lot better the last two or three months. I've been working really hard with Butch Harmon, and I think I've rededicated myself to what he's telling me instead of going through the motions. And also my trainer, Chris Noss, has been putting me through the ringer pretty good, too.
I feel strong. I feel like I'm striking the ball really well. That's been the biggest key in the last several tournaments.

Q. How much fun has it been and how much more relaxing is it to play golf that way week after week?
STEWART CINK: Well, it's an awful lot of fun to be aggressive out there. I feel like I can really use my driver as a weapon out there because I'm hitting it a long way. And I'm actually probably driving it better with my driver than my 3-wood or any of my irons. So it's been a lot of fun to hit a lot of good drives. And really take advantage of being a little bit longer than I was a few years ago. That makes it a lot more relaxing. When you're not dealing with the trees as much and the rough and at all that, obviously it's a lot more fun to play golf that way.

Q. Can you compare, talk being about how well you're playing this year coming in here, how does that compare to the way you were playing coming into the years that you won here, 2000 and '04?
STEWART CINK: Let's see, it's hard to remember back all the way to 2000. But I've never really had a great Masters, where I've really played that well there. That course has always made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I think it makes everybody feel a little uncomfortable. So I've never came in here with a flood of confidence about the way I'm playing. Something about the relaxation and the atmosphere here, and just the way everything seems to feel about the place. Not just inside the ropes, but the trees, the houses. It's relaxing and puts me in a frame of mind. That's what's led to the success.
I haven't played great every year. I've missed the cut and finished way down a few times, but it's a place I really enjoy playing.

Q. How did you get longer? And that effort to add length, did that contribute to you not hitting it as accurately for those few months you talked about?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, definitely. First of all, it did definitely contribute to me not being very straight. I used to be a real straight and fairly short hitter out here when I first came out. I really didn't take advantage of my size. I had a lot of potential to be long, but I wasn't really taking advantage of it. Through work with Butch Harmon for about the last five years now, I've put on probably at least 20 yards. I'm talking 20 yards relative to other players. Everybody has put on yardage, but I'm longer now, 20 yards longer than the guys I used to be even with. Technique has something to do with it.
I've worked a lot with my trainer, Chris, and just developed a lot of strength and a lot of balance and just feel like I can just put more into the swings. I can't really explain it. It doesn't feel like it's any longer to me, but the ball tells me it's a lot longer.

Q. Could you put into a sentence what $50,000 of Butch Harmon lessons are worth?
STEWART CINK: It takes five years, at least, for one thing. So if you spread that out over five years, it's really not all that expensive.

Q. Can you boil it down to one thing or is it just so many things?
STEWART CINK: I think the biggest key for me is that because I'm a tall guy I have a lot of width in my swing now. The club head travels a long distance to the back of my swing and has a lot more time to pick up speed. And before I was a lot narrower and just had a smaller swing. I had a small person's swing in a big person's body, and now I'm creating a lot bigger arc. The club head just has more time to pick up speed. And it's not just club head speed but it is some. It's a little combination of a lot of things. But I think the biggest key for me for being longer than I used to be is the arc and the bigger width.

Q. How great a test of patience is it to wait five years and work for five years?
STEWART CINK: It really isn't that big a test, because I didn't start working with Butch because I wanted to be longer. I wanted to be a more consistent ball-striker. And I was having trouble hitting the ball right to left. I wanted to learn how to do that better. And he's helped me retool my swing to the point now I can curve it different ways with all my clubs if I need to.
So it wasn't something that tested my patience. Right away I felt like I got better. But the distance just came as almost a bonus that I didn't expect.

Q. It's a bonus, but when did you realize that you made it a part of your game?
STEWART CINK: It's probably been the last three years or so that I've been hitting it a lot farther. But I don't remember a specific moment where I realized I'm longer than I used to be. It's just something that gradually happened. And now it is what it is. I'm pleased with it. I feel like I'm a different kind of player, different category of player than I was eight or nine years ago.

Q. When you were in here a few years ago, you talked about going to Dr. Waddington, and dealing with the fear of failure. Given the way you're playing now, how far removed are you from that time?
STEWART CINK: It's all relative. I was worried about missing cuts then. Now I've got other things to worry about. I'm still working with him and talking to him all the time. At PODS I had a lead there, and let it go and that stunk. So there's always little things to talk about and ways to try to improve to get better and handle myself a little better. Now I'm just looking forward to the next time.

Q. Well, all that helped you get to where you are now?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, it does. Because I approach the game different than I used to, every shot by shot. I'm a little bit more in the moment and trying to simplify things and he's helped me do that.

Q. Are there any holes out here where your extra distance now, can you play them differently than you have in the past? Is there a place where you put a practical application to it?
STEWART CINK: There are a lot of holes out here I go back to a 3-wood instead of driver. So I can't take advantage of it here like some places, because it's a target type of course, and you're almost forced into a certain area.
But for instance the 8th hole, it's 470 yards. I used to hit a 3-wood there because you have to sort of turn it right to left and I couldn't do it with a driver. Today I hit a driver a little bit around the corner, slightly through the fairway, which is okay because there's not much rough and only had 150 to the hole. That's a hole where I hit 2, 3, 4-iron in most every time until the last couple of years.

Q. Distance has been through the bag or just with the driver?
STEWART CINK: Yes, through the bag. I hit my irons longer, too. I've always been a pretty long iron player because of the mechanics of my swing, but I've picked up a little more yardage.

Q. What do you know about Anthony Kim? Do you know much about him?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, I do. We're both Nike players. And so he and I are at a lot of the same photo shoots and we do a lot of appearances together and stuff like that.

Q. Would you have expected him to win before now? As I young player I know a lot was expected of him when he got out here. Can you talk about that.
STEWART CINK: I would have probably said he would have won by now, yeah. But you've got to be fair to the guy, he's only been out here for a year and change. To win a golf tournament is a lot to ask. I think when we're playing golf in the Tiger Woods era, I think winning tournaments has short of been cheapened a little bit because you see Tiger do it so regularly, you get the perception that you think everybody ought to snap their fingers and have some trophies. A guy like Anthony Kim comes out, he's young, 21, 22 years old, he's got all the talent you could ask for and he'll win his tournaments, but it's not going to happen just like that. Tiger Woods, he's not even one in a million, he's one in ever.
So I would have felt Anthony Kim would have won right now because the sheer talent he has, but I'm not surprised it's taken him a little while, after all it's only been 18 months or less.

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