Stewart Cink reached his lowest point at last year’s PGA Championship. He missed the cut.
Those two letters, MC, meant that Cink, 2009 British Open champ and a five-time Ryder Cup competitor, wasn’t going to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. The playoffs whose finale, the Tour Championship, is played at East Lake, not far from his home in Duluth and a course he played while at Georgia Tech.
“That was a reality shot, right there,” he said.
Cink no longer knew where his drives were going to go. His bad shots weren’t good enough, which eventually can result in a million-dollar golfer competing in places like Valdosta on mini-tours instead of Augusta and the Masters.
A change in coaches, the third in three years, had to come. Cink turned to know Mike Lipnick, director of instruction at Cink’s home course of TPC Sugarloaf in October.
The results have been encouraging, most notably in last week’s sixth-place, 13-under showing in the Shell Houston Open. Not only Cink is making cuts, he’s competing and ranks 51st in the FedEx Cup points, putting him in the middle of the metaphorical FedEx fairway.
It’s better than being in the weeds, a place he had grown too familiar with.
Between winning the British Open and the PGA Championship, Cink had five top-10 finishes in 73 events. This year, he has two top-10s in nine events and is starting to look more like the pre-2010 Cink, whose resume included six PGA Tour wins.
“That’s all I want is to give myself a chance to win,” he said. “If I play 25 tournaments and get into contention six times, that’s what the best players do.”
Changes made first by Pat O’Brien and then by Chris O’Connell weren’t repeatable during tournaments, Cink said. He said he doesn’t regret hiring either coach, saying they were exactly what he needed at the time.
So what was the problem?
Through the phone, Cink seemed to point the finger at himself.
“I was almost trying to achieve something that doesn’t exist: a flawless golfer,” he said.
So after missing the cut at last year’s PGA Championship, and after seeing his FedEx Cup ranking hit 139, 14 slots outside the top 125 who were eligible to play in The Barclays, Cink decided to change himself first, his coach second.
“I didn’t think of it like I needed a new coach,” he said. “I analyzed myself and said I don’t think I’m working on the right things. I need to get back to playing golf the way I used to play golf. I’m a good player. I have a lot of talent. I made good decisions. The intangible stuffs are my strengths. I have to take advantage of that.”
Cink and Lipnick went to work. They first broke him down with video. The Cink 3.0 didn’t look like the Beta version that won millions of dollars. Cink 3.0 didn’t have good fundamentals and was relying on timing to hit good shots. Doing so can result in just enough success to make golfer think they are seeing the light. In reality, the shots are more “potluck.”
They focused on his grip and his setup. Lipnick said Cink spent hours on the range during the offseason getting the changes to stick so that they would be repeatable during the stress of tournaments.
Cink said he’s starting to feel his ball-striking returning. Lipnick said the slight draw that Cink had in college and in his early years on the Tour is back.
Cink said he feels comfortable on the tee box again. His iron play is consistent. His distances are repeatable. Put all of that together, and when he’s putted well this year he’s contended, such as at Houston.
“I feel like I’m headed in the right direction,” he said. “I want to be patient and let it out play out and see where I can get.”
Asked for three bullet points that sum up his new attitude, Cink said, before adding he needs to write these in his yardage book as affirmative reminders, these:
- Cocky: "Every great athlete has an arrogance."
- Efficiency. "Take advantage of opportunities. I'm giving myself chances, but I'm not efficient."
- Tenacious. "Sometimes it feels like the bogeys came a little too easy. I can't afford to feel mundane. I need to be more tenacious about holding onto those shots. Can't give anything to the field."
Because of his struggles the past three years, Cink’s passport to competing in an event such as this year’s Masters has been winning the British Open. The five-year exemption that comes with that victory will expire at the end of 2014.
Cink said that deadline hasn’t entered his mind and wasn’t a reason for the switch to Lipnick.
He simply wants to compete again, and it appears he’s on his way back.
“I’m really enjoying what I’m doing right now,” he said.
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