Drought over: Cink claims first victory since 2009, sets tournament record at Safeway Open
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
This was fun. The final round of the Safeway Open has always provided plenty of excitement, but the 2020 edition might’ve been one of the craziest due to the fact that truly anyone could win.
Coming into the day, there were 34 players within six strokes of the lead. That meant that it was truly anyone’s tournament to win.
The person who took advantage of that the best was Stewart Cink. To say it’s been a while since Cink won a tournament on the PGA Tour would be an understatement. After all, the last time he won was at the British Open in 2009. It’s also his seventh career PGA Tour victory.
“It has been emotional,” Cink said of his journey back to victory. “You can’t go wire-to-wire in the FedExCup year without winning the first one, I would like to point that out right now. In a way that was kind of a goal this week.”
Just like any final round, it was far from easy. He entered the 17th hole with a two-stroke edge over Harry Higgs. But on 17, he missed a 5-foot, 8-inch put to bogey the par-four and make things interesting. Luckily on18, he was able to knock down a 3-foot, 2-inch putt to birdie the hole and clinch the win.
“The first couple days I hit good drives on 18 and I just leaked them a little right and both times they got right up against the bunker lip. So after Friday Reagan and I decided that the best target line for me on that hole was to aim it down the first cut of the fairway on the left side because really the left rough is very playable,” Cink said of his birdie at 18. “I could just play lay it up to a wedge. It’s way better than the right bunker. And so the last two days I took driver, same club but I took it down the left edge of the fairway and hit great drives. Yesterday I hit it in the first cut and today I hit just a five-yard fade and it bled into the middle of the fairway.
“From there, the yardage really couldn’t have been more perfect for me,” he added. “I have a 7-wood in my bag and I had 250 yards to the hole slightly into the wind, so that was going to cushion the flight of the ball, it was going to land soft.”
The win is even more special for Cink, 47, due to the fact that his 23-year-old son Reagan is his caddy.
With the win, Cink gained an early edge in the FedExCup Standings. It’s the first time in his career he’s led the FedExCup standings. The winner gets 500 points, a nice paycheck of $1.188 million, a spot in the 2021 Masters, Players, and PGA Championships. If that’s not enough, he’s also exempt on the tour till the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.
Overall on the day, Cink was solid as he shot a seven-under, 65 round. Besides the bogey, Cink birdied eight holes. He really wasn’t all that solid in making the green in regulation since he only was 13-for-18 in that department. On the other hand, he was a perfect 5-for-5 on scrambling and 1-for-1 on sand saves.
Cink also set a tournament record by finishing at 21-under for the tournament. Up to this event, the lowest score was 18-under
“There’s no question about that. I’ve played some good golf over the years. It’s been a while since I really played well for four rounds, and even here the second round I was not exactly outstanding, but I really played great over the weekend,” Cink explained of setting the new tournament record. I” was clear-headed and calm and that’s an area where I kind of have struggled over the years. I think having Reagan on the bag and I saw James Sieckmann, my coach, earlier this week who helped me out a lot in that area, too. I had a lot of good sort of vibes. It just felt like the right place for me to be up near the top of the leaderboard.”
Higgs still made a valiant effort at the end of it. He certainly couldn’t be counted out after making an albatross at the end of his round on Friday.
Higgs ended the day with a four-under, 68. He had a total of four birdies, two bogeys, and one eagle on hole 16. He also wasn’t all that great at getting on the green in regulation since he only was 12-for-18.
“That was sick. At the moment, I needed it,” Higgs said of his eagle at 16 that put him right back into contention late. “I’ll remember that one for sure. I guess I got a nice little break. The volunteer said it kind of at the end, it went down and hit the edge of the cart path and stayed right of it, so then I can take my relief and get a little further right and was able to hook it around the trees.”
Next week, the PGA Tour is headed to Winged Foot Golf Club in New York for the U.S. Open. The event was supposed to happen on June 18th-21st but was rescheduled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The PGA Tour is scheduled to play two U.S. Opens during the 2020-21 season.
