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MISSED LAST WEEK'S?

I'm glad to be here and finally get the Playoffs under way. It's almost like I'm approaching a four-week tournament instead of a four-day tournament. I'm trying to get ready for what I know is going to be a long stretch. There's a lot of potential to move up or down based on how you play, so you obviously don't want to take a chance on moving in the wrong direction.  • Complete story,  click here

EDITOR'S NOTE: Stewart Cink is a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR who will play on his third Presidents Cup team later this month at Royal Montreal. He is also a member of the PGA TOUR Policy Board, and as such, he was involved in the development of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Cink will be writing a column for PGATOUR.com during the Playoffs, and this is his second installment.

NORTON, Mass. -- I just didn't play well this week. I was really hoping to have a good tournament here and I just had a hard time focusing. This was a pretty bad effort overall, and I'm pretty disappointed that it came during a big tournament like this.

I putted really poorly. I couldn't read the greens too well at all. I had a couple of early putts that I just misread and then I started doubting my reads. My caddy, Frank Williams, got involved, and we just never could get anything going. I never felt very confident with my read, and it's hard to be real aggressive and confident on your putting when you're not sure if it's going to break that way or not. It kind of leaked into the rest of my game, too. So my performance was overall just really bad. Things like this happen, though. I don't think this is the way I normally play. If I had missed five or six cuts in a row, I'd start to wonder. But I've been playing a lot better than this, and I think I'm going to play better again.

I just need to put this week behind me. I may have missed the cut today, but I'm still in the field next week for the BMW Championship so I need to be ready. I really want to advance to East Lake for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola so I'll need to play well next week. I'm going to head home to Atlanta for a few days before I go to Cog Hill. My kids are in a hockey tournament this weekend, so I'm going to go home and watch their games. It's the first tournament they've played this year. I missed today's game, but they'll play tomorrow and Monday, too. So I guess there's a silver lining. But don't worry -- I'm going to practice, too. I'm not going to just put the clubs away or anything like that. I'll be practicing for sure. I want to get back to playing the way I know I can.

There has been a different buzz here this week at the TPC Boston --- an excitement in the air. I think this tournament is a lot more energetic than last week for some reason. The crowds here have been great, and last week there weren't anywhere near as many people. I don't know, maybe Tiger makes the difference. Actually, I know he makes a difference. But I think everyone is getting into the Playoffs, too -- the fans, the players, everyone. The more they understand it, the more accepting they are. I think the next two weeks are going to be fun.