T.J.'s Take: She said what?

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What a difference a week makes on the PGA TOUR.

T.J. Auclair

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Video: Cink wins Travelers Championship

Tiger Woods put on arguably his most passionate, inspiring performance in a storied career last Monday, putting the finishing touches on an astonishing 14th major championship win in a 19-hole playoff at the U.S. Open over Rocco Mediate.

Bum knee and all, Woods won because his competitive fire burns like no other. The flaming up in his left knee didn't come close to matching his flame of desire.

Fast forward seven days. On Sunday afternoon, Stewart Cink won the Travelers Championship -- his first PGA TOUR victory since 2004 -- thanks to some disturbing words of wisdom passed down from his wife, Lisa: "You have to be willing to run naked across the green."

Interesting, eh? The thought of pretty much any PGA TOUR player running naked across the green is enough to turn even the most iron of stomachs, is it not? Think about it. Actually, try not to think about it. Now that I brought it up though, that's probably impossible.

Fact is, in terms of a tan, from the neck up and from the elbows down, the tan of a PGA TOUR player would be enough to rival that of any Hawaiian Tropic bikini beauty. Neck down is a different story. It would be a blinding experience.

But even still...

Stewart, please explain.

"That sounds crazy, but if you think about it, it's true too," Cink said. "I mean, guys like Tiger and Phil, when they are in contention, they let it all out. They don't think about the next one. They don't think about the consequences. They just go for it."

I see. So, "You have to be willing to run naked across the green," is actually a profound metaphor. Who knew?

"I decided I am going to run across the green naked," Cink continued. "I'm not going to leave anything in the bag. I'm just going to go for it, you know. If I finish third or fourth every time I have the lead going into the last round, then at least I've given it a shot. But today [Sunday], you know, worked out in my favor."

It sure did. And luckily for all of us watching, Cink earned that victory in clothes instead of in the buff.

It also debunked the theory that in a nervous situation you're supposed to imagine that everyone in the audience is naked.

The advice passed down by Stewart's wife, Lisa, reminded me of the advice Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy's caddie Romeo Posar gave to his guy to combat the shanks on the practice tee at the imaginary U.S. Open in the movie Tin Cup.

As Romeo watched his man hit shank after shank on the range, he finally made Tin Cup alter his wardrobe to look like a goofball. The theory was, Tin Cup would be more concerned with how stupid he looked, as opposed to what the ball would do when he hit it. It worked.

Cink has been knocking on the door of victory a lot lately. He had six top-10 finishes in 2008 before Sunday's breakthrough.

The Georgia Tech product has never been anything less than a gentleman. Lately, however, he was becoming known as the type of player who couldn't close out a tournament.

True to his character, as upsetting as those crushing defeats were in the past, Cink felt the criticism was warranted.

"I know there's been talk that I've not been a closer," he said. "I mean they have every right to say that, because I felt the same way myself. And so I felt like I had something to prove to myself. I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody out there that's writing stories or doing articles or whatever, but to myself. I wanted to prove something to myself. And that extra burden that was carrying around, trying to silence those thoughts added to the difficulty. And coming through it makes me even more proud of it."

As it should. Cink is too good a player to be known as someone who can't close. Guys that can't close don't win multiple times at the highest level like Cink has.

Congrats to Stewart. Lisa's advice was never meant to be taken literally. Thank goodness.

Now we can save the running naked across the green for the streakers at the British Open.