Final round: Patient Cink tastes victory again
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) -- Stewart Cink had a reputation as a good golfer who just couldn't finish off a tournament.
His collapse during the fourth round of the PODS Championship in March left him with just one victory in the nine career events where he had the lead going into the last day.
On Sunday, he put that behind him, holding off late charges from Tommy Armour III and defending champion Hunter Mahan to win the Travelers Championship by a stroke.
Cink shot a 3-under 67 -- following rounds of 66, 64 and 65 -- to finish at 18 under for his fifth career victory and first since 2004. Armour (65) and Mahan (65) tied for second.
Cink earned his first career win here as a rookie and came into the day with a two-stroke lead over Heath Slocum.
"I know there has been some talk that I have not been a closer," Cink said. "They had every right to say that, because I felt the same way myself. So I felt that I had something to prove to myself."
He finished with a career-best 262 over the four rounds, five shots better than his 1997 total of 267. It was his first win after six top-10 finishes this year, earning him $1.08 million. It also pushed him to third place in the FedExCup standings behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and into second place in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings.
For a while, though, it looked as though the tournament was heading for a three-way playoff.
Leading by a stroke, Cink hit a 365-yard tee shot on the 18th into the crowd to the right, and his approach went just over the green. But he recovered nicely, getting up and down from just under 2 feet to save par.
"To stand over that last putt, even though it was only 2 feet long, and to knock it in the middle, it was a great feeling," he said.
Armour, who at 48 was looking to become the oldest winner on the PGA TOUR this season, shot a bogey-free 65. He put his approach on No. 17 about 4 feet from the pin and made birdie, but he missed a 37-foot putt on 18 that would have given him a share of the lead.
Mahan, looking to become the first repeat champion here since Mickelson in 2002, had birdies on his final two holes to make it interesting. He hit an 18-foot putt on the 17th, then hit a wedge shot 3 feet from the pin on 18.
Mahan earned his first TOUR victory here a year ago, making a birdie on the first playoff hole to capture the title over journeyman Jay Williamson. Mahan tied for second behind J.J. Henry in 2006.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Well I think the first thing is I can't believe it was this long since the last one. You know, I feel like I've played well enough along the way to have won a couple but, you know, sometimes when you have to wait a little bit you have to go through a few extra trials, and it seems a little bit sweeter." -- Stewart Cink on winning his first PGA TOUR event since the 2004 season.
GRAND EFFORT FROM MAHAN JUST SHY OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE
CROMWELL, Conn. -- Golf has always had its horses for courses, and few have run as well as Hunter Mahan at TPC River Highlands.
Mahan made his Connecticut debut in 2000 when he got a sponsor's exemption from Canon as the American Junior Golf Association player of the year. Mahan shot two even-par 70s but missed the cut, as he did again in 2003.
But Mahan kick-started his River Highlands excellence when he tied for second in the 2006 Buick Championship, three shots behind hometown hero J.J. Henry.
Then last year, Mahan and Jay Williamson, a graduate of nearby Trinity College, put on one of the greatest shows on the PGA TOUR in 2007. Mahan birdied the 72nd hole from 7 feet to shoot a 5-under 65 and get into a playoff at 15-under 265. Then in the playoff, Mahan hit his second shot on the first hole to 2 feet after Williamson hit his approach to 8 feet. After Williamson missed his birdie try, Mahan won his first -- and only -- PGA TOUR title, starting a stellar run that earned him a captain's pick by Jack Nicklaus for the Presidents Cup team.
"I felt I was ready to win, put the ball right where I needed to put it and was able to pull off a couple of good shots at the end," Mahan said.
Sunday, in the second year of the Travelers Championship, Mahan nearly joined Phil Mickelson (2001-02) as the only repeat winner in the event's 56-year history. Mahan made birdie putts of 18 and 2 feet on the last two holes to close with 65 for 263 and tie with Tommy Armour III.
But Stewart Cink, who won the Travelers Championship as a rookie in 1997, earned his fifth PGA TOUR title in a round that included birdies on the 13th and 15th holes before and after a 63-minute rain delay. He clinched the victory when he parred No. 18 after slicing his drive off a cart path and into the rough.
"I played with Stewart (Saturday) and never thought for a second that he'd hit it into the next county," Mahan said.
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SURELY YOU WEREN'T SURPRISED
Man of the moment Kenny Perry should teach a class in how to get what you want. Everyone's favorite veteran has been on a tear of late putting everything he has into making the Ryder Cup team so that he can have the honor of being a part of the biennial event in his home state of Kentucky, and this week was no exception.
| 4 | The number of positions Stewart Cink moved up in the FedExCup points standings with his victory. With 15,039 points, he is now third behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. |
| 18 | The number of players who shot all four rounds in the 60s this week, including winner Stewart Cink. |
| 366 | In yards, the length of Stewart Cink's drive on the 18th hole, which was the longest drive of the final round. |
A win three weeks ago at the Memorial Tournament wasn't enough for 47-year-old Perry, who has since followed the victory up with a top-25 finish at the Stanford St. Jude Championship and now another top 10 in Connecticut. His tie for sixth -- to be precise -- came from four rounds in the 60s, including a bogey-free, third-round 65. That was the one that really put him in the hunt.
Before the start of the Travelers Championship, Perry was seventh in the standings to make Captain Paul Azinger's team -- standings that will now include the ninth player on the list as a shoe-in due to first-place Tiger Woods' season-ending surgery -- and his latest effort should be enough to keep his name in the mix for another little while.
But don't expect to see Perry slink away from the recent satisfaction; he's not safe yet. The Kentucky native will be back in the field again next week at the Buick Open. The question is: When will the man run out of gas?
SO MUCH FOR THE YOUNG GUNS
Kenny Perry wasn't the only veteran in the field making some noise this week. In fact, Perry was playing in a group of 40 somethings on Sunday that included Vijay Singh and Tommy Armour III, and all three of them finished in the top 10.
Tied for second with defending champion Hunter Mahan, Armour led the golden-oldie group after a final-round 65 brought his total score for the week to 17 under -- one shot back of winner Stewart Cink. Armour's bogey-free final round helped him to his best finish of the year, after recording three previous top 10s at the Puerto Rico Open (tied for sixth), the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (tied for seventh) and the Crowne Plaza Invitational (tied for 10th).
Just three shots back of Armour, 31-time TOUR winner Vijay Singh grabbed his fifth top-five finish of the year with a solo fifth place at TPC River Highlands. Singh has been flirting with victory for months now, but his time has yet to come in 2008. The super-fit Fijian has now taken Stewart Cink's place as the player with the most FedExCup points without a win; he finishes out week 25 of the season-long points race in eighth place.
Rounding out the group was the aforementioned Perry, who crossed the finish line tied for sixth. Perry was a recent winner among a list that now extends to six straight players over age 30. Looks like the experienced guys are reclaiming their territory.
| Cink's history at the Travelers Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ROSE?
Justin Rose is in the unique position of being the only man inside the top 10 in Official World Golf Ranking who does not have a PGA TOUR victory to his name. He's good at running up, and he's won on the European Tour, but he hasn't broken through yet over here.
This week, the Englishman added even more intrigue to his choppy season. With a Sunday 67, Rose clawed his way up from a tie for 31st on the leaderboard to a top-25 finish with a tie for 19th at 10 under. It was yet another twist in the road for the 28-year-old, who has three missed cuts and a tie for second in his last month of play.
Rose's tie for 19th at the Travelers Championship is his fourth top-25 finish this season, but he has also missed four cuts and withdrew from the Verizon Heritage after a first-round 76. So what is next for Rose?
He won't be playing next week at the Buick Open, so maybe he can use his week off to work on his inconsistencies and make 2008 his breakthrough year. After all, the British Open returns to Royal Birkdale in a couple of weeks -- the course where Rose tied for fourth 10 years ago and turned pro shortly after -- and wouldn't it be the perfect full-circle story if he could find his success there?
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