Stewart Cink reached the Accenture Match Play finals last year before losing to Tiger Woods.
Feb. 28, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY FINAL FOUR: Casey | Cink | Fisher | Ogilvy
The protagonists in each match are different this year. But Stewart Cink appears to be exacting a measure of revenge in this World Golf Championships event after last year's lopsided 8-and-7 drubbing by Tiger Woods in the championship match.
He's run his Accenture Match Play Championship record to 17-9 with wins over Richard Sterne, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els. Cink hasn't played since missing the cut in the FBR Open, but he's been at his gritty best this week.
Should he reach the finals on Sunday someone asked if Cink would be disappointed not to get to play Woods again. Not at all. He's been there, done that. "I had that experience last year and that was enough for a little while."
CINK QUOTE: "I definitely ... didn't have anything to look back on to be real happy about before this year. And I took off three weeks and sort of cleansed my mind and worked really hard on my short game and it's paid off. I definitely felt a lot more confident and felt like I had a little bit more of a swagger here this week and my results showed it. I would have loved to have gotten to the finals and gotten a chance to avenge last year's loss, but either way, you know, to get down to the semis here you've done pretty good."
KEY STAT: Stewart Cink (No. 21) defeated Richard Sterne (No. 44) in the first round. Since then, Cink has defeated opponents ranked higher than him -- Lee Westwood (No. 12) in round two, Phil Mickelson (No. 5) in round three, Ernie Els (No. 13) in the Quarterfinals -- until the Semifinals, where he was defeated 4 and 2 by Geoff Ogilvy (No. 8).
CONSOLATION FINALS OPPONENT: Ross Fisher (Sunday tee time 1:45 p.m. ET)
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| How Cink Reached the Consolation match |
| Round 1: Defeated Richard Sterne |
19 holes |
| Neither player led by more than a hole, but Sterne got the momentum late when he won No. 15 with a concession and the 16th with a birdie to go 1 up. Cink was able to even the match, though, with a clutch up-and-down for par at No. 17 after both players missed the green. The two cut in on the Tiger Woods-Brendan Jones match -- delaying their tee time by about 10 minutes -- and Cink went on to won the 19th hole with a long birdie putt. "I just told everybody on the first tee that (Woods) has waited eight months to play, he can wait two more minutes," Cink said. |
| Round 2: Defeated Lee Westwood |
23 holes |
| In the longest match thus far this week, Cink outlasted Westwood in this battle between two Ryder Cup veterans. Cink, who was 2 under through the first 11 holes, led for most of the match. But he went from 1 up to 1 down on holes 12 and 13, then won the next two holes to regain his lead. But a birdie by Westwood at the 17th squared the match. Both players birdied the 20th hole (the par-5 2nd) before Cink claimed victory with a par on the par-4 5th hole. Cink, who will be making his fifth appearance in the round of 16, has now played42 holes the last two days. "I'm tired, but when you're that close in your matches ... the adrenaline's always right there," Cink said. |
| Round 3: Defeated Phil Mickelson |
1 up |
| t wasn't pretty down the stretch, but Cink hung on to beat Mickelson in a battle of veteran American Ryder Cuppers. After taking a 1 up lead when Mickelson conceded the 15th hole, Cink bogeyed the next two holes. But that second bogey came while Mickelson was double-bogeying the 17th, giving Cink the lead again going into the 18th, which both players parred. "It was a case of who doesn't want to win this match or who does," Cink said. "And we took a long time to figure that one out." Cink started off hot with consecutive birdies at Nos. 2-4, putting him 3 up. But Mickelson battled back, and the match was finally squared when Cink bogeyed the 12th. "I don't know what to say because I hit it better today than I did the first two matches," Mickelson said, "but I didn't get the ball in the hole as well." |
| Round 4: Defeated Ernie Els |
2 and 1 |
| Cink is one win away from potential redemption in the championship match after winning a tight battle with the affable South African. Cink, who lost to Tiger Woods 8 and 7 in last year's 36-hole final, has come up with the clutch shots when he needed them this week and Saturday was no exception. He only trailed once in the quarterfinals -- when he made bogey on the first hole. Cink bounced back with a birdie at the next to square the match and another at the fourth to go 1 up. Birdies on the two par 5s on the back nine put Cink 2 up and kept him there, then he won the 15th with his fifth birdie of the day to go dormie. Els got one back when Cink missed the green at the par-3 16th, but the Big Easy couldnt extend the match after finding a fairway bunker and greenside bunker on the 17th hole when he needed to make birdie. This was the first match Cink had played this week that didnt go the distance, or beyond. "I keep shrinking the number of holes," said Cink, who has now played 77 holes and owns a 17-9 match play record. "Thats either a really good thing for later today or a really bad thing. My short game was definitely shining today. I put a lot of pressure on Ernie with it today." |
| Round 5: Lost to Geoff Ogilvy |
4 and 2 |
| Geoff Ogilvy reached the 36-hole championship match for the third time in the last four years when he knocked off Stewart Cink, who was bidding to make the finals for the second year in a row. Ogilvy never trailed, but Cink threatened to seize the momentum midway through the match when the Aussie had an adventure in a fairway bunker at the 11th hole and his eventual concession squared the match. Ogilvy was clearly frustrated, but promptly shook it off and won four holes in a row to eliminate Cink. The first came at the par-5 13th hole while the Aussie sank a 5-foot birdie putt after Cink missed his from 10 feet. "That was a pretty significant body blow by leaving that putt short," Cink said. "Geoff just cinched the momentum and made birdie after birdie. ...It would have taken a special effort to have beaten him today." Indeed. Ogilvy made a 13-footer for another birdie at the 14th hole and then went dormie with a brilliant 3-wood at the 343-yard, par-4 15th hole that rolled within 6 feet of the pin for an eagle. Cink also drove the green, but his ball didn't quite get up the plateau and stopped 23 feet away. When he missed and Ogilvy made, the Aussie led 3 up with three holes remaining. He polished the match off with a win at the par-3 16th where Cink missed the green and conceded Ogilvy's 12-foot birdie putt when he didn't hole his chip for birdie. Ogilvy was pleased to have brought his best game on the grueling day when he had to beat Northern Irish prodigy Rory McIlroy as well as Cink, who has a 17-10 record at the Accenture Match Play Championship. "So two pretty satisfying guys to beat," Ogilvy said. "And I guess the most satisfying part was I played my best golf in the last few holes of each match, which is really nice." |
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| Previous Accenture Match Play results |
| 1999 |
2 |
1 |
T9 |
| Matches: Beat Stewart, 3 and 2; Parry, 3 and 2; lost to Woods, 2 and 1 |
| 2000 |
0 |
1 |
T33 |
| Matches: Lost to Goosen, 3 and 2 |
| 2001 |
0 |
1 |
T33 |
| Matches: Lost to McNulty, 1 down |
| 2002 |
0 |
1 |
T33 |
| Matches: Lost to C. Howell, 4 and 3 |
| 2004 |
1 |
1 |
T17 |
| Matches: Beat Choi, 4 and 2; lost to Montgomerie, 5 and 4 |
| 2005 |
3 |
1 |
T5 |
| Matches: Beat Funk, 2 up; Lehman, 2 and 1; Love III, 20 holes; lost to DiMarco, 2 and 1 |
| 2006 |
0 |
1 |
T33 |
| Matches: Lost to Weir, 4 and 3 |
| 2007 |
2 |
1 |
T9 |
| Matches: Beat J. Singh, 3 and 2; Harrington, 1 up; lost to Ames, 3 and 1 |
| 2008 |
5 |
1 |
2nd |
| Matches: Beat Jimenez, 4 and 3; Harrington, 1 up; Montgomerie, 4 and 2; Cabrera, 3 and 2; Leonard, 4 and 2; lost to Woods, 8 and 7 in finals |
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