Q. Stewart Cink is with us at the Senior PGA Championship. A 71 today. How would you describe your third round?
STEWART CINK: Well, I think it's been a little bit better every day. My golf, that is. I was all over the hole today. Could have made a lot more birdies.
It's really difficult day out there. I was just joking with Julie. I said, this kind of wind is for young people. It's tough. There is a lot of difficult shots. The course is drying out some.
So it is really quite a test out there, so I was proud of the way I played. Hit a lot of solid shots. Could have been a little bit better round overall score-wise, but all in all I think that same kind of golf tomorrow will be -- it'll be in the running.
Q. We been talking about the leaderboard today. It looks like some major winners there, strong leaderboard. Don't know if this connected, to the type of major, this type of golf course, but when you see the people that have been the best for a long time show up like that, no?
STEWART CINK: Yeah, I would agree. I didn't really look at the leaderboard a lot today. As you can see the players up there have won a lot on hard golf courses. This course is really demanding, with the wind especially. It's just seemed like every hole there is a place you just cannot go and you have to know where that is and game plan for it and you have to execute. That's just major championship golf.
It feels like a major out there. It's really challenging. Those names up there have all had some success, so that's a good point.
Q. I wonder if that's a testament to the caddies, too?
STEWART CINK: To the caddies, too?
Q. Yeah.
STEWART CINK: The caddies, it's a job that a lot of the people don't really know much about. It's such a -- they do such a great job. They know golf a lot like we do. You know, even though they don't have to execute any shots they're still right there with the game planning and might call you off a shot here and there. The advice at the right time is just hard to put a value on that.
So I know me and my caddie have a really good, very regimented game plan we use on a course like this. You know, sometimes it's hard to stick to it. Doesn't always pay off in birdies, but patience in the end is such a huge asset to have with you.
And that's part of the caddie's job, is to make sure you stay with the patience.
Q. Can you talk about knowing where not to go, but your shot on 17, is that just how easily it can go where you don't want it to go?
STEWART CINK: I mean, had a lot going on on that shot. My ball was right up against the rough. They don't have a first cut here. You go from fairway to rough that tall, so you're right up against the wall hitting through the rough to the ball, and my ball was about half underground in a divot.
So I tried to play this huge hook so I could attack the ball from the inside and miss some of the rough. Whatever I did it wasn't the right thing.
Q. How many yards would you have left?
STEWART CINK: I don't even remember the yardage. Just trying to get it past the front the green and I hit a 7-iron. I think I had 144, maybe 140 to the front. It was plenty of club distance-wise.
To try to figure out where the ball was going go, how much it was going to curve out of that lie, and I was trying to curve it 25, 30 yards to the left and it curved 15 yards to the right.
You know, just completely lost control of the ball there.
That's kind of the way this course is set up. There is no first cut so the wall factor on the edge of the fairway is a factor. I'm not sure I think that should be -- I don't think that should be -- it's not part of golf to me, but it's not my decision right now. It's the way the course is.
But I've seen a lot of balls that hit in the fairway and roll down the sides of the hills and end up right on that -- they're up against the three-inch rough.
You know, it's same way for everybody, so I hope something like that doesn't decide the tournament. Definitely decided my 17th hole score today.
Q. Guys were saying this course has changed since they played it last. How has it changed and what is it about the course that's so challenging?
STEWART CINK: It has changed a lot. I mean, it's not even the same course we used to play. Routing is the same, but other than that, no similarities. It's a little bit wider off the tee.
Other than that, the areas of playoff the fairways are much more severe than they used to be. Bunkers are more numerous and deeper and higher lips. They're just so penal.
The greens are larger and -- I don't know if they're larger than they were but they're large and they have a lot contouring on the inside. Just tons of very intricate slopes.
When it's windy, it's really hard to hit your ball in the right spot of the green. When grass gets really firm, when it's fast, same thing.
So the greens aren't that fast. They've done a great job. I think the setup has been awesome.
They've made it very playable and manageable. But still, if you stray, you're going to be in to this heavy rough and just a lot of penal nature to the course if you get off line.
The bunkers are staggered. Andrew Green designed the course and the bunkers are staggered. You can't really avoid bunkers, you're going to have to deal with the bunkers no matter where you hit it.
So some of the holes on the downwind holes, we're just taking them as much out of play as we can and hitting driver as far as we can hit it and knowing if you're going to be in the rough, you're going to be close to the green and it might be better than laying back.
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