Cink honed his game on Irish links courses

CAN ONE man rekindle old habits? Once upon a time, it was de rigueur for American professional golfers to visit Ireland to practice on links courses ahead of the British Open. Tom Watson did it, so too Payne Stewart, David Duval and Mark O’Meara . . . and Tiger Woods.

Indeed, such stop-offs were considered a vitally important part of any player’s preparations for the only major played on a links.

Now, in what is a perfectly timed shot in the arm for Irish golf tourism, Stewart Cink – golf’s newest major champion – has attributed his week spent playing golf in Ireland as being vital to his success at Turnberry, where he had the temerity to cast sentiment aside and deprive Tom Watson of what would have been the greatest feat ever in golf.

Perhaps it was playing the links of Lahinch, Ballybunion and Doonbeg – where Cink and his family stayed – that hardened him for the task. As Cink recalled, “I don’t think I shot one round last week (in Ireland) better than two or three-over par in four days. It was blowing like crazy. And I shot high scores, made some big numbers on holes. I came to Turnberry you would think, maybe a little frustrated or questionable . . . but, no, I came here knowing that, hey, this is what you get when you play links. I was ready to go.”

In fact, this was only the second time that Cink had adopted the policy of preparing for the Open by playing links courses. In 2007, he also visited Ireland – playing the European Club, Lahinch and Carne – en route to Carnoustie where he had his previous best finish, of tied-sixth. “I think there is a correlation, and I think next year I will be going playing links golf before the Open championship again. And hopefully – if my kids and my wife will accompany me like they did this year – I’ll invite them along, too, and we’ll have another good time.”

Of the importance of playing links golf and learning the unique shots required, Cink added: “Mentally, links golf just requires more patience. Physically it really doesn’t require much at all, but mentally there’s just so many crosswind shots, downwind shots where you hit good shots that don’t end up good. Or you hit bad shots and end up really bad. It happens. It happens to everybody. You just have to be prepared for that.”

Cink’s comments only serve to underline just how good it would be if the Irish Open managed to secure the date on the European Tour immediately ahead of the British Open. Imagine an Irish Open at Baltray or Portmarnock or, indeed, the European as the precursor to the major? The field would be full of the world’s best players attempting to hone their games.

Unfortunately, as far as the Irish Open is concerned, that date is seemingly locked in for the Scottish Open.

For Cink, Sunday’s maiden major win – which moved him from 33rd to ninth in the latest official world rankings – came after a period of change, the most obvious one being switching from the long broomhandle putter to a standard length.

The decision to implement changes to his game came after the Players Championship at Sawgrass in May, where he shot a 77 on the Saturday and missed the third-round cut.

“I just decided then, ‘this isn’t working. Whatever I’m doing is not working’. I was putting poorly, and when I putt poorly it affects the rest of my game. That’s the way most golfers are. So I decided to totally overhaul my putting and it started with the removal of the long putter.

“I needed to change my mental outlook, too, because I really had not much of a pre-shot routine working. I decided that I needed to get something more regimented, a pre-shot routine I could lean on under pressure. And I thought if I stayed with the long putter that it would be too easy for me to fall back into the old warm and fuzzy feelings. So I decided to scrap everything and start over with the short putter.

“And really that’s about it. I really didn’t change a lot of my golf swing. I’m always tinkering with that. But I don’t have the kind of golf game where I have to be dead-on mechanically to play well. I play a lot of feel type shots, it’s kind of gut-instinct type golf. And I don’t have the flashiest short game. I’m one of the longer players but not a bomber, not the longest. I don’t hit many fairways. I just play golf. And I play it how I find it.”

Cink also finally banished the memory of his missed short putt in the US Open at Southern Hills in Tulsa in 2001, where he went to tap-in a 12-inch putt believing his title bid was over. He missed the putt. If he’d holed it, he would have found himself in a play-off the following day with Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks.

“It lingered a little bit,” admitted Cink of that missed putt. “It was embarrassing. That’s golf. You put yourself out there in front of the world stage, and sometimes you’re going to be embarrassed a little bit. But now hopefully I can move past it. I’ve had a couple wins since then, too, but this is a new chapter for me.”

For sure, Cink has served his dues. Rather than being picked on as the bad guy who spoilt Watson’s story, maybe it is better to believe that it was, simply, his time.