Walking up the 18th fairway knowing he’d won the biggest golf tournament of his life, Stewart Cink took off his cap and released a sigh that would have blown out all 31 candles on his last birthday cake.
He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, savoring the satisfaction of the first wire-to-wire victory on the PGA Tour this year and the relief of holding on to a 54-hole lead after blowing his six previous chances.
Cink was so in the moment that he said he could feel the wind on his skin and hear the trees rustling at Firestone Country Club.
“It’s something I’ll never, ever forget. Just a beautiful scene for me right there,” Cink said. “It was like a dream situation, literally.”
But this was not a dream. It was not the Greater Hartford Open or the MCI Heritage Classic, where he’d recorded his three previous PGA Tour victories. Cink might have taken his game to an elite level Sunday by capturing the $7 million NEC Invitational.
Sinking a 15-footer for birdie to cap his memorable experience at the 72nd hole, Cink was nearly unflappable during his par-70 round to beat Tiger Woods (69) and South African Rory Sabbatini (68) by four strokes. Cink finished at 269, 11 under par.
Woods hung on to the world’s No. 1 ranking and did not suffer the same letdown following last week’s PGA Championship that plagued Whistling Straits winner Vijay Singh (3-over 283), Masters champion Phil Mickelson (5-over 285) and Ernie Els (13-over 293).
“How can you not get up for a tournament as big as this one?” Woods said. “This is the best players in the world and you’re going head-to-head against them. To me it’s just a thrill.”
The elite field that Cink vanquished added to his sense of accomplishment.
“This puts my mind at a new level because this is new territory for me as far as my winning ways,” Cink said. “I’ve won all three of my other tournaments coming from behind. I’ve been in the lead a few times going into the final round and not won. [Saturday] I downplayed that a little bit, but I knew it was there. It means a lot to me now not to have that monkey on my back anymore. I can be a front-runner and I can polish it off.”
Cink earned $1.2 million to vault his 2004 earnings to a career-best $3.6 million, fifth on the money list. It was a far cry from 1995 when he played in a Nike tournament qualifier in Cleveland. He had a $5 shortfall in his bank account and a wife and the first of their two children to support.
“Then I went to the Greater Hartford Open and finished 18th and won $15,000. So our bank account went from negative $5 to $14,995,” he said.
Now the Cinks have a much more comfortable lifestyle. But Cink still felt butterflies of nervous excitement when he started the day with a five-shot lead.
With the greens lightning fast, the pins tucked and the rough at least 10 inches high in some spots, the expected drama never materialized. It might have if Woods’ second shot from the right rough at the par-4 13th had gone in for eagle instead of rolling over the side of the cup and stopping 57 feet from the pin.
No one got closer to Cink than two strokes, that when Sabbatini birdied No. 15 and Cink parred No. 12. But the threat was short-lived, as Sabbatini bogeyed the next hole and two out of three before closing with a birdie.
“Around 10 I started looking at the leaderboard, just glancing to see what the story was,” Cink said. “I saw it got down to two after 12. I had a couple really huge par putts the next few holes that I buried.”