At age 47, Stewart Cink shows PGA Tour that he's still got it
Stewart Cink went 11 years between victories on the PGA Tour, but, at age 47, he showed Sunday that he still had at least one more glory day left in him.
Cink won the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., for his first triumph on any professional tour since the one for which he is most famous: the 2009 British Open. That was when Cink, given a reprieve when 59-year-old Tom Watson made bogey on the 72nd hole at Turnberry, won a four-hole aggregate playoff and denied Watson a sixth Claret Jug.
This time, in California’s Wine Country, Cink was the one who generated the feel-good story, for old times’ sake. Cink birdied three of his last four holes and pulled ahead of the pack with a 7-under 65 at Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course for a 21-under 267 total and two-stroke victory (scores).
Cink had gone 243 winless starts on the PGA Tour since he claimed the Claret Jug in 2007. He is the oldest winner on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson, at age 48, won at Pebble Beach in February 2019.
Cink leaned on his short game, with 10 one-putt greens, a chip-in birdie at the par-3 11th and he scrambled for par twice after driving into bunkers. It was his seventh career victory and worth $1.188 million, plus a Tour exemption through the 2022-23 season.
American Harry Higgs (68) finished second at 19-under 269. Americans Chez Reavie (66), Doc Redman (62), Kevin Streelman (67) and Brian Stuard (70) shared third place at 18-under 270. Phil Mickelson, preparing for a return to Winged Foot this week for the U.S. Open, closed with a 70 to tie for 44that 10-under 278.
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