You’ve never seen a PGA Tour player happier to be nine shots off the lead than Atlanta’s Stewart Cink.
He’s returning to this week’s Tour Championship at an East Lake course he loves like a second home after a long absence. Eleven years to be exact. And given the staggered scoring system in place, Cink will begin nine shots back of FedEx Cup points leader Patrick Cantlay before the first shot is struck Thursday.
Reminded that he came back from nine down to win the 2004 RBC Heritage, Cink joked Tuesday, “Well, I made up nine shots in one round in 2004. I don’t see why I can’t do it in four rounds. It seems real easy, doesn’t it?”
More seriously, he added, “It’s a little daunting to know that you’re playing against the best players of the year and you have a nine-shot deficit before you even tee the ball up. But to be honest, I think if I was a thousand over I would still be happy to play here.”
Speaking for all those in the bottom third of the top 30 in this field, Cink said, “We don’t really have anywhere to go but up, so why not just go out there and give it everything and see how well we can focus and battle this golf course for four days and give it all and then we can rest after this?”
Reed on the road to Atlanta. While not able to play in either of the two playoff events in front of the Tour Championship because of health issues, Patrick Reed still earned the 30th and final spot in the field. And through Twitter, he announced Tuesday that he was recovered enough to try to play.
“Road Trip! ATL here we come!” Reed posted upon leaving his home in Houston where he has been recovering from a reported case of double pneumonia. Before that, he was out with an ankle injury.
The $15 million first-place prize is a powerful curative. Also, Reed is attempting to prove himself fit enough to be considered for the coming Ryder Cup. U.S. captain Steve Stricker makes his six wild-card selections next week. Reed is a noted Ryder Cup campaigner, with a 7-3-2 lifetime record since 2014. It would be testament to medical science and his own recuperative powers if Reed could play compelling golf this week.
The Tour Championship staples. If Reed does indeed tee it up Thursday, it will mark his eighth consecutive appearance in the playoff finale. That’s a remarkable consistency given the difficulties of making a most exclusive field. But even that pales compared with Dustin Johnson’s streak – 13 consecutive appearances here, the longest streak in the FedEx Cup era (2007 to now). Reed and Hideki Matsuyama have the second longest active streaks at 8.
Can East Lake stand up to the assault? A week ago it was wet in Maryland and the playoff field lit up Caves Valley, the leaders getting to 27 under before Patrick Cantlay won in a playoff. This week, it’s definitely wet in Atlanta, sure to soften the heart of East Lake. Might the Tour Championship 72-hole record of 23 under (Tiger Woods, naturally, in 2007) be in jeopardy?
“These are two very different kind of golf courses between Caves Valley and East Lake,” said Cink.
“(At Caves Valley) you could kind of hit the ball over the place, and there wasn’t a huge penalty,” Cink said. “The rough wasn’t that bad; the bunkers were very forgiving. At East Lake, the rough on the other hand is very bad, and it’s a major penalty for not hitting the fairway.”
“Here at East Lake, the greens are challenging, they’re slopey. They’re going to be quick, and the rough is severe,” Cink said. “This course has much more of a resistance to scoring. You’re not going to see a lot of triples and quads (bogeys) at East Lake, but you just don’t see that many birdies either. It’s a tough course to really shoot low on, and I think that’s why the players love it. It’s straightforward, it just asks you to be very, very precise with your tee balls, and it’s got everything, really, you could ask for in a golf course.”
Why not JT? When Justin Thomas won his FedEx Cup title in 2017, it was under the old points system that allowed him to take the season championship without winning the Tour Championship. He finished one stroke behind Xander Schauffele in the tournament, but still clung to the overall championship. Both players got trophies that day, but left Thomas unsatisfied. “I mean I was mad I didn’t win the golf tournament.”
Now it’s winner-take-all in a staggered scoring system in it’s third year. Players are trying to decide whether they like it. Perhaps Thomas, who is sixth in FedEx Cup points and as such will be starting Thursday at 4 under, six back of Cantlay, has the most pragmatic view. “At the end of the day, the end of the week, somebody’s going to be happy with the format, and it might as well be me,” he said.
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