AUGUSTA — At some point, Reagan Cink will move on to pursue his own career path.
But right now, he’s just having too much fun working alongside his father.
Stewart Cink, 48, had a remarkable PGA Tour season last year, advancing all the way to the Tour Championship. He did so with his son as his caddie. The year included a tie for 21st at the Masters, and a return invitation to the major championship, and a four-shot victory at Hilton Head the following week.
“At some point, I have to get on with my life, but I’m having so much fun,” Reagan said Thursday after the first round of the Masters. Cink opened with a round of 4-over 76 on a windy and muddy day at Augusta National Golf Club.
Reagan said his parents fully support any decision he makes on when to give up the bag, but clearly they are happy the father-son duo has at least another year together. Both father and son say the current plan is to keep going through this season.
“I’m not complaining,” Cink said. “We’ll keep going, and I’ll let him decide. I love him caddying, and in a vacuum it would be great to have him caddie for me until I stop playing golf. I don’t think that’s the best thing for him. He’s a young adult. It won’t last forever, but it’s definitely fun while it’s lasting.”
Reagan, a Georgia Tech graduate as his father – and recently married – was to start a job at Delta Air Lines before the pandemic. That’s when the two teamed up on the golf course.
And here they remain.
The conditions made it difficult on Thursday. Cink had double-bogeys on Nos. 5 and 11. He had three other bogeys and three birdies, including one from the trees on No. 18. The double bogey on No. 11 included a chip that rolled across the green and into the pond.
“I had a couple of penalty shots out there,” Cink said. “There is some mud on the ball out there. Remarkably not that often, but when it’s there, it’s hard to commit to aiming the ball when you have so much trouble on the sides of the greens. Eleven is a perfect example of it.
“… Everybody has to deal with something like that, and it probably evens out over the course of the tournament, but, man, when you are standing over the ball looking down and it has mud all over it, it’s just difficult. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of trust. It makes golf at this course even harder than it already is.”
Cink said he did most of his pre-tournament preparation last week. He came to Augusta for a dedicated 18 holes where he did “a lot of homework.” He got called off the course during two practice rounds this week due to dangerous weather.
“For me, the best preparation on a course like this is conserving energy,” Cink said.
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