NEWPORT BEACH \u2014 Stewart Cink is in sync, and that\u2019s not up for debate.<\/p>\n
Cink continued his dominance of the PGA Tour Champions in winning Sunday\u2019s Hoag Classic by four strokes, shooting a five-under par 66 to finish at a 19-under 194 for the three-day event.<\/p>\n
Zach Johnson (65) and Ernie Els (67) tied for second place.<\/p>\n
Cink, the circuit\u2019s reigning player of the year, earned his second title in the year\u2019s four events.<\/p>\n
After eight PGA Tour victories, Cink, 52, has won six tournaments on the Champions since joining last year. For his efforts at the Newport Beach Country Club, Cink collected $330,000.<\/p>\n
\u201dKept my foot on the pedal,\u201d Cink said. \u201cWe played very aggressively, but we choose targets that are very smart and efficient. Not reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a tie for second at last year\u2019s Hoag, Cink sealed the deal with a steady driver and precise, but not outlandish, shot-making that produced six birdies.<\/p>\n
Save his lone bogey on No. 12, he navigated the course as if playing with his weekend pals, instead of a field that featured seven World Golf Hall of Fame members.<\/p>\n
Among them was Bernhard Langer, 68, who shot better than his age all three rounds. But he was no match for Cink as he finished tied for seventh after his 66.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t surprise me,\u201d said Langer, a two-time Masters champion. \u201cHe\u2019s the longest guy out here, together with Padraig (Harrington) maybe. He\u2019s playing well, and you\u2019ve got to putt well (he) got the confidence going. He\u2019s a great player, a major champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Els, another Hall of Famer: \u201cAnybody that can hit it far, you\u2019re going to have fun here. He\u2019s a force out here right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
After stiff-arming challengers on the front 9, Cink played free and easy. Considering his recent success, it\u2019s not surprising Cink\u2019s swagger matches his consistent play. He won the season-opener in Hawaii, tied for second in Florida and last week, tied for sixth in Arizona.<\/p>\n
\u201dI feel like I\u2019m playing better and have more control over my ball than I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Cink, 52, said. \u201cWhen I was even in the top-10 in the world rankings for a long time, I didn\u2019t even drive it like I\u2019ve driven it the last six, seven months.<\/p>\n
\u201dI have so much more command over my driver than I\u2019ve ever had. I didn\u2019t have that when I played on the PGA Tour. I was always kind of like, \u2018Oh boy, where\u2019s this one going?\u2019 But not right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
After finishing Saturday\u2019s round with an albatross from 205 yards on the par 5, No. 18, for a 62, he entered Sunday with a two-shot bulge over Steven Alker and Freddie Jacobson.<\/p>\n
You bet Cink kept tabs on those in pursuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was paying attention to what the scores were like so I knew what I needed to do,\u201d Cink said. \u201cI was very aware of where I stood. But I didn\u2019t have to change anything because I got enough of a lead where I just stuck to the game plan we had.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Cink reached the turn, he had maintained that edge over Els and was three clear of Charlie Wi, Langer, and Jacobson.<\/p>\n
Langer keenly broke from the gate to get in the mix thanks to a 30 on the first nine, with five birdies.<\/p>\n
Wi birdied holes 13 and 15 to get to 14-under, two strokes shy of Cink. But when it seemed Cink might falter, he didn\u2019t fizzle.<\/p>\n
Instead, one day after a walk-off albatross, he enjoyed a stress-free stroll up No. 18, en route to the trophy presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019ve left no stone unturned,\u201d Cink said, \u201cjust for this type of moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWPORT BEACH \u2014 Stewart Cink is in sync, and that\u2019s not up for debate. Cink continued his dominance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,427,3,99,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-553474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-golf","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}