Stewart Cink might not have a chance to win the PGA Tour Champions’ season-long championship, the Schwab Cup, but that won’t stop him from showing off at the tour’s season finale.
Cink jumped out to a three-shot lead at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship by firing a 7-under-par 64 on Thursday at Phoenix (Ariz.) Country Club.
K.J. Choi of South Korea is in second after a 67, and Jerry Kelly, Canadian Stephen Ames and Englishman Paul Broadhurst are tied for third at 3-under 68.
According to the tour, 10 players have a mathematical chance to win the Schwab Cup; for the top six in the standings, winning the tournament is all they need to do, while Nos. 7-11 need to win and get some help.
Cink, as it happens, came into the week No. 12 in the standings but rounding into form at the end of his debut season on the tour. He finished top-11 in each of his past seven PGA Tour Champions starts and picked up his first win in August at the Ally Challenge.
“The things I’ve been working on this year are swing-related. They’re coming together,” Cink said. “I still don’t feel 100 percent there, but good enough to battle with. And then my heart is the biggest piece. If I get my heart in the right place, I can be pretty dangerous out here.”
Cink had eight birdies and just one bogey on Thursday. At the par-5 18th, he played his third shot out of a greenside bunker and his ball came in hot, caroming off the flagstick to give him a short birdie putt.
“I think looking back there, it was going in the water,” Cink said. “But golf kicks you in the teeth so many times that you just have to run with those opportunities when it doesn’t.”
Choi recovered from an early bogey and made five birdies the rest of the way. At No. 7 in the standings, Choi needs to not only win the tournament, but also have No. 1 Ernie Els of South Africa finish in a two-way tie for fifth or worse and No. 2 Steven Alker of New Zealand to end in a two-way tie for third or worse.
The biggest threat to usurp Els and Alker is Ames, who’s No. 3 in the points race and sitting pretty after making four birdies and a single bogey Thursday.
Ames was asked what it will take for him to be in contention in the final round.
“Patience more than anything else for me,” he said. “I can’t get too far ahead of myself and I can’t beat myself up at the same time. So I’m just going to try and play the Stephen Ames that I know was there the beginning of the year and be that person again.”
