Cink converts top form in to victory

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Travelers Championship | Round Four | 23 Jun 2008

Stewart Cink

Stewart Cink celebrates on the 18th green after winning the Travelers Championship

(Photo: Getty Images)

Stewart Cink today converted some excellent 2008 season form into victory when he held on down the stretch to defeat defending champion Hunter Mahan and Tommy Armour III and win the Travelers Championship at the TPC River Highlands on the outskirts of Hartford.

Cink had not won an event on the PGA Tour since the NEC Invitational in 2004 but the signs had been there for much of this season that something just had to give. Cink had been runner up twice and plus a third place this season and last week put together a final round of 67 at the US Open to arrive in Hartford with his game and mindset in great shape.

Cink had been a winner of this event earlier in his career and had also finished runner up the following year so this was a golf course that he had a comfort zone with and, in the form he was in, a good week appeared likely and so it was to prove. Cink took a two shot lead over Heath Slocum into the final round but an early bogey at the 4th had the chasing pack on his heels.

Cink steadied the ship with birdies at the 6th and 9th and made the turn just ahead of Slocum and Mahan. Cink played solidly over the closing nine holes, eliminating mistakes and eventually winning by one.

The final hole at the TPC River Highlands is relatively innocuous par four but after hitting his drive right Cink was left with a potentially dangerous second, albeit it from only 100 yards. He finished just off the back edge but scrambled his putt to two feet and the title was his.

Mahan birdied the final two holes to join Armour in a share of second just one behind Cink, Slocum finished one shot further back in fourth and Vijay Singh was alone in 5th place.

Just as he had been when finishing third last year, Nick O’Hern was the best of the Australians although this time in 19th position, Jason Day made a solid return to the PGA Tour when 27th with Steve Elkington, Peter Lonard also returned from a lengthy break to finish 37th, Stuart Appleby was 45th, Andrew Buckle 52nd and Brett Rumford 61st.

The PGA Tour will move to Grand Blanc in Michigan for this coming week’s Buick Open at Warwick Hills.

Top 10
AUS/NZ

Position	Score	Player	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	Total
1	-18	Stewart Cink	66	64	65	67	262
T2	-17	Hunter Mahan	68	63	67	65	263
T2	-17	Tommy Armour Iii	69	64	65	65	263
4	-16	Heath Slocum	67	66	64	67	264
5	-14	Vijay Singh	66	68	64	68	266
T6	-13	Brad Adamonis	64	68	68	67	267
T6	-13	Bubba Watson	66	68	67	66	267
T6	-13	Kenny Perry	66	67	65	69	267
T6	-13	Michael Allen	69	66	68	64	267
T10	-12	Corey Pavin	68	66	70	64	268
T10	-12	Kevin Streelman	73	63	62	70	268
T10	-12	Michael Letzig	68	68	63	69	268
T13	-11	Ben Curtis	68	66	69	66	269
T13	-11	Brian Davis	64	70	69	66	269
T13	-11	Chris Dimarco	66	69	64	70	269
T13	-11	John Huston	65	69	67	68	269
T13	-11	Tag Ridings	66	70	66	67	269
T13	-11	Tom Pernice Jr.	65	68	68	68	269
T19	-10	Bill Haas	68	67	69	66	270
T19	-10	Briny Baird	67	70	66	67	270
T19	-10	D.j. Trahan	67	70	62	71	270
T19	-10	Jon Mills	70	64	65	71	270
T19	-10	Justin Rose	65	72	66	67	270
T19	-10	Lucas Glover	65	66	71	68	270
T19	-10	Nick O'hern	68	69	65	68	270
T19	-10	Tim Herron	66	69	67	68	270
T27	-9	Chad Campbell	67	70	62	72	271
T27	-9	David Toms	67	69	64	71	271
T27	-9	Jason Day	67	67	66	71	271
T27	-9	Ken Duke	65	66	70	70	271
T27	-9	Kevin Sutherland	67	65	72	67	271
T27	-9	Scott Mccarron	68	69	68	66	271
T27	-9	Steve Elkington	70	64	66	71	271
T34	-8	Bob Estes	69	68	64	71	272
T34	-8	Dustin Johnson	66	70	67	69	272
T34	-8	Nicholas Thompson	67	69	68	68	272
T37	-7	Carl Pettersson	70	65	70	68	273
T37	-7	Craig Kanada	67	68	70	68	273
T37	-7	Fred Funk	66	68	65	74	273
T37	-7	Greg Kraft	69	67	66	71	273
T37	-7	Joe Ogilvie	70	67	68	68	273
T37	-7	Peter Lonard	66	70	70	67	273
T37	-7	Webb Simpson	67	70	67	69	273
44	-6	Larry Mize	67	70	67	70	274
T45	-5	Bob Sowards	67	70	66	72	275
T45	-5	Brenden Pappas	69	65	65	76	275
T45	-5	Jason Gore	71	66	69	69	275
T45	-5	Johnson Wagner	64	71	67	73	275
T45	-5	Kent Jones	66	70	73	66	275
T45	-5	Steve Lowery	64	73	69	69	275
T45	-5	Stuart Appleby	68	66	72	69	275
T52	-4	Andrew Buckle	68	68	72	68	276
T52	-4	Jason Allred	68	67	68	73	276
T52	-4	John Mallinger	67	67	74	68	276
T52	-4	John Rollins	70	64	68	74	276
T52	-4	Kevin Na	69	66	69	72	276
T52	-4	Matt Kuchar	67	70	66	73	276
T52	-4	Olin Browne	68	69	69	70	276
T59	-3	Michael H. Thompson	65	67	72	73	277
T59	-3	J.j. Henry	66	70	68	73	277
61	-2	Brett Rumford	68	66	72	72	278
T62	-1	Billy Mayfair	66	70	71	72	279
T62	-1	Harrison Frazar	69	68	71	71	279
T62	-1	Notah Begay Iii	66	71	70	72	279
T62	-1	Steve Marino	67	70	72	70	279
T66	Ev	Billy Andrade	69	68	69	74	280
T66	Ev	Charlie Wi	68	68	72	72	280
T66	Ev	Dudley Hart	68	68	72	72	280
69	+2	Vaughn Taylor	67	68	78	69	282
70	+3	Chris Stroud	67	69	75	72	283
T71	+4	Peter Karmis	65	70	72	77	284
T71	+4	Jim Mcgovern	67	69	75	73	284
Cut -3
CUT	-2	Brad Elder	72	66	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Brandt Jobe	71	67	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Cliff Kresge	70	68	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Frank Lickliter Ii	67	71	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Jason Dufner	67	71	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Kevin Stadler	66	72	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Ryan Palmer	67	71	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Scott Sterling	68	70	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Tim Wilkinson	67	71	-	-	138
CUT	-2	Troy Matteson	69	69	-	-	138
CUT	-1	Bo Van Pelt	72	67	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Bob Tway	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Brett Quigley	67	72	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Fran Quinn	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Jerry Kelly	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Jimmy Walker	72	67	-	-	139
CUT	-1	John Riegger	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Justin Bolli	66	73	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Kenneth Ferrie	68	71	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Kyle Thompson	72	67	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Lee Janzen	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Mark Brooks	68	71	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Nathan Green	68	71	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Richard S. Johnson	70	69	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Robert Garrigus	71	68	-	-	139
CUT	-1	Tim Petrovic	69	70	-	-	139
CUT	Ev	Brian Bateman	68	72	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Brian Gay	73	67	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Cameron Beckman	67	73	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Carlos Franco	71	69	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Charles Warren	69	71	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Martin Laird	70	70	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Omar Uresti	70	70	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Patrick Sheehan	67	73	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Paul Claxton	68	72	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Robert Gamez	71	69	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Rod Pampling	72	68	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Shane Bertsch	69	71	-	-	140
CUT	Ev	Steve Allan	68	72	-	-	140
CUT	+1	Steve Sokol	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Jin Park	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Jonathan Kaye	71	70	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Marc Turnesa	69	72	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Matt Jones	73	68	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Ron Whittaker	73	68	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Tommy Gainey	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+1	Yong-eun Yang	70	71	-	-	141
CUT	+2	Brent Geiberger	71	71	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Cody Freeman	73	69	-	-	142
CUT	+2	David Lutterus	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Jay Williamson	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Jeff Gove	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Jeff Overton	72	70	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Len Mattiace	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Luke List	68	74	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Mark Hensby	69	73	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Mathias Gronberg	71	71	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Ted Purdy	68	74	-	-	142
CUT	+2	Woody Austin	71	71	-	-	142
CUT	+3	Doug Labelle Ii	70	73	-	-	143
CUT	+3	James Driscoll	68	75	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Jeff Maggert	68	75	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Richard Johnson	69	74	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Ryan Armour	69	74	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Ryan Moore	69	74	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Shigeki Maruyama	72	71	-	-	143
CUT	+3	Stephen Leaney	72	71	-	-	143
CUT	+4	P.H. Horgan III	70	74	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Bob Heintz	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Chad Collins	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Chez Reavie	75	69	-	-	144
CUT	+4	J.p. Hayes	72	72	-	-	144
CUT	+4	Todd Demsey	73	71	-	-	144
CUT	+5	Eric Axley	69	76	-	-	145
CUT	+5	George Mcneill	72	73

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Cink converts top form in to victory

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Travelers Championship | Round Four | 23 Jun 2008