HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC – Stewart Cink shot a steady, stress-free 70 to reach a dominant, record-breaking week that earned him his third RBC heritage title on Sunday.
The 47-year-old Cink finishes at 19 under 265 in Harbor Town, 4 strokes better than Emiliano Grillo and Harold Varner III. Grillo shot a 68 while Varner, who had the highest finish in his career, fired a 66.
Cink hugged his son and caddy, Reagan, to his lock pair on the 18th green. He, wife Lisa and their other son, Connor, all had their arms around each other to celebrate.
“I do not even know if I have the words,” Cink said.
He won for the second time this season – only he and Bryson DeChambeau did – and continued his revival at the PGA Tour at a time when many predecessors of his age were looking forward to the PGA Tour.
Not Cink, who broke a 12-year unbeaten streak at the Safeway Open in September and added five more top-20 finishes, including a draw for the 12th last week at the Masters.
He won $ 1.278 million, almost as much as the $ 1.404 million for his two previous victories in Harbor Town combined.
Cink is also just the fourth player to win twice in the same PGA Tour season after turning 47. Sam Snead, Julius Boros and Kenny Perry, who have scored twice, are the others.
Cink put on a show for centuries – the lowest score of 36 holes at Harbor Town, of 13 under 129, shared by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. Cink also scored the 54-hole-16-of-197 score Justin Justinard had in his 2002 win.
Cink took a 5-stroke lead in the final round and dared all riders to come and pick him up. No one made a turn at Cink, who consistently led with at least 3 strokes.
PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, along with Cink, opened with a birdie. But bullies on the second and fourth holes got Morikawa out of the game.
Maverick McNealy had five birdies on the top nine to climb to 14 under, 4 behind Cink, in the middle of the round. Consecutive errors on the 11th and 12th end ended McNealy’s boom.
Grillo and Varner came closest at 15 and were just three back to Cink’s last birdie on the 17th par-3, all making sure he would add another checkered winner’s jacket to the ones he had here in 2000 and 2004. won it.
Cink made 17 birdies and two eagles in the first three rounds. He only had two birdies on Sunday, but that was more than enough to secure his eighth win of his career.
McNealy (67), Canada’s Corey Conners (68) and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (68) tied for fourth place with 13 under. Morikawa tied for seventh place after a 72, with Chris Kirk (67) at 12 under.
Top position Dustin Johnson finished with his best round of the tournament at 66 to finish 13th at 10 under. Johnson was the November Masters champion, but missed the cut there last week and was never in contention at Harbor Town.
“I just feel like I’ve made way too many mistakes,” he said. “Here you make mistakes, they punish you pretty big.”