HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC – Stewart Cink shot a steady, stress-free 70 to end a record-breaking dominant week that led to his third RBC Heritage title on Sunday.
Cink, 47, finished 19 under 265 at Harbor Town, 4 shots better than Emiliano Grillo and Harold Varner III. Grillo shot 68, while Varner, who had the highest level in his career, shot 66.
Cink hugged his son and gift, Reagan, after the closing hair on green 18. Cink, his wife, Lisa, and their other son, Connor, had their arms around each other to celebrate.
“I don’t even know if I have the words,” Cink said.
He won for the second time this season – only he and Bryson DeChambeau did that – and continued his rebirth in the PGA Tour at a time when many professionals his age are waiting ahead of the PGA Tour Champions.
Not Cink, who broke a 12-year winless streak at the Safeway Open in September and added five more top 20 rankings, including a 12th-place tie last week at the Masters.
He earned $ 1,278 million, almost as much as the $ 1,404 million for the previous two victories at Harbor Town combined.
Cink is also only the fourth player to win the PGA Tour twice in the same season after turning 47. Sam Snead, Julius Boros and Kenny Perry, who performed it twice, are the others.
Cink held a show for centuries – destroying the lowest score of 36 holes in Harbor Town of 13 under 129 shared by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. Cink also broke the mark of 54 holes of 16 under 197 that Justin Leonard achieved in his 2002 victory.
Cink took a 5-shot lead in the final round and dared all fans to come and take him. No one ran to Cink, who drove with at least 3 shots along.
PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, associated with Cink, opened with a bird. But bogeys from the second and fourth hole took Morikawa out of the mix.
Maverick McNealy had five birds in the front nine to climb to 14 under, 4 behind Cink in the middle of the round. The consecutive bogeymen on the 11th and 12th ended McNealy’s growth.
Grillo and Varner came closest to 15 under and came back with only 3 back to Cink’s last bird at par-3 17, which did it all, but I’m sure he’ll add another jacket. checkered winner to those won here in 2000 and 2004.
Cink made 17 birds and two eagles in the first three rounds. On Sunday he had only two birds, but that was more than enough to get his eighth victory in his career.
McNealy (67), Canadian Corey Conners (68) and British Matt Fitzpatrick (68) tied for fourth at 13 under. Morikawa slipped to seventh after a 72, tied with Chris Kirk (67) at 12 under.
Dustin Johnson, the best ranked, finished with the best round of the tournament at the age of 66 to finish tied for 13th to 10th under. Johnson was the Masters champion in November, but missed the cut there last week and was never in contention at Harbor Town.
“I feel like I made too many mistakes,” he said. “You make mistakes here, they penalize you quite a lot.”