Former Florence resident wins again
Stewart Cink is making a habit of taking down former U.S. Open winners in Champions Tour playoffs these days.
Earlier this year, Stewart Cink beat Retief Goosen on the first playoff hole to win the Insperity Invitational in May. On Sunday, he knocked off two-time U.S. Open winner Ernie Els on the first hole of a playoff to successfully defend his Ally Challenge title.
It was the Cink’s third Champions Tour victory. The former Florence resident shot 15-under-par 201 and won $330,000. He trailed Els by two shots with three holes to play, but finished birdie-birdie-par while Els parred the final five holes. Cink shot 68 in the final round. Els closed with a 69.
“This is one way that when a win happens in this fashion, I’m not sure if it adds or subtracts years off your life because it’s pretty stressful,” the 52-year-old Cink said. “If you’re the one that wins, if you’re on that side of the stick on this thing, then it feels great. It was a lot of fun.”
Cink said he was happy to be able to overtake Els at the end.
“I putted great down the stretch,” he said. “Ernie wasn’t doing anything wrong and he was just in the wrong place today because I had just enough at the end to overtake him.”
Ernie Ela briefly overtook Stewart Cink
Cink look invincible after a first-round 10-under 62 gave him the early lead. But Els overtook him in the second round as Cink fell back with a 1-under 71.
But his final push, including a two-putt par on the playoff hole, gave Cink the win. He becomes the fifth multiple winner of the 2025 season, joining Miguel Angel Jiménez (4), Ángel Cabrera (3), Steve Allan (3) and Padraig Harrington (2).
It appeared that victory was going to escape Cink when he made a bogey on No. 15 and followed that with a poor drive on No. 16.
“It felt like once I missed the fairway on 16, felt like the wind might come out of my sails,” he said. “But we got a little opening down the right on 16 out into the seventh fairway which gave us a pretty simple shot really from the other fairway and took advantage of that.”
It was just kind of all over the place a little bit,” he said. “But sometimes it doesn’t take consistency to win, it just takes grit and desire and belief.”
Cink battled his driver all weekend, but when it was time to hit a good one in the playoff, he delivered.
“It takes a lot of discipline and it was a challenge and the ball didn’t always go where I wanted it to go, but when it really mattered on the playoff hole, it did,” he said.
Cink said his successful title defense was a different experience than his first win at the Ally Challenge when he ran away from the field.
“They’re like opposite ends of the spectrum because last year I won by a lot of shots and I shot low and nobody really had a chance, and this time I was behind by 2 with three holes to play and also in jail off the tee,” he said. “I was behind by like 2-plus shots and I gutted it out. I did a lot of everything, including making some putts at the key moments. 16, 17, and 18 were just some of the best putts that I’ve ever made in my career and I’ll never forget those. Those are the kind of things you really build on. Makes me really happy.”
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com
Featured image Stewart Cink courtesy of the PGA tour
