His goal: Scoring in the 50s this year
Stewart Cink started his 2026 season the same way he ended 2025 – with a victory.
The former Florence resident and reigning PGA Tour Champions Player of the Year, held off Angel Cabrera and a host of other players late Saturday to win the Mitsubishi Electric Championship by three shots in Hawaii.
Cink posted a three-shot win, firing a final-round 64 to finish at 23-under 193. Cabrera, who was within a shot for most of the final round, finished at 196. Cink pocketed $340,000 for the win. He was coming off a win in the Charles Schwab Cup championship in December, the last time he played in an official event.
Cink won three times in 2025, but said his most recent win isn’t necessarily a validation of his player of the year campaign. It was Cink’s fifth win in 37 Champions Tour events and his first Mitsubishi title in three tries. He led the field with 24 birdies and driving distance (312.2 yards).
“I don’t think validation really applies here because a good season like last year kind of validates itself to get voted in, but I wanted to come out here this year and start hot and not work my way into the season,” he said. “I’m not going to play for almost two months now, so it really meant a lot to come out here and play well. You have to make a lot of birdies, and sometimes the first tournament of the year is not the easiest place to make a lot of birdies, but I was able to this week. Played really solid.”
Just one bogey in 54 holes
Cink made only one bogey in 54 holes, and that came in the second round. But it was a key par saver in the final round that sparked him to the win after entering the final 18 tied with Freddie Jacobson at 15-under.
“I hit a poor shot off of 8 and left myself in really kind of an awkward spot,” he said. “Made about an 11-foot par putt, which was big. To see that ball go down and then 10 minutes later to hit probably the most difficult iron shot of the day [on No. 9] straight into the wind with a 6-iron, to hit it to three feet was — all in all, it looked like I was probably going to play those three holes 1-over. I played them 1 under, so it was a real boost.”
Cink followed with a birdie on No. 10 on his way to 64.
“That moment on the eighth hole was key to keep the momentum going,” he said. “You know, had I missed that putt I probably wouldn’t have crumbled or anything, but it did, it did give me a lot of confidence and I made some good putts following that one on the back nine, too.”
Before the 2025 season, Cink stated one of his main goals was to win the Charles Schwab Cup title. Earlier in the week, he mentioned that he wants to attain the holy grail of golf scores – breaking 60. It didn’t happen this week, but he’s off to a good start regardless.
“The year is young and I didn’t shoot in the 50s yet, but I think part of the idea is that in order to have that kind of mindset, you have to keep the pedal down, you have to play aggressive, you can’t back up, you can’t protect,” he said.
“You just have to take on a sort of aggressive, attacking mindset out there. While it didn’t yield any rounds in the 50s, it did yield some really low rounds and a pretty comfortable win on the last few holes. All in all, I’m really pleased with the way I played. It’s a low-scoring affair out here when the wind’s not howling and we just happened to shoot a little bit lower than the rest.”
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
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Featured image: Golf Channel
