HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC – Stewart Cink shot a steady, stress-free 70 to round off a dominant, record-breaking week that culminated in his third RBC Heritage title on Sunday.
Cink, 47, finished 19 under 265 in Harbor Town, 4 shots better than Emiliano Grillo and Harold Varner III. Grillo shot a 68 while Varner, who had the highest finish of his career, fired a 66.
Cink hugged his son and caddy, Reagan, after his last par on the 18th green. Cink, his wife Lisa and their other son Connor all put their arms around each other to celebrate.
“I don’t even know if I have the words,” Cink said.
He won for a second time this season – only he and Bryson DeChambeau have done – and continued his PGA Tour revival at a time when many pros of his age are looking ahead to the PGA Tour Champions.
Not Cink, who broke a 12-year winless streak at the Safeway Open in September and added five additional top-20 finishes, including a tie for the 12th last week at the Masters.
He won $ 1,278 million, nearly the same as $ 1,404 million for his two previous Harbor Town wins 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 did it twice, are the others.
Cink put on a show for all ages, smashing Harbor Town’s 36 hole lowest score of 13 under 129 shared by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. Cink also broke the 54-hole 16-under-197 score Justin Leonard had in his 2002 win.
Cink had a lead of five shots in the last round and dared to get all the pursuers to him. No one made a run on Cink, who led through at least 3 shots.
PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, in conjunction with Cink, opened with a birdie. But bogeys on the second and fourth holes took Morikawa out of the mix.
Maverick McNealy had five birdies on the front nine to climb to 14 under, 4 behind Cink, in the middle of the round. Successive bogeys on the 11th and 12th ended McNealy’s ascent.
Grillo and Varner came closest to 15 under and were only 3 back until Cink’s last birdie on the par-3 17th, making it almost certain that he would add another checkered winner’s coat to the one he won here in 2000 and 2004 .
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 claim his eighth career victory.
McNealy (67), the Canadian Corey Conners (68) and the English Matt Fitzpatrick (68) were fourth on 13th bottom. Morikawa slipped to seventh place after 72, level with Chris Kirk (67) at 12 bottom.
The best-ranked Dustin Johnson finished with his best round of the tournament with 66, finishing in tie for 13th place with 10 under. Johnson was the November Masters champion, but missed the cut there last week and never competed in Harbor Town.
“I just feel like I’ve made way too many mistakes,” he said. “Around here you make mistakes, they punish you pretty badly.”