Ace not enough for Cink to make the weekend
AUGUSTA — Stewart Cink may not have made the cut Friday in the 86th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, but he is at least going home with a fond memory. Two actually.
Cink, the former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket playing in his 20th Masters, made a hole-in-one on the 170-yard, par-3 16th. It was his first ace in tournament play at Augusta, and the 24th at the 16th hole in the tournament’s history.
The 48-year old was also celebrating son Reagan’s 24th birthday.
The shot made for an easy, lowcost birthday present.
“I already got him the hole-inone,” Cink said. “That’s the extent of my birthday present. I gave him the ball. That should be enough, right?
“It was the same kind of hole-in-one you’ll see there on that hole over the years. It was up against the hill and it came right back down. The neat part about it was, as the ball got closer down to the hole, I knew it was going in because the patrons in the front left all were watching it online, and they knew it was in, and they all got up. When they got up, I knew it wasn’t missing, so that was cool. It was really neat out there.
“This golf course and the tournament, it’s just a wonderful environment anyway, so to have something like that happen was really something I’ll always remember, for sure.”
The ace also briefly brought Cink within sight of the cut line, which was 4-over par. He moved to 6-over with two holes to play, but the point became moot when he made bogey on the par-4 17th.
Cink shot rounds of 76-75 to finish at 7-over par, and he said his two-round total took a little of the shine off the ace.
“To be honest, I’d throw the holein-one ball right in the water if I could make the cut and compete for two more rounds, but I’m missing the cut,” Cink said. “That stings more than the hole-in-one. It doesn’t boost my spirits like missing the cut hurts my spirits. I absolutely loathe not playing here on the weekend, and it hurts.
“Although the hole-in-one was a really special moment, overall, I’m pretty bitterly disappointed. I had a good feeling about this week actually coming in, but it’s not going to happen.”