Two weeks after claiming his first PGA Tour Champions major title, Stewart Cink has put himself into position to collect his second.
Cink, 52, fired a 7-under-par 65 on Friday at Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., to take a two-shot lead over Charlie Wi halfway through the 72-hole Regions Tradition.
Cink sits at 14-under 130, which puts him three ahead of South Africa’s Retief Goosen, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Czechia’s Alex Cejka and five beyond New Zealand’s Steven Alker.
For the second day in a row, Cink stacked eight birdies versus one bogey.
“I made a long putt on 17,” Cink said. “Had a couple two-putt birdies, a couple pretty simple up-and-downs. It was really nothing for the history books, it was just some good play. The golf course is really receiving the ball really well. You know, the greens are soft, but they’re not spinning back that much so it’s really, it’s very scorable out there.”
Cink, who grew up 120 miles northwest of Birmingham in Florence, Ala., will have a bigger gallery following him this weekend because he’s so close to home.
“And it has nothing to do with being on top of the leaderboard,” Cink said. “They were already coming, so I’m glad they’re going to be here. I’m going to have some of my north and central Alabaman friends and family here the rest of the weekend, so that will be great to see them and hopefully give them something to cheer about.”
Goosen joined Cink and Ken Tanigawa as the only players in the 77-man field to deliver a 65 on Friday. Goosen, though, wasn’t satisfied with his performance.
“If you can drive it well on this course, you’re going to have a lot of short irons in,” Goosen said. “The greens at the moment are just perfect, but today I missed a lot of fairways in — a couple of really wild ones. Going to go hit a few now and try and see if I can smooth it out.”
Wi enjoyed a spectacular start on his way to a second consecutive 66. He opened his round on the back nine and began with five consecutive birdies, which the 54-year-old believed to be a first in his career.
“‘ve been hitting my irons really well,” Wi said. “I’ve been hitting them pretty close, so I (gave) myself a lot of opportunities, and I was able to make a couple putts.”
