ORLANDO – After missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship in August, Stewart Cink was driving home with his wife, Lisa, when he told her that he had something he had been wanting to talk about.
“I think it might be time,” he said.
Time to close the door on his PGA Tour career, which spanned four different decades. Cink joined the Tour in 1997 and has made 689 career starts, notching eight wins and nearly $44 million in career earnings. But at age 51, Cink was on his way to finishing No. 173 in the FedEx Cup and he decided it was time to say goodbye to a Tour that has become increasingly younger.
“I was like, you know what? I’m grinding my butt off, and I like the grind; It’s like my favorite part of doing this. I like it,” he said. “But I’m grinding to earn myself the right to be back in this exact same position next year trying to make the top 125 except it is only going to be the top 100.
“I love playing the PGA Tour, but I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m such an outlier out there age wise. It’s just not as much fun. If every day was Thursday through Sunday, if it was just the competition, I’d still be doing it. But practice rounds, the range, locker room, dining, at some point, you got to be around your folks and my folk are on the Champions Tour. So I told my wife, ‘I think it’s time to switch over.”
Time to commit to PGA Tour Champions, the over-50 circuit, where Cink should be a threat to win senior majors and the Charles Schwab Cup.
“And she’s like, I do too,” Cink recounted Lisa saying. “Whenever we talked about the Champions Tour, she had always said, ‘You’re still PGA Tour material,’ but this time she’s like, ‘I was thinking the same thing.’ She said, ‘I am so on board with you in that.’ So feels right.”
Cink, who is competing this week alongside son Connor at the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, played in 11 events on the Champions Tour this season, earning his first victory at the Ally Challenge among nine top-10 finishes.
“It’s not easy out there by any stretch,” he said. “You’ve got to do more than play just good golf to win.”
Cink played only one PGA Tour event – the RSM Classic – during the FedEx Cup Fall and essentially let his exempt status on the junior circuit lapse. He still will have past champion status on the PGA Tour to get into a number of events and still has a one-time career exemption in his back pocket that he can use down the road should he change his mind. Would he have made this decision now had he been selected as U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2025? Likely not. But the first few years after turning 50 are usually the most bountiful on the senior circuit, and Cink is ready to make hay.
“I have this window and I don’t want to look back and say I didn’t take advantage of it,” he said. “I’ve got a chance to maybe do something really good over there. So, I’m moving on. I’m ready. I feel great about it and I’m excited.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Stewart Cink will play on PGA Tour Champions circuit in 2025
