Cink now feels he's worthy of ranking

CONFIDENCE is an ephemeral entity as much as an intangible one, but Stewart Cink is having no trouble these days feeling like he’s one of the best players in golf.

It was only last year at The Players Championship that Cink said he didn’t feel like one of the best players in the world, that he hadn’t justified what was then a fairly lofty standing in the Official World Golf Ranking.

On Sunday at the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational, Cink’s performance was the best in the game - just as it had been all week.

A mere six days after US captain Hal Sutton added him to the Ryder Cup team, Cink completed his second PGA Tour win of the year.

In becoming the ninth player in the 50-year history of professional golf tournaments at Firestone Country Club to post a start-to-finish victory, Cink in one week served notice that Sutton’s choice was not merely a good one, but that he may be the anchor of the US team that takes on Europe next month at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

“Being named a captain’s pick was a huge honour. I was very flattered by that,” said Cink, who shot a final-round, even-par 70 and 11-under 269 total to beat Rory Sabbatini and three-time NEC Invitational winner Tiger Woods by four shots.

“But since the Ryder Cup race was over at the PGA [Championship], I felt there was just a burden lifted and I was able to focus on what was at hand this week just for the tournament itself and the NEC rather than what’s going on with Ryder Cup races and that stuff. It meant a lot to me. It still means a great deal, and hopefully winning this week and being able to play great in the lead will carry over until Oakland Hills.”

The first wire-to-wire winner on tour this year, Cink, 31, earned a career-high paycheck of $1.2m and triumphed for the first time in seven attempts while holding the 54-hole lead. He entered the final round with a five-shot lead on Firestone’s penal South Course and never let the cushion dip below two strokes. It’s no wonder he said afterward that his confidence, “is at an all-time high.”

Cink, whose world ranking moved up from 24th to 11th in the Official World Golf Ranking, said, “To win like this and accomplish the goal today, which was to stay totally in the present, is just huge for me - I know I can be a front-runner just like anyone else, and I can polish it off.”