Cink claims four stroke victory

Stewart Cink maintained his composure to register an even par final round score of 70 for a four-shot victory at the $7 million WGC-NEC Invitational on Sunday, his second win of the season.

Selected for this year's Ryder Cup by captain Hal Sutton on Monday, Cink justified the decision by playing the steadiest golf over four rain-affected days and let his pursuers make the mistakes in trying to catch him.

Cink led after every round and finished the tournament on 11-under-par 269, well clear of world number one Tiger Woods, who retains the top ranking, and South Africa's Rory Sabbatini in a tie for second.

With a final round of 66, Davis Love III finished tied for fourth at six-under-par along side Argentina's Angel Cabrera.

Bob Tway, David Toms and Chris DiMarco finished at five-under-par, six shots behind the winner.

The 31-year-old Cink started the day with a five-shot lead over Ryder Cup team mates Toms, DiMarco and Woods but was never threatened by any of his main contenders. Sabbatini was the only player in the chasing pack to make a significant move, reaching the turn at two-under-par 33 and narrowing the lead to just two shots with a birdie on the 14th.

"After I saw I was only two up, it's not like I had a talk with myself or anything," Cink said.

"I just stayed with my plans and made aggressive swings the rest of the way. I figured I was going to have to go out and win this thing instead of not losing it."

The South African could not keep up the pace and after he missed a nine footer for par on the par-three 15th to fall three shots behind, Sabbatini would never get any closer.

"It's a huge win for me," Cink said.

"My confidence is at an all time high in my career right now. It means so much to me to win in this style, starting with the lead and re-pairing every day and all these rain delays.

"It just seemed like I played about five tournaments this week because there was so much going on."

With his win Cink may have fully recovered from a bout of self doubt that had it's low ebb at the 2002 U.S. Masters.

Cink at the time was worried about everything he did on the golf course, from the shot over water to a three foot putt.

It eventually got to a point when he needed the assistance of a therapist and this victory is a product of that work.

"You know, it's too much to ask of a person to perform under that kind of stress and add all this sense of self on top of it," Cink said.

"It's psychoanalyst mumbo-jumbo, I guess, but I've really gotten to a place where I'm accepting of my mistakes. Out there today I was just prepared to accept any of those putts not going in."

In April, Cink won the MCI Classic following a playoff against Ted Purdy, and his latest victory is the fourth in his eight year PGA Tour career.

By finishing ahead of Vijay Singh (283) and Ernie Els (293), Woods ensured that he will retain his number one ranking for a 263rd consecutive week.

"I wish I would have won the tournament," Woods said after his first runner-up finish of the year.

"The number one ranking always takes care of itself with wins, and that's one thing I've always believed in. Greg (Norman) went through the same thing.

"If you win, it takes care of itself. I was trying to win a tournament this weekend and I just wasn't able to do it.

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