Bethesda, Maryland – Stewart Cink looked into the leaderboard late in the third round of Saturday’s Senior PGA Championship, flashing back to his youth for him and many other well-known players in the mix.
“It feels like a major out there,” Sink said. “All those names there were successful.”
Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera were one of the first people tied up in the final round, a group where Cink and Lee Westwood had one stroke back and two backing up groups such as Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh and Ye Yang. 11 golfers who were either leads or close to leads combined to win 13 major championships.
“The people there are people who have a lot of experience,” Cabrera said after reaching 5 under for the tournament. “Most of them are in many majors and you can see it.”
Goosen has two US Open Championships on his resume, and Cabrera should go with the 2009 Master. Harrington won the British Open in 2007 and 2008, and Sink in 2009, and Singh won two PGA Championship wins and another in the Masters.
Over the past decades, this kind of sustained victory has helped them prepare those people for windy conditions at the Congressional Country Club, which hosted three US Opens and one PGA Championship.
“All people who really did it on the tough golf course – hard golf courses really seem to get up to the top and grind it a little bit more than a certain player,” said Goosen, who shot a 4-under 68 to soar the leaderboard. “I definitely grinded it.”
Harrington went to the right of the kart pass in the afternoon’s start when the opening tee shot was inevitable. The 53-year-old from Ireland bounced back from the 18-year-old’s struggle and fought for himself.
“I’m happy to be back with the two-shot,” Harrington said. “To be honest, I didn’t think much about my round. I just tried to play. There’s something good about playing each hole in the wind.”
“This kind of wind is aimed at young people,” joked Sink, now 52. But he and his contemporaries mostly handled it without the third round falling off the rails. Ernie Els, the under-3 lead two-inning back on Thursday, had two straight rough rounds, shooting 4-over-76.
“The course is really tough and it’s especially windy,” Sink said. “There are all holes, there are places you can’t go. You need to know where it is, you have to carry out your game plan. It’s just a major championship golf.”
Some of his best plays in the PGA Champions Major came from lesser, less-than-less golfers, such as Philip Archer and Jason Carron, who matched Goosen and Cabrera at 5 under.
Caron has been paired with Harrington, and it was even more likely that for club pros at Mill River Club on Long Island, he felt he wasn’t surrounded by a star-studded cast.
“A year ago, I would definitely say, ‘Oh, this won’t happen,'” Caron said. “Now I’ve played 20 events, so I feel more comfortable.”
Archer, who played for a long time on the European Tour, said this is why he spent so much time in his life in driving range blows that hit the driving range after the ball – playing against things like Goosen, Cabrera, Sink and Harrington.
“I grew up watching these guys win tournaments and majors. Yes, you’re in their company. You have to tell yourself you belong there,” Archer said. “I’m there in the credits and I’m playing something nice.”
Archer hopes the wind will continue on Sunday. The forecast says that far fewer means gusts of winds will be required, and could bring more golfers into an already crowded conflict.
“If the wind isn’t strong, there’s a lot of people out there. Someone is going to shoot a 66, 65,” Harrington said. “If it’s a good day (Sunday), you have to expect someone to shoot a good score.”
