Golf:
The golf was exceptional for Stewart Cink. What made his third RBC Heritage title truly special was that his family was there to experience his age-defying success.
Cink hugged son Reagan, his caddie, after he closed out his four-shot victory at Harbour Town with a stress-free par on the lighthouse-framed 18th hole. Wife Lisa, their other son, Connor, and his fiancee, Jess Baker, were in the gallery cheering Cink’s second win this season.
“To have a posse like that waiting at the end to celebrate with,” Cink said, “it’s just an experience you don’t get to have in your life that often.”
Maybe the Cink family has more such joyous moments ahead with Stewart’s resurgence on the PGA Tour.
He shot a steady, stress-free 70 to cap off a dominant, record-breaking week at an age – 47 – when many players are looking ahead to the PGA Tour Champions.
Instead, it was Cink finishing four better than Emiliano Grillo and Harold Varner III. Grillo shot a 68 while Varner, who had the highest finish of his career, fired a 66.
The 30-year-old Varner took found plenty of encouragement in the man who beat him.
“He’s old and he’s kicking everyone’s (butt),” Varner said. “Yeah, it inspires me. It inspires me to know that I can play golf for a long time.”
Cink won for the second time this season – only he and Bryson DeChambeau have done that. He broke an 11-year winless drought in the season’s first tournament, the Safeway Open back in September.
That one seemed to come out of nowhere. But Cink backed it up with four more top-20 finishes, including a tie for 12th last week at the Masters.
The second win comes with a major perk – Cink earned an exemption into the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June. It will be the first U.S. Open since 2017 for the former British Open champion.
Hometown win for Stricker: Steve Stricker figured someone could come out of the pack with a low score and win the Chubb Classic, and it turned out to be him.
Stricker closed with a 5-under 67, taking control with a wedge into 3 feet for birdie on the 16th hole. That carried him to a one-shot victory in Naples, where the 54-year-old from Wisconsin makes his winter home.
The U.S. Ryder Cup captain won for the sixth time on the PGA Tour Champions, his first title since the U.S. Senior Open in the summer of 2019.
Robert Karlsson, who shared the 36-hole lead with Fred Couples, and Monday qualifier Alex Cejka each made birdie on the final hole to tie for second.
Ko wins with record 28-under: Lydia Ko is golfing like she is a kid again. In other words, she’s tough to beat.
No one came close at this week’s Lotte Championship. Ko torched Kapolei Golf Club and tournament records in the process. A final-round 65 Saturday left her at 28-under 260 and seven shots ahead of everybody.
Ko came up three strokes shy of the LPGA record of 31 under. That was set by Sei Young Kim, who finished tied with Inbee Park, 22-year-old Nelly Korda and Irish rookie Leona Maguire at 267.
Rohanna in top 30: Rachel Rohanna of Waynesburg shot a final round of 2-over 74 to finish in a tie for 28th place at the Symetra Tour’s Casino Del Sol Golf Classic.
Rohanna had 12 birdies and nine bogeys over four-day tournament.