What could be the feel-good story of the year is unfolding at Augusta National Golf Club this week as Reagan Cink, caddie to seven-time PGA Tour winner Stewart Cink, returns to The Masters, Alabama Golf News reports.
Wait, what? Returns to The Masters? Who ‘s Reagan Cink?
In 1997, as his dad, Stewart Cink, then a PGA Tour rookie, was making his Masters debut, Reagan Cink was a one-day-old infant cradled in the arms of his mother.
On Monday of that week, on the third hole of his first practice round, Stewart got a cell phone call from his wife, Lisa, announcing Reagan’s imminent arrival in the world. Stewart immediately walked off the course and hot-footed it home to Atlanta to be with her for the birth.
The following Wednesday night, the newly expanded Cink family was back in Augusta. Stewart made his Thursday tee time, but the stress and lack of preparation took its toll. He shot 75-78 and missed the cut.
For the Cink family, that chaotic Masters has special meaning this week because Reagan, who started caddying for his dad last year, is on the bag at Augusta National. It is Stewart Cink’s 19th Masters appearance.
“If you look at the manual for parenting of a one day old, that’s probably not in there. I was kind of a mess, obviously, in a lot of good ways. But it was memorable,” the 2009 British Open winner told AlabamaGolfNews.com Editor Gregg Dewalt.
Reagan was on the bag last September when Stewart broke his 11-year winless streak at the Safeway Open in Napa. This week, the Cinks hope to enjoy the full benefit of the positives of their father-son, player-caddie dynamic.
Stewart makes clear he believes that Reagan, who postponed the start of a career with Delta Airlines to loop for him full-time, definitely is “not a ceremonial family caddie.”
“I played with him when he was 8, when he was 14 and when he was 18,” Stewart said. “Now he is an adult and his thinking is so mature.”
To read more of Dewalt’s exclusive two-part interview with Stewart Cink, visit this link.
Launched in March 2020, Alabama Golf News is the go-to online source for news about all things golf in Alabama, including the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. To reach Editor Gregg Dewalt to learn more about Alabama Golf News or to pitch a news release or story idea, email him at bamagolfnews@gmail.com.
