Weekly Recap: In Cink

The charge from my RotoWire editors is to write about fantasy golf. But sometimes things happen in sports that transcend the final score. That's exactly what took place over the past four days at famed Harbour Town Golf Links, where 47-year-old Stewart Cink and his caddie son put on a dominating -- and heartwarming -- display.

Cink blitzed a loaded field at the RBC Heritage to win for the second time this season with son Reagan on the bag. Talk about 'Take Your Kid to Work Day.' They also won at the Safeway Open back in the fall in the tandem's debut together. With the RBC Heritage a complete runaway, the scenes of the two of them smiling and joking throughout Sunday were special to see.

"Everything in between the shots, walking on the fairways, hanging out," the 23-year-old Reagan said when asked by Amanda Balionis what the best part of the week was. "We talk and we plan the shots and we got a system and all that, but it's the time we get to spend joking around walking on the fairway. It's awesome. It's the best. It really is."

Remember, that's the kid talking, not the father. My son is eight and barely wants to hang out with me.

And If anyone thinks this is some nepotism thing, Papa Cink set everyone straight on Friday: "He has the same amount or more than any other caddie I've ever had. He's not just my son caddying, he's a professional caddie doing an excellent job. He could caddie for any player in the world right now.

"He understands the game plan. He understands golf really high level. He's a good golfer, but he thinks about golf way higher than his about scratch handicap would indicate."

That concludes the family portion of this article. Onto fantasy …

What Cink is doing now is pretty special -- not just for a 47-year-old but a golfer of any age. He opened with twin 63s in setting 36- and 54-hole scoring records for the tournament. He lapped the field by four strokes. He is one of only two two-time winners this season, joining Bryson DeChambeau. He zoomed from 115h in the world rankings to 44th -- his highest standing in more than a decade. He's also the fourth player 47 or older since 1960 to win more than once in a PGA Tour season, joining Sam Snead, Julius Boros and Kenny Perry -- who did so twice, lastly in 2009.

Get this: Cink is now ranked first on Tour in greens in regulation, as important a statistic as there is in golf. Further, at an age when many golfers are well into their "yips years," he's ranked 66th in Strokes Gained: Putting. That's one of his best putting ranks in the past decade. With those two numbers, this is a guy who can be in the mix often.

To wit, Cink also has seven top-25s this season, including a tie for 12th last week at the Masters – so he was already going back to Augusta next year before this win. But this second victory in one season also gets him into the U.S. Open in June without the grind of 36-hole qualifying. He hadn't been there since 2017. 

Of course, Cink is going to the Open Championship, as well. He was the bad guy when he beat a really old golfer, 59-year-old Tom Watson, to win at Turnberry in 2009. The Open had been his last win before the Safeway Open. He'll also be at the PGA Championship, making this the first time since 2014 he will play all four majors in the same calendar year.

With the two wins, Cink has now secured his card past the age of 50, when he becomes eligible for the Champions Tour. But it's pretty clear he is not limping toward the senior cash grab. It's pretty incredible to play at such a high level when you've been on the PGA Tour more than a quarter of a century -- which, by the way, is longer than Reagan has been on Earth.

We knew this isn't the first time the Cink family had won a tournament together. But it turns out it wasn't even the second. The Cinks also won the famed Father/Son Challenge in 2013.

Only Stewart didn't play with Reagan but with older son Connor, who wasn't even a golfer! 

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Harold Varner III
The tie for second was Varner's best finish ever on Tour, and he moved into the top 100 in the world rankings for the time, soaring all the way from 139th to 73. This was his first top-10 all season, but it was his sixth top-25 in 15 starts, meaning he has often returned significant value for his backers. In fact, it's hard to see how this was only his first top-10 -- Varner was ranked 30th in SG: Tee-to-Green coming into the week. Plus his putting isn't terrible with a ranking of 121st. That all suggests his golf has been better than his results. Stick with him.

Emiliano Grillo
Grillo is an excellent iron player -- he ranked third on Tour in greens in regulation coming into the week -- so whenever he can get anything out of his putter, watch out. And across four rounds, he ranked 31st in the field in putting. That added up to a tie for second, his best finish since another tie for second at the 2018 CIMB Classic. This is Grillo's eighth top-25 in 18 starts, which means he usually justifies his fantasy price.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
The Englishman tied for fourth, his best result this season and among his best ever on the PGA Tour. This has already turned into by far Fitzpatrick's best season in the States, even if he still hasn't been able to notch that elusive first win. This was his fourth top-10 and sixth top-20 since late February. Many Euros have had trouble winning on the PGA Tour, and Fitzpatrick sure is one of them. But for fantasy purposes, these high finishes week after week after week certainly add oomph to your lineups.

Corey Conners
Is there a sweeter swing in golf right now? Conners looks so effortless every time he swings. It's a marvel to watch. And it is paying off, too. Conners tied for fourth, meaning he has four top-8s in his past six starts. We all know he is a world-class ball-striker. But he's now up to 63rd in SG: Putting, which is a remarkable turnaround. Conners finished outside the top 175 in putting the past three seasons. He's now up to a career-best 38th in the world rankings.

Maverick McNealy
The 25-year-old notched his second top-5 result of 2021, with this tie for fourth nearly matching his Pebble Beach runner-up. And thus he has cracked the top 100 for the first time, landing at an even 100th in the latest rankings. McNealy has an impressive seven top-25s, but he has also missed seven cuts in 16 starts. The highs and lows are to be expected of a young player still trying to find his footing on Tour. If you can stomach the wide disparities, there have been good payoffs from McNealy this season.

Chris Kirk
Kirk has had a great comeback season. But he did not have a good history at Harbour Town. No matter, he tied for seventh, showing that his great season could wind up even more special than it already is. This was Kirk's fourth top-10 and eighth top-25 already in 2021 alone. Kirk is up to 62nd in the world rankings and is closing in on the top 50.

Russell Henley
Henley made a nice move on the weekend to tie for ninth and record his fourth top-10 this season. He is all about strong iron play. He led the RBC field in SG: Approach and is ranked third on Tour for the season.

Dustin Johnson
Johnson shot a 67 on Friday and a 66 on Sunday, leading to a tie for 13th, which is actually his best career finish in six career visits to Harbour Town in his native state of South Carolina. But he also closed with three straight birdies in garbage time to make the result look better than it was. Johnson has been slumping lately and, while it's probably only a matter of time before he comes around, the world No. 1 has now gone five events without so much as a top-10.

Matt Wallace
Wallace closed with a disappointing 73 to tumble from the top-5 at the start of the day to a tie for 18th. But he should be pleased that his game has been coming around with a third top-20 in his past six starts.

Will Zalatoris
Zalatoris is becoming a must-write guy every week no matter his result, and there aren't many of those. He was good for three rounds, but then a closing 73 dropped him to a T42 finish. It was his ninth week playing in the past 11, so maybe fatigue finally set in. It's too much. Many guys would've missed the cut, maybe even half on purpose. Zalatoris will be sitting out the Zurich Classic this week, giving him a much-needed rest.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay has a win, a runner-up and a third already this season. He's also missed the cut in three of his past four events. The RBC is one thing, but also THE PLAYERS and the Masters? It's probably nothing worry about with Cantlay other than this being the peaks and valleys of a long season. Probably.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood missed the RBC cut. It was only his third in 11 PGA Tour starts this season (though the other two were the U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS). It's not the missed cuts, it's the lack of high finishes. If you don't want to give full weight to a T5 at the Match Play (and we don't), you are left with one top-10 and two-top-25s. Fleetwood is still ranked in the top-25 in the world, but that's mostly on the strength of high finishes in lesser Euro events. He's also 114th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning the playoffs are far from a sure thing.

Sebastian Munoz
Munoz missed the cut for only the fifth time in 19 events this season. And he has finished top-25 in half of his 14 cashes. That's certainly excellent. But … his season has been strongly front-loaded, meaning the bulk of his good work was done during the fall season. He has only three top-25s since the calendar flipped 3 ½ months ago, one of them being in the limited Tournament of Champions field.

Paul Casey
This was a bit of a surprise. Casey had missed only one cut in his past 18 worldwide starts before missing at the RBC. He had been playing great for months. So let's treat this as an aberration.

Kevin Kisner
Funny, we're not hearing calls for Kisner to be on the Ryder Cup team these days. He missed the cut for the fifth time in only 13 starts this season, and now the best part of his game – his putting – isn't working. He experimented with a new grip at Harbour Town. In fairness, that may take time. But he's missed the cut in three of his past four events – and the only aberration was the Match Play, where there is no cut and where as defending champion he couldn't make it out of Group play. He's now ranked 38th in SG: Putting after being in the top-20 four of the past five seasons. And he's also fallen to 42nd in the world rankings, his lowest position in more than two years.

Doc Redman
Redman is 23 – close in age to many of the young stars who have burst on the scene in the past few years. But while he shares some of the amateur and collegiate pedigree with them, it hasn't transferred into success on the PGA Tour. Redman appeared to be coming around last season thanks to laser-like iron play. But this season he's taken some big steps backward. He's missed half of his 14 cuts, including at the RBC, where he shot an opening 81 and finished tied for 130th in the 134-man field. Last season, he was ranked 11th, 12th and 13th in SG: Approach, greens in regulation and driving accuracy, respectively. This season, he's 65th, 96th and 99th. It's really hard to roster Redman right now in any format.