Cink Visceral Reaction Update - Am I Alone in This?

During Morning Drive’s postmortem on Rory McIlroy’s performance, a question was raised about the last “non-Tiger” feel good story of this magnitude. Erik & Gary were racking their brains, and kept defaulting back to 1986.

All I could do was think about “almost” story from Turnberry in 2009.

The 5 minutes between Tom Watson’s perfect drive on 18 and his missed 8 foot putt still represent the worst emotional crash I have experienced as a sporting spectator. Nicklaus in 1986 would have felt like a quaint story compared to seeing a 60 year-old Tom Watson holding the Claret Jug.

I was already in a vulnerable state from watching Mickelson lose his story-book ending at Bethpage to Lucas Glover a few weeks earlier. For 71.5 holes, I thought the Golf Gods giving me my redemption. And then Cink rolled in a seemingly meaningless birdie bomb and ripped it away.

Immediately, I developed a visceral hatred of Stewart Cink. It wasn’t a personal thing, as I used to like Cink for years. But any image of him took me back to that July afternoon, and I involuntarily blurted out “Screw You Stewart Cink! I hope you’re happy for crushing Golf’s soul!”

Am I alone in this?

And now my emotional growth and ability to move on is being tested by a series of Dove commercials. Well, let’s see how I’m doing. Let’s see another image.