Stewart Cink runs away with four-stroke victory at The Ally Challenge

Golf is a game that can produce a wide-ranging variety of surprises. And then there are days that produce the expected and the inevitable – think manicured greens at Augusta National, or Rory McIlroy belting 330-yard drives, or postcard-worthy sunsets at Pebble Beach.

Stewart Cink was a champion Sunday night on PGA TOUR Champions, rolling to a relatively easy triumph at The Ally Challenge presented by McLaren at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Perhaps the only surprising aspect of Cink’s accomplishment is that it took him until his 10th start among the over-50 circuit to get across the line.

An eight-time winner on the PGA TOUR as well as a major champion (The Open Championship, 2009), Cink began Sunday with a three-shot lead at Ally and only grew stronger as a perfect late-summer afternoon unfolded in Michigan. He made six birdies and no bogeys in shooting his second consecutive 6-under 66, a round that carried the 51-year-old to a four-shot victory over K.J. Choi. Cink sealed his bogey-free weekend by getting up-and-down from 62 yards for par at the 18th, winning with style points.

Cink’s 54-hole total of 17-under 199 tied the tournament scoring mark set by Joe Durant in 2021. Cink earned $330,000 for his victory, moved to 19th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings (in only six starts), and afterward said that fans of PGA TOUR Champions can expect to see a lot more of him this fall.

Cink became the third first-time PGA TOUR Champions winner of the season, joining Ricardo Gonzalez (Trophy Hassan II) and Richard Bland (KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship). This is a place where he is comfortable competing. A new home.

“It feels like it's a new hurdle to get over,” Cink said. “It’s a new chapter in my competitive life, and I would probably tell you that I thought I might have won before now. This is about my 10th event, and I hadn’t gotten one yet. So it feels good to get No. 1.”

Cink, who spent most of his summer competing on the PGA TOUR, has had his openings on PGA TOUR Champions. In five previous starts this season, he had finished outside of the top 10 only once.

His best shot at winning had come in March at the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, where he squandered a four-shot lead in the final round with an uncharacteristic meltdown. There, he played his final 12 holes in 5-over, a stretch of golf that included a triple bogey and three bogeys, leaving him head scratching and deflated. Joe Durant would win. Cink vowed things would be different the next time he got into contention, though certainly at Warwick Hills on Sunday, the nerves were there.

“I’m not going to lie – I definitely had the memories from Tucson earlier this year,” Cink said. “I think any human being would. But I was really proud of myself (for) the way I stayed in the present. I stuck to my game plan.”

Cink first had to withstand an early push by Choi, who in July secured his first senior major, winning the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie. Choi came out flying and birdied three of his first four holes, and with Cink starting out with four casual pars, soon the two were knotted at 13 under. Cink said Choi’s hot start gave him a needed push (“It freed me up to play aggressively,” Cink said). He answered with birdies at five (25 feet), seven (4 feet) and nine (7 feet) to build his lead back to two shots.

Choi, 54, made five birdies in the round, but none after the par-4 12th. He had some good looks coming in, but could not convert birdie putts at 13, 14 (after hitting it to 4 feet), 16 (three putts from the collar) and 18. Cink birdied both par 5s on Warwick Hills’ back nine, reaching 13 with a 5-iron and 16 (hybrid) in two shots. His birdie at 16 padded his commanding lead to four.

“It’s nice to be one of the younger players for a change, and use some power,” Cink said. “I still hit it pretty long, and the golf course was giving up some roll.”

Mike Weir, strengthened by strong support from just across the border in Canada, had a great day with his irons en route to shooting 64 to finish alone in third. Competing for four-plus hours offered him a nice escape. After the round, Weir, 54, was off to watch the finish of the PGA TOUR’s BMW Championship, and soon will be making his captain’s picks for the upcoming Presidents Cup in Montreal.

Darren Clarke (67) finished fourth. A group at 9-under 207 included Bernhard Langer (who turns 67 on Tuesday), David Duval (who shot 65, tying his low round of the season), and David Branshaw, a Tuesday qualifier. Branshaw finished with 71, though a short par miss at 18 would cost him a tie for fourth.

Michigander Tom Gillis announced this week that The Ally Challenge would be his last event on PGA TOUR Champions, as he plans to step away from competitive golf. Gillis shot 68 and tied for 10th, his best showing of 2024.

More than 31 years ago, Gillis, now 56, played his very first round on the PGA TOUR, after Monday qualifying into the 1993 Buick Open. He made 188 starts on the PGA TOUR, and this week marked his 92nd start on Champions. Gillis had knee surgery earlier this season and has been hampered by mid-back issues.

"I had better focus today than I did the last three years on Tour," Gillis said, "I don't know why."

As one career ended on Sunday in Michigan, another had the appearance of taking flight. Having missed the cut at the season-ending Wyndham Championship on that "younger" tour that Cink still is eligible to play, he talked it over with his wife, Lisa, and believes this could be the perfect time to switch his allegiances over to PGA TOUR Champions.

“I'm not going to completely stop playing PGA TOUR events, but I feel like I have a home out here that needs ... I need to come and stay in my home,” Cink said. “I'm ready. I like it out here, it's fun and it's just a real blessing to be able to have this.

"To compete at over 50, it's awesome.”

And winning, for Cink, was inevitable.