Cink or swim

By Harry Emanuel Last updated: 4th August 2010

During a great week of racing at 'Glorious Goodwood', Blazer, the Headmaster and I had the first tee time at Goodwood Golf Course. It's one of my favourite courses with a wide variety of holes that meander through and over the valley behind the racecourse offering some outstanding views across West Sussex to the Isle of Wight.

After a good start we were on target to beat Ian Poulter's score of five over for the thirteen holes he played in the previous weeks English PGA Pro-Am until the hangover began to kick in.

I blame it all on a nearby Hotel who keep the bar open all night for residents. Only six hours earlier Blazer was swaying from side to side demanding they re-open the bar even though he couldn't remember his room number which was not surprising as we weren't staying there.

After a quick walk down the corridors to check the room numbers I informed them authoritatively we were in room eight and with that they happily served us.

In the morning I felt a pang of guilt and returned to pay the bar bill. The receptionist asked me if I wanted to check out and have breakfast. I said no to checking out but thought it's dangerous to play golf on an empty stomach.

I may be a little poorer and the kidneys a little weaker but fortunately we have an intriguing couple of weeks of golf ahead of us to sober up and fill the coffers.

At this week's Bridgestone World Golf Championship in Akron I always have a short list of the same players - Woods, Z Johnson, Donald, Cink and Appleby.

Tiger is the undisputed 'King of Akron' with seven wins from just eleven appearances and normally you'd put your house on him but form figures of 4-mc-w-19-3-46-23 are hardly inspiring.

I don't think his long game is in bad shape. If anything it seems to be coming round but he has two major shortcomings at the moment.

He's not hitting the ball close enough to hole and his short game is very poor. The PGA Tour have him languishing 93rd and 166th in the putting and scrambling stats. These are the two key areas of the game that have always separated him from the rest.

He hasn't looked convincing with his chipping this year and he changed his putter for the first time in nine years at the Open which is a surefire sign his confidence is low.

Tiger is not finished by any means but I don't think we'll see the best of him until his 'Monty' (golfing term for expensive divorce) has been settled and he can fully concentrate on his golf game.

At the odds the man I like the look of is Stewart Cink. Before he won the Open last year we used to say he only wins the week before majors and this is a great week for him to get back to his normal winning ways.

The pressure of trying to retain the Claret Jug is over and after a few weeks chilling out I expect him to be focused. On his Twitter on Tuesday he said, 'Settled into Akron, OH tonight after a very long day. I've got good memories here, so time to get on a good roll and have a little fun!'

Recently his game has been improving and he's been hitting the ball long, straight and hitting a lot of greens which is crucial this week. Hopefully his putter will warm up on greens where he won in 2004 and just got turned over by Tiger in a play-off in 2006.

At the Open Cink said, 'It's coming around. It hasn't been great this year. This year hasn't really been a good year for results on the course. I seem to have got worse before I started to get better. But lately I've been playing a little better and seeing more of a spark in my game, and you know, it's very similar to last year where I really had nothing going at all until, boom, Turnberry. I'm hoping this year we can say - Boom, St. Andrews.'

The 80/1 is more than a fair price and hopefully by Sunday night we can say, 'Boom, Akron.'

Harry Emanuel