2022 Masters: Stewart Cink Creates Magic On 16

Friday at the 2022 Masters was full of memorable moments, from Tiger Woods’ resilient round to make the weekend at Augusta National, to Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka’s epic collapses to miss the cut.

That was just part of the story of the second round, later in the day on Friday a titanic roar could be heard around the course. The roar wasn’t for Tiger Woods, though he had plenty of his own, it wasn’t for Rory McIlroy, nor Jordan Spieth. The eruption of volume was for Stewart Cink.

Stewart Cink sent the 16th hole at the Masters into a frenzy on Friday

The 48-year-old PGA Tour veteran didn’t have the best of tournaments, but for one spectacular moment on Friday, he created magic. Stewart Cink struck his tee-shot on the par 3 16th already knowing that he was likely to miss the cut at Augusta National this year. But what he didn’t know was that he was about to create his own little moment of history in a matter of moments.

His tee-shot flew over the water and landed safely on the green to the right of the flagstick, it then proceeded to roll some 30 plus feet down the green at a leisurely pace. The ball kept on curving as it inched closer and closer to the cup, it took one final roll and found the bottom of the cup for yet another historic ace on the 16th.

The crowd erupted as Stewart embraced his caddie, who also happens to be his son Reagan. It was the ninth recorded ace on the 16th since 2016. The hole, which is known as Redbud, has seen its fair share of hole in ones throughout the years. It has produced the most aces of any hole at Augusta National and in total has been witness to twenty-three hole in ones throughout the history of the Masters.

“No, it was the same kind of hole-in-ones you’ll see there on that hole over the years. It was up against the hill and it came right back down. The neat part about it was, as the ball got closer down to the hole, I knew it was going in because the patrons in the front left all were watching it online and they knew it was in, and they all got up. When they got up, I knew it wasn’t missing. So that was cool. It was really neat out there,” Cink described when talking about the ace after his round.

It also happened to come to fruition on Reagan’s birthday, which was also today. Stewart Cink made reference to this and joked that the ace was his son’s present for the day.

“I already got him the hole-in-one. That’s the extent of my birthday present. I gave him the ball. That should be enough, right?” he joked.

He had qualified for this year’s Masters after finishing 12th at Augusta in 2021. Stewart Cink also won the RBC Heritage last year which also made him eligible for this year’s Major.

Although Stewart Cink won’t be around for the weekend, after he strung together two rounds of 76 and 75 for a tally of seven over par for the week, he will certainly be able to look back upon his magical moment on the 16th for the rest of his life.