Stewart Cink carded a 2-under 69 on Saturday to remain atop the leaderboard after two rounds of the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Ariz.
Cink peaked on the back nine, where he racked up four of his five birdies on the day. He also settled for three bogeys during his round, but his 11-under 131 for the tournament is good enough for a two-stroke lead over South African Retief Goosen (66 on Saturday) and Joe Durant (66).
Even though he managed to stay ahead of the rest of the pack, Cink wasn’t completely satisfied with Saturday’s performance.
“I wouldn’t characterize today’s round as solid. It was a lot more scrappy than yesterday,” Cink said Saturday. “Where yesterday I got a couple of good breaks in the rough or maybe off in the desert once or twice, today was the other way around. I had to battle a lot more and made a few bogeys, made a few birdies.
“All in all, I still like where my mind and my heart are for competing out here. It’s been a fun week and I’m looking forward to (Sunday).”
Goosen and Durant both climbed four spots up the leaderboard thanks to their second-round performances. Goosen turned in a clean front nine that featured three birdies, then picked up an eagle at the par-5 11th.
After bogeys at Nos. 12 and 13, Goosen collected three pars and two birdies to close his round.
“I got off to another nice start, the front nine has been good to me,” Goosen said. “Nice eagle putt on 11 from, I don’t know, about 40 feet away. Then two really bad bogeys coming in, but was nice to get a couple of birdies coming in and giving yourself a chance for (Sunday).”
Durant got off to an even faster start, going for birdie at the par-4 second and eagle at the par-5 third. He then sandwiched a birdie between two bogeys but had just one bogey — at No. 18 — the rest of the way.
In total, Durant collected six birdies.
“Very up-and-down round. I played well at the beginning, kind of shaky in the middle,” Durant said. “The later part — towards the later part of the round kind of got some good things going again, but then I finished kind of shaky.”
Golf hasn’t been the only thing on Durant’s mind this weekend, as he is playing for his nephew who passed away from cancer last year.
“To see the survivors out here, the people who are still fighting it, fighting it with all they’ve got, is so inspirational to all of us,” Durant said. “It’s just great to be a part of it.”
Canada’s Stephen Ames and Kevin Sutherland each fired a 7-under 64 on Saturday to share low-round honors. That moved them into a six-way tie for fourth.
Germany’s Alex Cejka (65), Steve Stricker (66), Ernie Els of South Africa (66) and Billy Andrade (67) sit alongside Ames and Sutherland in fourth.
–Field Level Media