There’s something about golf tradition that brings out the best in Stewart Cink. He won the oldest major, the Open Championship, in 2009, and on April 19 he won the 86th Senior PGA Championship, the oldest major on the 50-and-older tour.
Cink didn’t just win the Senior PGA, he was a runaway champion thanks to a course-record, 9-under 63 for a six-shot victory over Ben Crane at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.
Cink shot 19-under 269, one shot off the tournament record. It was Cink’s fourth victory in his last six starts, this one his first senior major title. The most difficult challenge for Cink during Senior PGA Championship Week appeared to be lifting the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy, all 32 pounds of it, after his scintillating performance.
“It means a lot to me to be attached to a trophy like this,” said Cink while admiring his shiny hardware. “The majors just have a little bit more history behind them. There are more rounds. The golf courses are usually set up a little bit more testing and exacting, like The Concession. Then there’s more players you have to beat.”
It took Cink about 15 minutes during one stretch in the closing round to seize control. He was two shots out of the lead when he teed off on the par-5 seventh hole. The longest hitter on the PGA Tour Champions eagled No. 7 – needing just a 7-iron to reach in two shots – and birdied the eighth to take a two-shot lead.
A lead he would never lose. A lead he padded with five more birdies.
It wasn’t just his long game that won the senior tour’s oldest major. It was his feathery touch on The Concession’s devilish greens.
“The ball kept finding the hole. It liked what I was doing today,” Cink ex plained. “When I worked on my putting Saturday night, I wasn’t searching; I was trying to refine. I started playing more break, and it worked.”
Cink said it was a 10-foot par putt he made on the fifth hole that helped ignite the stretch where he played eight holes in 7-under. He kept finding birdies and his caddie, Chris Jones, never had to change pencils (meaning Cink didn’t make a bogey).
While Cink didn’t actually have the lead until the 61st hole of the 2026 Senior PGA Championship, it still seemed like domination.
“We definitely got our champion that we wanted, the guy who was playing the best golf,” said Crane, who shot 68 on Sunday to finish runner-up. “Nine-under on this golf course, that’s doing everything well – making putts, flushing iron shots, correctly missing the penal areas around the green. Nine-under is special around here. You’ll probably never see it again.”
Scott Hend appeared to be in control Sunday, making four early birdies to take a two-shot lead before Cink’s torrid stretch. Hend responded with birdies at the ninth and 12th holes, but double bogeyed the 16th to finish tied for third with Steve Allan (71) at 11-under. Hend was trying to become the second Australian to win the Senior PGA Championship (Peter Thomson was the first in 1984).
The 2022 Senior PGA Champion, Steven Alker, shot his third consecutive 68 to tie for fifth place with Pat Perez (69), making his first start since leaving LIV Golf, and third-round co-leader Keith Horne (75).
Thammanoon Sriroj, a 56-year-old Thai who shocked the golf world by getting into Sunday’s final pairing, double-bogeyed the first hole and bogeyed the second to quickly fall five behind. He shot 76 and tied for 12th place.
Corebridge Financial Team member Justin Hicks, PGA, finished tied for 17th with a 5-under 283 (for more on Hicks and the Corebridge Financial Team members who made the cut, see the next story).
Meanwhile, Cink earned a spot in last month’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia. When asked to compare the history-laden majors he won 17 years apart, he hesitated.
“My body felt a little different,” he said. “I was 36 and now I’m 52. But the level of satisfaction and validation feels the same.” —Craig Dolch
Editor’s note: The 2027 and 2028 Senior PGA Championships return to The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.
