Stewart Cink walked off the 18th green at Greystone Golf and Country Club on Sunday with another senior major to his name, capturing the 2026 Regions Tradition after a fast start gave way to a gritty weekend grind.
The 2009 Open champion was 14 under through 36 holes and rolling, but conditions tightened as the week wore on. "Golf is always harder when the air dries out, and it dried out and got a little bit windy on the weekend," Cink said in his post-round interview. "It's not obvious, but when the humidity drops in the air, it changes the turf a little bit and everything just gets a little bit crispy and a little bit more difficult to score. And that's what happened. The scoring average just shot up, and especially yesterday."
Sunday brought the trickiest test of all — swirling winds that made club selection a guessing game and turned a comfortable lead into something he had to work for. "Today was tricky too. But it was probably the kind of day where it was going to be hard for a lot of people to come from way behind," Cink said. "It was tricky enough out there today that the golf course was going to prevent a lot of people from just making like a massive rush towards the top, and that played into my hands."
He acknowledged he didn't play his best round of the week, but stayed within himself. "I didn't play great today, but I played a lot of good shots and I was within myself. All in all, any score in the 60s stays pretty good. There wasn't a lot of birdies, but kind of like a US Open last round — you just want to navigate."
Cink credited his caddie, Chris, for the disciplined approach that kept him out of trouble. "Chris my caddy and I, we always try to say let's choose the easiest shot, and we work really hard to figure out what that is on every shot. We don't take any shots off, and that was what we did today. It played into our hand very well."
Looking back at the leaderboard, Cink admitted appearances were deceiving. "It felt in the end looking back, it felt kind of like an easy run to the trophy. It sure wasn't. Every shot felt like work. The golf course made us earn it, and I'm proud to do it."
He carried a two-shot lead into Sunday over Colin Montgomerie's group, and was respectful but unsparing when asked about the Hall of Famer chasing him. "No offense to Colin, but we competed against legends like that every day out here," Cink said with a smile, before nodding to Montgomerie's longevity in his 60s.
The win adds another marquee result to a senior career that already includes the 2025 Charles Schwab Cup. With multiple PGA Tour Champions majors now on his resume, the 52-year-old Georgia native has firmly established himself among the elite of the over-50 circuit.
For a player whose 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry earned him a place in golf history — and who once famously denied Tom Watson a fairytale ending — Cink continues to write a productive second act in Birmingham.
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/stewart-cink-regions-tradition-2026-pga-tour-champions-major). Visit for full coverage.*
