Stewart Cink capped the 86th Senior PGA Championship with one of the finest rounds of his career, closing with a 9-under 63 at The Concession Golf Club in Florida on Sunday to win his first PGA Tour Champions major by six strokes.
The 52-year-old finished at 19 under for the week, well clear of runner-up Ben Crane, who ended on 13 under. Cink's final round set a new course record at The Concession and capped a flawless weekend performance that never looked seriously threatened.
Asked to put the win into context, Cink said the round ranks among his best as a professional.
"It's really satisfying to win my first Major on the PGA Tour Champions," Cink said. "Today was just one of the best rounds I've played as a professional golfer. It was just really good."
The 2009 Open Championship winner credited his composure in the final round for the margin, saying he did not allow himself to think about the outcome until the closing holes.
"I stayed in the present. I didn't let myself get ahead," Cink explained. "I just kept playing the shots, disciplined shot after disciplined shot, and executing those shots well."
It is Cink's seventh PGA Tour Champions title since he moved to the senior circuit in August 2024, and his third victory of the 2026 calendar year. On the main PGA Tour he collected eight wins, highlighted by his playoff triumph over Tom Watson at Turnberry for the Claret Jug.
Cink acknowledged the two major wins, separated by 17 years, were difficult to compare directly but said they carried similar meaning.
"It's hard to compare the two," he said, referring to his Open and Senior PGA titles. "My body felt different then because I was 36, and now I'm 52, but the level of satisfaction and validation feels the same."
Crane, Cink's closest challenger, was unable to mount a Sunday charge and settled for solo second. Several of the Champions Tour's biggest names, including previous Senior PGA winners, were well back after struggling with The Concession's firm greens across the weekend.
Cink had entered the week on a rich vein of form, and the Senior PGA win further cements his standing near the top of the Charles Schwab Cup points race. Since turning 50 he has developed into one of the most consistent performers on the senior circuit, a role he took some time to settle into after stepping away from full PGA Tour competition.
The 86th edition of the championship returned to The Concession for the first time in several years and produced historically low scoring throughout the tournament, with Cink exploiting the conditions on a day when the course gave up birdies on a course that normally defends par.