‘A very fine tapestry’: Cink’s RBC Heritage win is new chapter in an old Lowcountry story
You all know the famous Hilton Head Island tapestry.
It’s mostly red with some whites and blacks woven in to create a clash that hurts the eye.
It’s the tartan jacket given to the winner of the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, Hilton Head’s PGA Tour event.
But last Sunday, when Stewart Cink slipped it on beside his wife, Lisa, and their sons Connor and Reagan on the 18th green at Harbour Town, few knew that the late-afternoon sun was lighting a tapestry much richer than even the winner’s $1.3 million check.
This year, that old Scottish tapestry came with a wonderful Lowcountry lilt.
The story involves golf clubs bought at a pawn shop, a club called the Sarge, an unplanned pregnancy, breast cancer and a deep faith that God is a lot more relevant than the so-called fan who shouted to Cink as he began his day on Sunday: “Don’t choke!”
PUGGY BLACKMON
About 35 miles inland from the famous finishing hole at the Harbour Town Golf Links in Sea Pines lies the Sergeant Jasper Country Club in the outskirts of Ridgeland.
You might say they’re 35 lightyears apart, but there’s a tight link between the Sarge and Cink’s long journey to becoming the unlikely 47-year-old Heritage champion.
The Sarge is where the man who gave Cink his first big break in golf learned the game.
Puggy Blackmon was in the generation of Ridgeland kids to benefit from men like Fred Ducey, the veterinarian; Freddie Nimmer, the Chevrolet dealer; and Gary Tate, the county agent in Jasper County, who got on tractors and shoved enough Lowcountry sand around to fashion a nine-hole course.
Blackmon used to caddie for Freddie Nimmer, whose grandson Bryson played in this year’s Heritage. He paid $1 for 18 holes, plus 25 cents to shag balls when he warmed up in an open space near the second green that served as the “driving range.”
“I caddied 36 holes to buy my first two Beatles single records,” Blackmon said. “I caddied in the morning and afternoon for two and half bucks.”
The kids watched the old men, and somebody did a count in the 1980s and said 13 golf professionals and eight superintendents came out of that one little club.
“We never really had what I’d call a real golf pro there, so we kind of learned by digging it out of the dirt,” Blackmon said.
And then there was the golf instructional book by the most forgotten great in golf history, Lloyd Mangrum. Google him. His heroism on D-Day helped “Mister Icicle” put three-putts in perspective.
The book was in the bag when Blackmon’s father bought a set of H&B left-handed clubs at a pawn shop.
Puggy, a right-hander who took up the game with W.D. Blackmon’s left-handed clubs, milked that into a hall-of-fame career as golf coach at Georgia Tech and the University of South Carolina.
Blackmon gave Cink a scholarship to Georgia Tech.
He ended up helping him in a way far greater than golf.
GEORGIA TECH
Cink comes from a working-class family in Florence, Alabama.
His parents took him to the golf course even before he can remember because he thinks it was cheaper than hiring a babysitter.
His golf lessons, he says, were taught by the course, and the scorecard.
This endeared him to Blackmon, the son and grandson of S.C. Electric & Gas linemen in Jasper County.
“Stewart grew up fairly similar to my upbringing,” Blackmon said. “They were a little bit more affluent than we were in Ridgeland.”
Blackmon said it wasn’t easy for Cink’s family to get him around to the junior tournaments, where he became a highly recruited player for college coaches.
“We were fortunate to get him.”
At Tech, Cink joined a team with David Duval, the future top-ranked player in the world.
Cink won three ACC championships at Tech, and the team was once national runner-up.
“Stewart,” Blackmon said, “was just a very good kid. He got the job done, and you didn’t have to remind him or tell him or whatever.”
That was interrupted by the coach’s greatest decision in Cink’s young life.
“And then, I think it was right after his sophomore year that he and Lisa ended up getting married and they had a child, and I’ll never forget Stewart coming in the office to tell me what had happened,” Blackmon said.
“And he told me (Lisa was pregnant) and then he said, ‘We’re getting married.’ He told me later, ‘My dad said you were going to kick me off the team.’
“I just looked at him and I went around the desk and shook his hand. I said, ‘You know, hey, you’re doing the right thing, and we’ll get it done.’ ”
BREAST CANCER
Getting it done meant that the Tech locker room, which never smelled great, soon added the aroma of dirty diapers.
Baby Connor’s parents were both full-time students at Tech. His mom was also working, and his dad was traveling with the golf team.
“To be honest with you, I think that’s when Stewart developed into the player he became,” Blackmon said.
“The thing is, he didn’t have a lot of time. I mean he had a family and didn’t have a lot of money, so he had to manage his time. I think he had to grow up real quick, and that was a transformation he made, and by his senior year he was the top player in the country.”
Reagan, their second son, came along a couple of years later. He’s the one who famously caddied for his father at the Heritage, the two of them — both Tech graduates — smiling and chatting like frat brothers trying to beat Gary Tate for the club championship over at the Sarge.
Connor, a Clemson graduate, flew in for the final round of the Heritage after his dad did something no player has ever done by opening with back-to-back rounds of 63. Both boys have gotten engaged in the past year.
Lisa was shown often on TV, following her husband and son at the rope line.
Her bout with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2016 was often mentioned.
After nine chemotherapy treatments that year, she was able to go with her husband to a tournament on St. Simons Island.
She told a reporter there, “Obviously it’s been really difficult, but it’s really strengthened our faith in the Lord, it has strengthened our marriage, and it has strengthened our relationship with our boys, and that’s been a huge source of good. There’s been a lot of good, and so many blessings.”
THE MASTERS
Cink said on Sunday after winning the Heritage that golf is not the biggest thing in life to him. Faith is.
The old coach was at the Masters helping David Duval when he, too, saw that side of Cink.
Cink invited him to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast in Augusta, where he was to be the keynote speaker.
The local paper quoted Cink as telling the crowd, “People are obviously looking at you when you make an eagle, when you’re on TV, when you’re in the Top 10, when you win the Masters. They’re looking at you. But what about when you’re in 50th place, or you’re packing your stuff on Friday? They’re still looking at you, but it’s then that they see who you really are. I believe that glorifies God, too. Both ways.”
Blackmon said all his players became part of their family, and faith was part of it.
“We’ve been pretty spiritually grounded for a long time, thank goodness, because of great parenting,” Blackmon said. “My wife, Gail, and I, the first time we met was at the age of 3 in the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church nursery in Ridgeland.”
About that day in Augusta, Blackmon said, “One of the things, as a coach, is that there are times you can see the tangible results of your effort. It was like, wow, you know, he’s really got it together.”
He said the same thing about seeing the Cink family standing together at the Harbour Town 18th, Lisa wiping a tear from her eye.
“I think Stewart, to be honest with you, is just starting to really come into his own and starting to realize that, Hey, I can play.”
He sees it as one of life’s odd turns.
“It’s like what I tell people as I’ve gotten older, now just recently turning 70, that I’ve been able to look back at my life, and it’s an incredible tapestry of things that happen. Everything’s woven together, but I have come to where I don’t believe at all in coincidence.
“I look back, and every player I’ve had, and the people I’ve met, and the people who have helped me along the way, how does a kid from Ridgeland, South Carolina, from a nine-hole golf course, end up having the opportunity to go around the world, to work with and be around the top players in the world, to be at the Masters with a player for several years who was in contention to win, and to now at 70 have a player at 47 winning?
“What’s so glaring to me is that it’s a very fine tapestry of things that we go through, and some are great and some are not so great, but you know what, it is an incredible plan that was put together long before I ever started down this road.”
David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.