Stewart Cink birdied his final hole to tie Germany’s Alex Cejka for the lead after one round of the Regions Tradition on Thursday in Birmingham, Ala.
Cink won the first major of the PGA Tour Champions season, the Senior PGA Championship, two weeks ago. Now he’s in prime position to contend for the second.
He and Cejka shot 7-under-par 65. They hold a one-shot advantage over South Korea’s Charlie Wi, Australia’s Scott Hend and New Zealand’s Steven Alker.
“I was excited at how boring today was. Does that make sense?” Cink said. “It wasn’t like the kind of day where you’re chipping in and holing putts, dramatic stuff happening everywhere.”
Cink, 52, did get off to a quick start by birdieing the first three holes of Greystone Golf & Country Club. After picking up his only bogey at the par-5 fifth, he bounced back with birdies at Nos. 8, 10, 11 and 13 before two-putting for birdie at the par-5 18th.
“It’s a systematic way to approach the golf course. I love this style of golf,” he said. “This is one of my favorite things about the puzzle of golf is doing these systematic approaches and sticking to it and letting the results just sort of happen. We’re staying in the process so much that the results are almost like sneaking up on us.”
Cejka set the clubhouse lead earlier in the day with a bogey-free, seven-birdie round. He played his first nine, the back nine, in 5-under 31.
“There’s certain courses, they fit the players’ eyes,” said Cejka, who won the Regions Tradition in 2021. “I’ve been playing here well in the past and today I played solid. I didn’t really make stupid mistakes. I putted well when I had birdie chances. And when you see the leaderboard, the guys are going low so you’ve got to — if you have a birdie chance, you’ve got to take advantage.”
Wi, Hend and Alker combined for 18 birdies and zero bogeys across their cards.
Tied for sixth at 5-under 67 are Dicky Pride, Irishman Padraig Harrington, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee. Another shot back at 4-under 68: Retief Goosen of South Africa (last week’s winner at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic), Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen, South Korea’s Y.E. Yang, Harrison Frazar and Canada’s Stephen Ames.
Defending champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina opened with an even-par 72.
