Stewart Cink What's In The Bag?

Stewart Cink What's In The Bag?

Stewart Cink is an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, two of which came in 2020 and 2021 after a gap of 11 years since his 2009 Open Championship victory. What clubs does the American put in his bag each week? Let's take a look. Previously a Nike staff player, Cink became an equipment free agent after the brand stopped making clubs in 2016. Over the next couple of years he would continue to play without an equipment contract but that changed at the beginning of 2019 as he signed a multi-year contract with Ping. He had been playing their clubs for a while but in January it became an official relationship.

Stewart Cink What's In The Bag?

Driver

Ping G425 Max

The deal sees Cink play at least 11 Ping clubs but right now it appears, excluding his wedges, all of his clubs are made by the brand. He starts out with the G425 Max driver (opens in new tab) and it has 10.5 degrees of loft and a Graphite Design shaft. It is with this driver, and some minor swing adjustments, that he has seen a big increase in distance as last season he went from 113th to 27th in driving distance. One of these changes was to move his ball position so that he could use a lower-lofted driver than usual. 

Fairways

Ping G425 Max, Ping G410

Cink then uses a Ping G425 Max three-wood (opens in new tab) along with a Ping G410 seven-wood. They have 15.5 and 19.75 degrees of loft and interestingly have completely different shafts. The three-wood has a Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green shaft whilst the higher lofted model has a Accra FX 2.0 360 M5 shaft. We usually see professionals have differently weighted shafts in their fairway woods but seeing a completely different model is not as common as you would think. 

Irons

Ping i210

He has an interesting iron setup at the moment. He carries a Ping i210 (opens in new tab) three-iron, leaves a gap where the four-iron would be and then uses i210's from five down to the U-Wedge - otherwise known as the gap wedge. Admittedly this does seem to change as we have seen him compete at some events with the four-iron in the bag but we think we see him more without it. Very few players out on Tour have this gap with Billy Horschel (opens in new tab) another who does so. We are yet to confirm why but we can assume it is something to do with distance gapping. 

Wedges

Titleist Vokey Design SM8

Now we come to the only clubs that are not made by Ping. Cink only has two specialist wedges in the bag, both Titleist Vokey SM8 (opens in new tab)'s, because he uses the U-Wedge from his set of i210's. His SM8's have 56 and 60 degrees of loft. 

Putter

Ping Vault 2.0 Ketsch Stealth

Finally he has a Ping Vault 2.0 Ketsch Stealth putter which has been in the bag for a long time now. Cink has had his putting troubles in the past and this model seems to help right now, but he also uses little technical things and mental fortitude to help him hole more putts, especially up close to the hole. “If I told you the truth,” he said, in a Golf.com piece by Michael Bamberger (opens in new tab). “It doesn’t get any easier. I work so hard on the mental side of the game. As you get closer to the hole your expectation level changes. It’s not a linear change. Short putting I try to be rock-solid on my routine and trust the process. I know some of those putts are going to lip out, and that sometimes you’re going to look silly, you’re going to feel bad. And you have to expect and plan for that, and move on.

“If you spend your whole career or your whole tournament bracing for something like that, hoping it doesn’t happen and trying to hide it, then you’re going to be devastated when something like that happens at the wrong time. I’ve missed my share.”

Ball

Titleist Pro V1x

Cink is one of many top professionals to use the Titleist Pro V1x ball (opens in new tab). A ball that received five stars in our review, the Pro V1x is an excellent all-rounder, as you would expect. We were particularly impressed by the improved ball flight in the long game which didn’t come at the cost of any short game control or feel.

Shoes

FootJoy Pro/SL Carbon

Finally Cink also wears a pair of the FootJoy Pro/SL Carbon golf shoes (opens in new tab). The Carbon version of the shoe got five stars in our review because it is arguably the best golf shoe money can buy. Across the board the performance is top-notch and to be honest we are surprised more professionals don't use the shoe. 

Full Specs

Driver: Ping G425 Max (10.5 degrees) with Graphite Design Tour AD XC 6 TX shaft

3-wood: Ping G425 Max (17.5 degrees at 15.5) with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green 70 6.5 shaft

7-wood: Ping G410 (20.5 degrees at 19.75), with an Accra FX 2.0 360 M5 shaft

Irons: Ping i210 (3, 5-UW) all fitted with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 Raw (56-08M, 60-04L) with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

Putter: Ping Vault 2.0 Ketsch Stealth

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Shoes: FootJoy Pro/SL Carbon