October 7, 2009–Stewart Cink made a quick stop in Las Vegas this past weekend and brought a special guest with him: the Claret Jug he earned by winning the 2009 British Open. And a few of those that were able to view the jug included the teaching professionals at the Butch Harmon School of Golf, where Cink spent some of the weekend in a private teaching session with Las Vegas resident Butch Harmon. Harmon was the first person to be thanked by Cink when he won the Open. The Butch Harmon School of Golf is located at Las Vegas golf course Rio Secco Golf Club.
Harmon pro Matt Kilgariff posted a blog about the experience with Cink at ButchHarmon.com along with photos of him and his fellow Harmon pros with Cink and arguably golf's most notable hardware. "This past Sunday was a great day at the school, Stewart Cink–the 2009 British Open Champion–flew in for a practice session on his way to San Francisco for the Presidents Cup," wrote Kilgariff. "The school was closed for the day so we were able to observe he and Butch for the entire session. Stewart is one of the nicest individuals you could possibly meet and it is a great learning experience for us any time that we get to observe Butch working with his top students."
Cink credits Harmon for adding a ton of distance to his game over the years, and has commented that Harmon unleashed his inner talent. "I feel like I'm at my best with a guy like Butch Harmon, because he's taught me a lot about the swing and the short game and everything," Cink has said. Cink is a member of the United State Presidents Cup team that takes on the International team this weekend at Harding Park in Northern California.
Cink, an ardent Twitter tweeter, posted the following glimpse of his time in Las Vegas before heading to the Presidents Cup venue: "Hello San Jose!" Cinked tweeted Sunday evening. "(Private) outing tomorrow then on to Presidents Cup. Spent three windy hours with Butch in LV today." Cink also added a tweet about the Harding Park course a couple of days later: "First practice round today at Harding Park. Great course. I believe it's the beat Municipal I've ever played. Torrey Pines 2nd." Cink will be back in Las Vegas in November as a member of the PGA Tour team that will compete in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge to be played at Rio Secco.