Stewart Cink Says He’s Ready to Captain the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup Team (If Tiger Woods Passes)

Speaking at this week’s PNC Championship, Cink, who has played in five Ryder Cups, said he enjoyed being a U.S. vice captain at the Ryder Cup in Rome and hopes to continue to be involved.

Tiger Woods appears to be the obvious choice to be the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain.

But if the 15-time major champion declines the position for 2025 event at Bethpage Black in New York, Stewart Cink is ready to take the job.

“I do want to be the captain and think I can be. But with all due respect to Tiger Woods, I think it’s up to him,’’ Cink said in an interview at the PNC Championship. “I haven’t been told anything. And no one has mentioned one thing to me. But I know I can do it. And I know I would love to do it. Especially after being an assistant at the last Ryder Cup.

“Knowing what it’s like to be there again after having basically nothing to do with the Ryder Cup—not by any choice of my own—for the last 13 years … to get back into it, really got my juices flowing again.”

Cink has played in five Ryder Cups in his career :: Matt Krohn/USA TODAY Sports

Woods was the winning playing captain at the 2019 Presidents Cup and assisted Davis Love III in his ’16 Ryder Cup captaincy while also being an assistant to Steve Stricker at the ’17 Presidents Cup. He last participated in a Ryder Cup when he played for the U.S. in ’18.

He was not at the 2021 Ryder Cup nor this year’s event in Rome and he sidestepped questions about being the next Ryder Cup captain two weeks ago at the Hero World Challenge.

“Right now there’s too much at stake with our tour to think about a Ryder Cup right now,” said Woods, referencing his role as a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board and its attempt to strike a deal with the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. “We have to get this done and we have to be focused on this right now. The players and everyone involved understands that this is an issue we need to focus on.”

The European side has already named Luke Donald to return to a second captaincy after the resounding 16½ to 11½ victory at Marco Simone Golf Club. The PGA of America typically names its captain in the spring, which suggests the timing could be some time before the 2024 Masters.

Cink, 50, played in five Ryder Cups but after playing for the last time in 2010 was not part of it again until this year when captain Zach Johnson picked him to be one of his vice captains.

Like all who were involved on the U.S. side, he’s still struggling with the enormity of the defeat.

“It’s been tough trying to figure out what the heck happened,” Cink said of the U.S. losing all four opening sessions and falling behind by five points—the final margin of victory—on the first day. “The first session, the team, captains, we thought we had such an iron-clad lineup. … And we didn’t. But I don’t think it was really lineup-related. For some reason, our guys came out and didn’t play like we were ready to go out there and take the thing home. Europe did.

“They were just somehow ready to go, and our guys weren’t as ready. I don’t know how. I’ve thought about it a lot and what I’d do differently if I could do that Ryder Cup over again. I would change a couple of things, and it had nothing to do with Zach. If I ever got a chance to captain overseas, I’d definitely want to have some long meetings with the PGA about some things.”

Asked to elaborate, Cink said: “I don’t want to talk about the details. It’s nothing groundbreaking. I just want our players to be ready and to hit the ground running over there. And to be mentally and emotionally freed up. You almost have to be freed up to lose. Feel like it’s O.K. to lose. Europe seems to play like they think it’s O.K. if they don’t win. And it helps. And it makes them free and let it all go. I remember when I played I felt like I had something to lose. I’ve been there.”

Cink, who won the 2009 British Open and has played both the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions this year, was an assistant to Johnson along with Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Love. He’s the only one in that group who has never been a captain for either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

But Cink said he doesn’t believe it was done to groom him for the job. “Zach is probably my best friend out here,” he said. “He saw it for that and we trust each other with stuff and talk about a lot of different things.”

Cink said he’s heard nothing from the PGA of America, although he didn’t expect to at this point. And he reiterated that Woods deserves every consideration for the job first.

“He should have the first right of refusal to do it for the next two [Ryder Cups] if he wants it. Both of them,” Cink said of the 2025 event at Bethpage and the ’27 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland. “What are we worried about? Breaking some tradition? If Tiger wants to have it, that’s great. I just want to be part of it. I’m throwing my hat in the ring.

“I think he probably does want to do it. He was heavily involved with us. He really was into it. I don’t know if he feels he should be doing it or can be doing it. Just the natural burden that comes with it. I got a little glimpse into it with Zach.”