World Championship: For someone who had experienced a charter flight straight out of the "holiday-from-hell" variety, Stewart Cink was remarkably chipper as he relaxed, at last, in the courtyard at Mount Juliet yesterday.

In fact, having endured a miserable transatlantic trip that involved two fuel stops it was almost as if the world's number nine-ranked player had discovered salvation in getting to hit golf balls again.

After finishing runner-up to Vijay Singh in last Sunday's Lumber Classic in Pennsylvania on the US Tour, Cink was one of those who took up the offer of a charter here for this week's WGC-American Express championship.

On arrival at the airport, however, the promised 747 turned out to be an older 737 which necessitated fuel stops at Goose Bay in Canada and a second one in Iceland, where matters were compounded by a problem with the air conditioning.

Still, Cink, who also suffered the inconvenience of an additional four-hour stoppage in Iceland for repairs, managed to complete what turned out to be a 19-hour journey from Pennsylvania to Co Kilkenny.

"That's in the past now, we got here," he quipped. And, with no evidence of jet lag, he was one of the earlier players to hit the course for practice yesterday, completing the front nine before taking a break.

"It's in fantastic shape," conceded Cink, winner of the WGC-NEC Invitational last month, before warning: "But, if it's not windy, I can see some very low scores. The greens are smooth, with a lot of flat putts."

As a member of the defeated United States team at Oakland Hills, Cink doesn't believe an American win in this week's championship will offer solace.

"No, this is totally different, it's individual," he said. "If you look at the majors or the World Golf Championship events over the past few years, the American players have played better than the Europeans. There's no redemption by one of us winning here and saying 'take that for the Ryder Cup'."

Certainly, Cink did a darn good job of overcoming the Ryder Cup blues by teeing up last week and finishing second to the rampant Singh, who is unfortunately absent this week due to the hurricane damage suffered to his house in Florida.

"I almost feel like I won, the way Vijay's playing. There is a lot of similarities with the way that Tiger was playing a couple of years ago. There are no mistakes being made, and if you give him any room at all he's going to take it.

"Vijay's the real man that's made it. Tiger, you almost feel like he's blessed with this ability, it's phenomenal. Vijay has gone the way of (Ben) Hogan. He has worked hard, and gotten everything out of his ability."

Of that defeat at Oakland Hills, Cink remarked: "We didn't play well, our whole team. Everybody was just really disappointed, because we know if we'd played well, we could have won. The public and the media has been pretty harsh on us, especially on Hal (Sutton).

"He done the best he can. It's easy to look back and say he should have done this or that. The players are the ones who have to go out there and put the ball in the hole, and we didn't do our job well enough."

Was he surprised at how well the Europeans did play?

"Not at all. They always play well in the Ryder Cup, it never surprises me at all."

What's not surprising is how well Cink has played over the past month, the Ryder Cup apart.

"I was playing really well right before it. Hal noticed, and that's why he picked me (as a wild card). There's one glaring week where I feel I didn't perform that good and that was at the Ryder Cup. I'd really like to do it over again, and hopefully I can."

For now, Cink will attempt to win back-to-back World Golf Championship events. If he does, he'll become something of a rarity. Only Woods and Darren Clarke have managed to win more than one WGC title.