Stewart Cink’s replica Claret Jug – spelling mistake and all – takes pride of place in his Atlanta home; now the 2009 Open champion wants to add the Joe Kirkwood Cup to his trophy cabinet.

A late withdrawal 12 months ago, Cink returns to Australia for the first time since the 2003 Australian PGA Championship at Coolum and is ready to go toe-to-toe with the brash new youngsters taking world golf by the scruff of the neck at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

Featuring in a marquee group in the opening two rounds alongside local favourite Adam Scott and West Australian young gun Min Woo Lee, Cink and his wife Lisa spent three days in Queenstown prior to arriving on the Gold Coast but will put any holiday vibes on hold from Thursday.

“I would like to leave here with a trophy, that’s the goal,” said Cink, a six-time PGA TOUR winner with close to $US38 million in career prize money.

“I’ve played golf a long time and I feel like if you set your sights highest and you really dial it in and try to achieve the best, you’re more likely to maybe get there. That doesn’t mean you will, but you’re more likely to.

“It’s been a long time since I had a trophy and since I won, and my wife is caddying for me this week, so that would be extra special to be able to deliver her the customary 10 per cent cut that a caddie would receive, and no more.”

Cink is one of a number of 40-somethings in the field this week defying father time, his wife’s battle with breast cancer that began in 2016 and is ongoing a reason to pause and reconsider his commitment to tournament golf.

“It opened my eyes a little bit and I dug around in some corners that maybe I hadn’t dug around in for a few years,” admitted the 46-year-old.

“It gave me a new sense of intensity and intention when I was out there practising every day and going through all the off the course things I need to do.

“The result was that it showed up in better scores and it gave me sort of this new confidence that I think I can compete and I can carry this all the way past my 50th birthday and who knows what happens after that.”

Impressed not so much by how far they hit the ball but the manner in which young players today assert themselves at the game’s elite level, Cink is adamant that he continues to hit the ball far enough to be able to compete and has the added bonus of experience on his side.

“I don’t see driving distance as being something that I’m wowed by by the young players. I’m more wowed by the seasoned nature of their ability to just play great golf when they first come out on Tour and no one knows their name,” said Cink, currently ranked 196 in the world.

“It used to be that there was two or three years of getting your feet wet out on the PGA TOUR before you even were considered to be ready for success and that doesn’t exist anymore.

“But you don’t have to be that long to be able to competitive, you just have to be adequate and I’m well more than adequate in driving distance.

“I don’t know if it’s equipment or if it’s just being smart about the way my fitness and my swing mechanics or what, but I haven’t really lost any. That’s not an issue for me.

“I feel like I’m playing as well as I’ve played in my whole career. And as I get older now, my perspective and my expectations probably are changing a little bit.

“But I feel like if you break down golf into the categories, you know, the short game and all that, I think that I’m playing better golf now than I’ve played any time in my career.”

As for that error on the most prized trophy in all of golf, Cink has absolutely no intention of having it corrected.

“The one funny thing about the replica that I probably shouldn’t tell you guys but Turnberry’s misspelled on my replica,” revealed Cink, who triumphed in a playoff over Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009, the replica inscribed with ‘Turnbury’.

“And everyone likes to say, ‘Oh, my gosh, you should have them change it’ but I don’t want them to change it because it’s an oddity.

“It’s the one-off thing and I just like the story.

“There’s no chance I’m going to change.”