A well-known winner achieves a rare feat at the Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour

Coming into the 2024 edition of the Valspar Championship, PGA Tour‘s Valspar Championship, Stewart Cink was not predicted to compete at the famous Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.

But after shooting 69 and 67 in the first two rounds, the 50-year-old was tied for the lead at 6-under after 36 holes, which was the seventh time he's had at least a share of the lead at the halfway point in his career.

In addition, by making the cut for the weekend, Cink became the eighth player in PGA Tour history to have made 500 cuts, a milestone he did not realize he had reached until someone informed him.

“I didn’t know about that until somebody told me a little while ago, but I guess milestone would be, you know, appropriate language to use,” Cink stated after his second round on March 22.

“I’ve been playing out here a long time, and I’ve had some ups and downs, but a lot of ups. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself. To make 500 cuts, I think that’s pretty respectable, I guess. I know a lot of players are celebratory when they reach 500 events. So to be able to put that number on your cuts made, I’m proud of that.”

If Cink, who currently splits his time between the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions, can win the Valspar, he’d make a little more history as he’d become just the fifth player since 1975 to win a PGA Tour event after turning 50.

Stewart Cink Is Just the 8th Player in PGA Tour History With 500 Made Cuts

After making cut No. 499 at the Sony Open in his 2024 PGA Tour debut, Cink missed out on No. 500 by missing the weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale.

But in career start No. 677 at the Valspar, Cink sealed the deal. As mentioned, he’s only the eighth in history to achieve the rare milestone. Here’s a quick look at the complete list per the PGA Tour Media Guide.

To put into more perspective just how impressive this milestone is, Jack Nicklaus, considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time, fell five short of 500, making 495 cuts in 584 career starts on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods, typically the only other option in the GOAT conversation, hasn’t even appeared in 500 PGA Tour events. He has teed it up in 374 official events and made the cut 338 times, including a record 142 in a row during a stretch from 1998 to 2005.

Cink Would Be Just the 5th Player to Win a PGA Tour Event After Turning 50

While it may be hard to believe, Cink, who last visited the winner’s circle at the 2021 RBC Heritage, has just as many PGA Tour victories over the last four years as 30-year-old Jordan Spieth, each of whom has two.

But while Spieth missed the cut at the Valspar, Cink still has a shot to pick up career win number nine, although it will be a tall task with such a jammed leaderboard. He didn’t do himself any favors with a rough third-round 76.

But as mentioned, if Cink can somehow find a way to come back and pull it off, he’d become just the fifth player in the last five decades to win a PGA Tour event after turning 50. The most recent to do so was Phil Mickelson, who at nearly 51 years old, became the oldest player to win a major by winning the 2021 PGA Championship just a few weeks before his birthday.

Here’s a look at the full list.