The Loop
Curtis Strange: Steve Stricker might regret decision to not play British Open
By John Strege
Will Steve Stricker come to regret the decision should he elect not to play in the British Open in two weeks? Curtis Strange suggested he might.
(Getty Images photo)
"After all, you're a golfer, what else are you going to do? I didn't go to the British Open a couple of times and I should have," Strange told Reuters at Gleneagles, site of the Ryder Cup this year. "It is my greatest regret and I've always admitted it. I know I should have come over but I didn't.
"Official money in the States means a great deal to our careers, to our status on our own tour. We try to make Ryder Cup teams, we try to do this, that and the other, and we need to play in the States to do that. But I hope [Stricker] and whoever else doesn't come over, doesn't have that regret.
"The only thing I hope is that one day when he is in his rocking chair he doesn't say, I wish I would've done this or that. That's not a good feeling.'"
Stricker, 47, is playing in the Greenbrier Classic this week and the John Deere Classic next week, but remains undecided on the British Open the following week.
"I'm leaning on not going," Stricker said Wednesday, a position he re-iterated on Thursday. "That is my gut instinct right now. It will be a lastâminute decision, probably. See how I play this week and even next week to some extent. But, yeah, I'm leaning on not going at this time.
"I guess the only thing that would sway me to go is if I play really well, and I make some good Ryder Cup points and I move up that list. Right now I'm pretty far down that list. But if I do something special here this week or next week and get a lot more points, then I would probably go.
Stricker is semi-retired, having scaled back his playing schedule considerably. He played only 13 tournaments in 2013 and is playing only his eighth in 2014.
Charles Howell III, meanwhile, was one of 10 alternates added to the British Open field, yet has opted not to play.