Half Throttle

Tiger Woods' absence and Steve Stricker's first win since 2001 mark the rather quiet debut of the FedEx Cup playoffs

For Stricker and Mitchell (right), a birdie on the 72nd hole was the end of a long road back.

By John Hawlins

Photo: Suzy Allman

August 31, 2007

With its bulky field, deferred prize money, missing superstar and alarming shortage of Big Apple atmosphere, the PGA Tour's inaugural postseason made its long-awaited debut incognito: playoffs without payoffs. After bombarding pro golf's fan base for months with a seductive marketing campaign, after lobbying the game's endemic media with the promise of a four-week, 21-gun climax to its repackaged schedule, the tour's description of the FedEx Cup as a work in progress landed a few yards short of a green-light pin.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, as notable New Yorker Jerry Seinfeld would say. For all the hand-wringing over Tiger Woods' absence last week at Westchester CC, one can see how his victory at the PGA Championship locked up player of the year honors and, at least in the eye of the Tiger, reduced his motivational commitment to four consecutive weeks of grinding for retirement fund credit. Not that there's nothing wrong with that.

So the format could use a mulligan or two. Steve Stricker got a second chance, an opportunity that took its sweet time arriving and, much like the title he claimed last Sunday, is unlikely to depreciate over time. The tour's reigning Comeback Player of the Year but winless since early 2001, Stricker's winding career once symbolized the lack of consistency and depth among America's second-tier golfers. In the mid-'90s, he looked like he'd make a half-dozen Ryder Cup teams. As recently as 2005, he had long been forgotten, three consecutive years removed from the top 125, derailed by poor swing mechanics and his own motivation issues.

If you're looking for someone to root for in golf's rich-get-richer era, Stricker is an excellent option. His 16-under 268 gave him a two-stroke triumph over K.J. Choi and featured a terrific clutch performance down the stretch -- hearty vindication for faltering finishes when in the hunt at this year's U.S. and British Opens. Stricker has gotten nothing but better over the last 18 months, and in outlasting a small army of big names to make the Barclays his fourth tour victory, he leapt from 12th to first in the FedEx Cup standings (and from 14th to fifth on the World Ranking).

"I'm in a great position now, but there's still a long way to go, and we all know who's coming back next week," said a man whose perspective on the future is made much clearer by an unsettled past.

When Woods begins his postseason this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship, it will be from fourth place. Choi vaulted from fifth to second, and Rory Sabbatini from sixth to third, by virtue of the FedEx credit they received for chasing Stricker all the way to the 72nd hole at Westchester. The Korean's pursuit of a third victory in '07 was particularly feisty -- Choi holed 50-footers for birdie at the 12th and 15th, the first of which pulled him even with Stricker, the second to forge a one-stroke lead.

Long after he forfeited his standing as one of the game's top young players, Stricker, now 40, was always on everyone's short list of the tour's best long-distance putters. "He makes more 40- and 50-footers than any five guys combined," fellow Wisconsinite Jerry Kelly once marveled. What made this win so encouraging is that Stricker, whose ball-striking suffered to the point where a lot of those bombs were for par, did it with the other 13 clubs. He ranked T-11 last week in fairways hit, T-4 in greens in regulation and fourth in proximity to the hole. Oh, and T-2 in putts per round. A 12-footer for birdie at the 16th pulled him even with Choi. A sand wedge from 92 yards to four feet at the 17th turned into another birdie and sole possession. After Choi pulled his second at the par-5 closer into the back-left bunker, Stricker laid up, knocked another baby wedge to eight feet and cashed that one to finish birdie-birdie-birdie.

Here come the tears. "I've been with him through the tough times, the down times and the worst times of his career," said caddie Tom Mitchell, who got the job at the start of '01 because nobody else would accompany Stricker to the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Australia, a tournament far better known for its incredibly weak field than the Badger who won it. "My job was to change his attitude about the game. Steve was frustrated, and there are a lot of ways you can be affected by negative energy."

That's another thing about Stricker -- in a league full of good guys, they don't come any kinder or more likable. The only person he has ever beat up is himself, but there was a lot more to his downfall than personal loathing. Ten years ago, his first prime included some odd traits, notably a habit of ending his season after the PGA Championship. Stricker loves to hunt and fish back home in the fall, but it's not a stretch to say the game had become a job, which is never a good sign when you've just turned 30.

It's fair to say Stricker got a bit complacent. His swing, always a well-oiled collection of loose parts, suffered without the proper maintenance. Perhaps best known a decade ago for employing his wife, Nicki, as his caddie, she gave up the bag in 1998 after becoming a first-time mom. At least, that's what we were told at the time. "I got into some bad [swing] habits before we had children," Stricker will tell you now. "I basically ended up firing my wife because I didn't want anything to [strain the marriage]."