Second Chance

What helped Stricker when he began searching was knowing exactly what was wrong with his game. He could still make putts, but making putts for bogey didn't do a lot of good. His iron game was OK, but hitting greens after pitching out of the rough wasn't of much use, either. It all came back to driving the golf ball.

"It had gotten to the point where I dreaded walking onto a tee box," he says. "I would stand there saying to myself, When will this be over? It was like going to the dentist. I was gripping the club so tightly there was no way for me to have any tempo at all in my swing. I would stand there fiddling with the club hoping to find a comfortable grip, but I couldn't do it. Sometimes I'd walk off the tee, and my hands would be sore from gripping the club so tight. I just couldn't make myself relax."

TEMPER, TEMPER

Stricker is one of those people who almost always appears calm. With his blond hair, friendly smile and quiet demeanor, he can appear almost placid on the golf course. But he has a temper and, according to his wife and father-in-law, a tendency to get down on himself quickly.

"That's one reason he's so streaky," Tiziani says. "When he's going good and he's confident, especially with the way he can putt, he's absolutely one of the best out there. But if he makes a few bad swings and the ball starts going in the wrong direction, he can start to doubt himself. That's why it was so important that he figure this one out himself. Now, if something does go wrong, he knows that he can fix it."

The story of Stricker's winter in Wisconsin after that Q school in 2005 has been told (see the March issue, "Jump Start Your Game This Winter"): the regimen of hitting balls from inside a heated trailer, the talks with Tiziani, the decision to rededicate himself one more time.

"He did this all on his own," Tiziani says. "He had to. He would come to me and say, 'I hit on something! I hit on something!' Then, finally, it was, 'I've got it.' I didn't doubt him when he said it.

"It wasn't easy, though. Steve's always been a feel player. Now, you had a feel player trying to learn mechanics and the process of how to be correct mechanically. That's a complete oxymoron right there. But he did figure it out."

Tiziani has never believed in video; he thinks it fortifies what isn't good in a player's mind. Instead, he had Stricker swing the club for him and told him what he saw (a grip that was too tight, tempo that was too quick and a takeaway that was too steep).

"He was my eyes," Stricker says. "I needed him to tell me that what I thought was right was right -- if it was right."

The comeback began with a 14th-place finish at Pebble Beach. Then there was a third-place finish in Houston, where he got a last-minute sponsor's exemption. "The first couple of years I wasn't exempt, sponsors were pretty good about giving me chances," he says. "But I think that lasts a year, maybe two. After a while they feel like they've given you a shot to come back, and they move on to other guys. I kept writing letters in '06 but kept getting turned down. I understood. That's how it works. I hadn't been a good player for a while."

He was turned down in Houston by tournament director Steve Timms, who told him that if something did open up, he would call him. Stricker was getting a bagel on the Saturday morning before the tournament when Timms called. He had an open spot if Stricker could get to Houston to play in the Monday pro-am. "I'll be there tomorrow night," Stricker said.

The real turning point, though, from Stricker's point of view, was the U.S. Open that year at Winged Foot. He led after 36 holes before tying for sixth. On a golf course where driving the ball was almost impossible, he drove it well enough to contend.

"For some reason, the Open has always been a good major for me," he says. "Maybe it's because everyone struggles to hit fairways there, and the difference between me and the really straight hitters is cut down. But when I came out of Winged Foot, I felt as if I could score anywhere."

On the phone, Nicki could hear a different tone in Steve's voice. "There were less negatives when he talked about his round," she says. "It wasn't so much about the scoring -- that helped -- as it was about him starting to feel better and better about his golf."

He tied for second the week after the Open and, playing only 17 times, was 34th on the money list. Going from 162nd on the money list and non-exempt to just missing the Tour Championship made him the comeback player of the year.

Then came 2007, when he came back even more: He was one stroke out of a playoff at Honda and could have won at Charlotte but finished second behind Woods after finishing with a double bogey and a bogey in the final three holes. "I goofed up there," he says in Midwestern Strickerese.

He shared the U.S. Open lead at Oakmont with nine holes to play before fading. "That really made me angry," he says. "I just got really, really nervous."

Nicki remembers how frustrated he was after the Open. "He said he couldn't get hold of his emotions when he got into contention," she says. "He'd start thinking about what winning again would mean or about me and the kids [the Strickers have two daughters], and he wouldn't be able to focus on his golf. It was really bothering him."