Second Chance

Then came Westchester. Stricker had played there once, in 1995, and played poorly. "Hated the golf course," he says. "When we finished I said to Nicki, 'Honey, take a picture, because we're not coming back.' "

He came back in '07 only because the tournament was the first in the tour's new playoff system. Stricker was 11th in the standings going into Westchester. This time, though, he had help.

"Don Edwards," he says. "We were teammates at Illinois, and he's a member at Westchester [and a managing principal of an equity investment firm]. After the Open he gave me a ride on his plane from Oakmont back to Madison. On the plane he started telling me I was going to win Westchester. And he kept at it from that moment until the end of the tournament. He put together a map of the entire course for me: what were the holes to shoot at flags, what weren't. There were holes he labeled par holes, holes he labeled birdie holes. He told me when to gamble, when not to gamble. If nothing else, it made me feel a lot more confident going in there."

It looked as if Stricker was going to finish second to K.J. Choi after bogeying the 13th hole on the last day. Then came the birdie-birdie-birdie finish and a two-shot win. "When the last putt went in, it hit me how far I'd come from that Q school in '05," he says. "That's probably why I got so emotional."

He got more emotional when he returned to Madison that night. He had expected Nicki and the family to be at the airport, but a couple dozen friends had driven up from Edgerton. They papered the windows of the terminal with signs congratulating him and showered him with applause and love as he walked off the plane.

Stricker's Best in the Majors
Three of Steve Stricker's seven top-10 finishes in majors have come in the U.S. Open, including a T-6 in 2006 at Winged Foot that led to two consecutive years as the PGA Tour's comeback player of the year, pushing his World Ranking from 337th to fourth.

"The look on his face was great," Nicki says. "He was completely surprised."

It was one of those victories that was very popular on tour. Woods was one of the first people to congratulate him the next week. Others left notes in his locker. It was very satisfying.

But, Stricker insists, not enough.

"I worked just as hard this winter as the last two," he says. "My goal going to Hawaii was to win at least once."

He almost pulled it off, losing a four-hole playoff at Kapalua. He's still upset with himself for not asking Daniel Chopra to use a different ball mark on the first hole of the playoff. Stricker's long approach putt hit the mark, bounced and came up about six feet short. "If it doesn't hit the mark, I think it's real close to the hole," he says. "It's my fault. I saw that the marker was a little raised, not like a coin. I should have asked him to put a coin down."

Stricker missed the second putt, extending the playoff. Chopra won three holes later. Even so, Stricker's confident he'll win again, and keep winning. "I never dreamed that I'd be playing the best golf of my life at 40," he said before adding another birthday in February. "But I am."

TIGER CONNECTION

As with everyone on tour, Stricker can measure his game by how he feels these days about playing with Woods. Nicki still remembers the first time Steve played with Woods, at Pebble Beach not long after Tiger turned pro. "He came home and said, 'I don't feel that far away from the other guys, but this guy is so much better than me," she says. "Now he wants to play with him. Not because he thinks he's as good as Tiger is, but because he likes playing well enough to be in his group, and he believes he can do his own thing and do just fine.

"Plus, they like each other. He really appreciates the fact that Tiger gave him a hard time when Steve was playing well, kept giving him a hard time when he was playing badly, and is still giving him a hard time now that he's playing well again. When you play poorly, you find out who your friends are. Jerry, J.P. [Hayes], Tiger, a few other guys, never changed the way they acted around Steve that whole time when things were bad."

Stricker, Woods says, "was at a point where he had a hard time taking the club back. He couldn't keep the ball in play. To go to No. 4 in the world is pretty phenomenal. He drives it on a string and is one of the best putters out here. Combine that with confidence, and there you have it."

Those who know Stricker best aren't surprised that he's back.

"I've always said, to make a good pot, you need good putty," Tiziani says. "That boy has always been good putty."

And now, finally, he has become a very good pot.