- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $7.0 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 6,839
PGATOUR.com Contributor
HARRISON, N.Y. -- He had only played Westchester Country Club once.
And that was once too many.
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The course rubbed him the wrong way. So wrong he turned to his wife Nicki that Sunday and told her to take a picture. They wouldn't be back.
That was in 1995. The year he tied for 60th.
Let's just say Steve Stricker is glad he finally revisited his decision.
Can you say a third-round 65 on the same course he loathed? A one-shot lead going into Sunday's final round of the first leg of the FedExCup Playoffs? A chance to make The Barclays his first win in six years?
"I gave myself the benefit of the doubt coming here this week and telling myself that it was a course that I should like,'' said Stricker, whose last win was the 2001 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play. "You know, it was a U.S. Open-style course and the greens should be firm, you need to drive it in the fairway and pars are good scores.
"Obviously, pars are not as good as they usually are this week because it's soft, but it's still the same principle," he added. "You have to get it in the fairway and get it on the greens and be in position on the greens. Because if you're putting from the wrong side on these things, it's very difficult.''
Stricker has made things look easy. He didn't even blink when he opened the day with a bogey at the first hole. He was playing too well to let it bother him.
He's nothing if not confident. This whole thing started at last year's U.S. Open at Winged Foot, when Stricker's career jumped back on the right track. Fourteen months later, he's still looking for that yes-you're-all-the-way-back win. And a chance at that FedExCup.
"(A win) would mean a lot, it really would,'' he said. "You know, making this (2007) Presidents Cup Team was almost like a win, but you know, you play well for a two-year period to make that team, and that's an accomplishment.
"But you know, we're all out here to win and I'm out here to win a tournament, and it's been six years," he added. "So this would definitely, you know, put an exclamation point on my year and, you know, it just would be ... I don't know what to say. It would mean a lot.''
Stricker is the highest-ranked player on the FedExCup points list yet to win this year. And, if the tournament had ended Saturday, he would have vaulted into the lead -- up 11 places -- in the standings. Just ahead of K.J. Choi and current leader Tiger Woods, who skipped this week.
But we'll leave any conjecture until Sunday night.
What we know is Stricker has been on a roll since Winged Foot, and has had a couple of couldas this year. Instead, the stats read two seconds, a tie for fourth, another for fifth, a tie for ninth at the Shell Houston Open and a tie for eighth at the Open Championship. He was in the final group at the AT&T National (finished second) and had chances to win several other times.
Sunday, he'll tee it up with Choi, who is one shot back, and two head of Hunter Mahan, who tied the course record here Saturday with a 62, and Rich Beem. Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Steve Flesch -- to name a few -- are all within five shots.
"You know, it's just obviously those didn't come out my way in those tournaments,'' he said. "But you know, you still learn a lot. You get to feel the pressure. You get to feel a little bit different. Your body feels a little bit different. You learn how to handle rejection I think a little bit when you don't win.
"You know, it's been a long time and I keep giving myself the benefit of the doubt when I get in this position that one of these times it's going to come out in my favor," he added. "I haven't been beating myself up about not winning any of those events, but obviously I would like to win. It's been a long time since I've won, and I'm just going to try to bring as many positive thoughts to the table tomorrow as I can.''
Stricker hasn't held a 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR event since the 1998 PGA Championship, when he shared it with Vijay Singh and finished second to Singh. In fact, he's won just once when leading or tied for it.
But he's not thinking about that. Nor is he thinking about the low times when his game disappeared and he was going cap-in-hand to ask for exemptions. At the lowest point, there was no way he thought he would be in a position to win again. And definitely not at a $7 million event.
"I suppose there was a time in there where I thought whether I was going to make any cuts or not, let alone whether I was going to lead the tournament,'' he said. "And I don't want to talk about that anymore, and you shouldn't bring that up anymore, either.''
He was laughing. And kidding. Sort of.
Talking about bad times is, well, like talking about that 1995 tournament. Players would prefer them left out of the conversation.
Saturday's 65, though? That was more than in play. On a day when if you didn't shoot something close you were backing up, Stricker's 65 was one three all day -- the second lowest to Mahan's 62.
After that opening bogey, Stricker bounced back to birdie five of the next nine to get to 12 under. A wedge to 12 feet at the 15th put him up, then he hit a lob wedge to three feet at the 17th for the lead.
"I guess that tells you that I'm fairly confident; that I can come back after (the first hole), even though it was kind of a stupid bogey and I missed the green to the right on the short side,'' Stricker said.
"But, you know, I didn't beat myself up there at all. I said, you know what, there's 17 more holes and let's just keep plugging along. Lo and behold, I shoot a good number.''
Stricker has been a permanent fixture on the leader board all year and in contention all but one of the last five weeks. Still, he plans to play all four playoff events -- with a trip home to Wisconsin between each one.
"Mentally, it takes a lot out of you,'' he said. "But I do find the time to go home and when I do get away and go home, I don't pick up a club for a couple of days usually between tournaments . . . So I'm kind of trying to get away from it, spend some time at home with the family and just kind of regroup and relax and get fired up again to come and play, because it's been a long time for me to play four tournaments in a row, and for a lot of guys.''
But first things first. The final round of The Barclays and a chance to win. Again.
And, yes, even he's laughing about how he was never coming back. Amazing what a little confidence and a second chance can do.
"It's because I'm playing well. It's a great course, isn't it?'' he said chuckling.
And if he wins?
He'll take another picture.
