- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $7.0 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,547
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
LEMONT, Ill. -- As a past champion here who attended the University of Illinois and lives about two hours to the north, Steve Stricker has always enjoyed coming back to Cog Hill Golf Club.
This week, though, as he prepares for the BMW Championship, Stricker has a little added incentive. He knows he's playing extremely well, and he could regain the lead in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Stricker won The Barclays, which was the first Playoff event, to seize the top spot from the idle Tiger Woods. He tied for ninth last week at the Deutsche Bank Championship but was passed by its winner, Phil Mickelson, whom he now trails by 2,413 points.
Mickelson announced Tuesday that he was going to take the week off, though, so now Stricker is poised to repeat what he did the first week. He's one of four players who could grab the No. 1 spot with one week remaining in the race for the $10 million bonus.
"I look at it both ways," Stricker said when asked about Mickelson's absence. "It's disappointing that he's not here because we are doing this FedExCup and it's the Playoffs and you want your best to be here. Tiger wasn't there the first week and it was disappointing, and with Phil not here this week, it's also disappointing.
"(But) he's the leader and now he's not here, so it's an opportunity for all of us to move up and catch him and get ahead of him with only one tournament to play next week. (So) I look at it both ways."
Since pairings for the first two rounds in this no-cut event are based on a player's position in the FedExCup standings, Stricker, who is No. 2, will play with third-ranked Tiger Woods and No. 4 K.J. Choi. He couldn't remember the last time the two played together in competition but thought it might have been at the 2001 Open Championship.
"I do look forward to it," Stricker said. "I'm not going to talk any trash talk, though. ... He's the best player in the world. It'll be a lot of fun. Hopefully, I won't get caught up in watching him. He's a great guy. I get along with him great. He's easy to play with. It's dealing with the whole surroundings (that) is the tough part."
Stricker, who was last year's PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year, is having the best season of his career in 2007. In addition to The Barclays win, his first victory since 2001, Stricker has seven other top-10s, including a pair of seconds.
He's won more than $4 million -- which is more than double his previous best season and marks only the fifth time in a TOUR career that began in 1994 that he's hit seven figures in a single year. Stricker is as confident now as he was confused when his game took a nosedive and he lost his exempt status in 2004.
"You know, it feels really good," he said. "It's always nice when you can hop in your car and drive a couple hours to play in an event, an event that you like and an event where I've had some success in the past. I'm excited about getting going tomorrow.
"I'm going to have a challenge right out of the shoot playing with Tiger and K.J., but it's something that I've come to learn that if you want to grow as a player and be competitive with the best, you need to play with the best and you need to learn from them. It'll be a learning experience for me tomorrow.
"I'm very excited about coming here and hopefully will put myself in position going into the weekend where I can be up around the lead."
Stricker said he really didn't have any expectations about the FedExCup as the season began. He wasn't sure how the points would work. He didn't know what it would take to move up in the Playoffs.
Turns out, Stricker, who started the Playoffs ranked 16th, is the poster boy for what can happen.
"I think it's exciting," he said. "Maybe I'm partial just because I've got a chance to win it, but so do a lot of other guys. I mean, if you're within 10,000 points probably going into next week, you're going to have a legitimate chance at winning it.
"I think that's exciting. It brings a lot of players into the game. It makes it a little bit more exciting to watch on TV because there's a lot more that's going on during the course of the tournament."
