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By T.J. Auclair
PGATOUR.com Interactive Producer

NORTON, Mass. -- It's been quite an exciting couple of weeks for Steve Stricker to say the least.

After getting stuck in traffic, Steve Stricker was lucky he even got to play on Sunday. (Scott Halleran/WireImage)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

STRICKER IN 2007

Category Total Rank Driving Distance 282.8 yds. 144 Driving Accuracy 62.58% 99 Greens in Regulation 63.97% 87 Putts per Round 28.51 12 Sand Saves 46.36% 126 Scoring Average 69.45 7 FedExCup Points 104,950 1 Money Leaders $3,868,077 6

• Steve Stricker's Player Page

Last Sunday he earned his first PGA TOUR win in six years at The Barclays. Nice timing. That win in the first of four events of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, launched Stricker to the No. 1 seed in the FedExCup standings.

But, don't think he was ready to stop there. The win was a long time coming for the 40-year-old who had played exceptionally well over the past two seasons. It wasn't so much a surprise as it was an exclamation point. One week later, it appears he isn't ready for the party to be over.

"It's been important [to follow up the win with solid play this week]," Stricker said. "I wanted to do that, obviously, and I came in here trying not to think about last week at all. But, that's hard to do since it's been so many years since I've won. I wanted to follow it up. In the four wins that I've had I've always wanted to come out the next week and play good. Fortunately, I have and tomorrow I have a good chance to get back up in there again."

Stricker shot a 2-under-par 69 in the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship on Sunday thanks to a 70-footer he holed for eagle on the final hole that made the hordes of fans go crazy.

"I made a bomb over there," said Stricker, who at 8-under total is just five shots off Brett Wetterich's lead heading into the final round. "It was way in the back, up over the hill. I was just trying to get good speed and get it close. I hadn't had good speed on a lot of my putts today, so I just tried to get good speed, I finally hit the right line and it snuck in there.

"It's been awhile [since I've made a 70-footer], especially for an eagle," he admitted. "It was a good way to finish. I played good today and didn't get a lot out of my round for the most part."

For a minute, it seemed like this might be the tournament that wasn't for Stricker.

With sellout crowds on hand at the TPC Boston, traffic coming into the course was brutal on Sunday, taking as long as 45 minutes to get from the bottom of the exit ramp to the entrance to the course -- a distance of about 1 1/2 miles.

Stricker, who is staying at a hotel in Providence, R.I., roughly 25 minutes from the TPC Boston, had planned on getting to the course an hour and a half prior to his 12:35 p.m. tee time. However, that didn't exactly shake out.

"We were at a standstill out there with about an hour and 15 minutes to go before our tee time," he said. "I called transportation to see if they were doing anything. It just seemed like we weren't moving and I was concerned about getting here in time.

"They gave me an alternate route to come around on and it ended up being no problem," he added. "You keep looking at the clock and you think you've left yourself enough time. We've never had to deal with that traffic before coming in here."