Bittersweet Stricker endures good and bad in wild final round
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Steve Stricker experienced a variety of conflicting emotions on Sunday during the final round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
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He grinded, yet he had fun. He was disappointed but, at the same time, he was pleased with the way he handled the pressure of contention.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the soft-spoken straight-shooter from frost-bitten Madison, Wis., walked away proud of himself at the end of this bittersweet day in the Hawaiian sunshine.
And why not? Stricker closed with a 64 to come from four strokes off the pace and force a playoff with Daniel Chopra. Then he matched the Swedish Indian shot for shot until the fourth playoff hole, when Chopra two-putted for birdie and the win.
"It's a good start," Stricker said. "I don't know any other way to put it except that I'm excited about the way I'm playing. I'm looking forward to going to the Sony Open next week.
"You know, it would have been nice to come away with a victory here, but again, I just continue to improve, and I feel like I keep building and I keep learning about myself and my game and a lot of great things happened to me again this week."
Stricker didn't know quite what to expect when he brought his family to Maui this week -- finally, as his 9-year-old daughter Bobbi might tell you -- after a victory drought of six years.
The two-time "defending" PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year hadn't exactly gotten to pound too many balls onto the snow-covered tundra back home. But he improved with the passing of each day, playing his final 41 holes in 18 under par.
"There was a lot of questions within myself, coming off of a long layoff," Stricker admitted. "It was really the land of the unknown for me what to expect, and that's why I think I got off to kind of a slow start. ... After those (first) nine holes (of the year when he shot 38), I kind of settled down and kind of got back into the rhythm of the game and did very well."
Stricker was still three strokes behind Chopra, though, as he made the turn on Sunday. But he threw out a sizzling 31 when it counted and caught the leader with an 11-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation.
"It was a lot of fun," admittted Stricker, who kick-started the run when he holed a lob wedge for eagle on the 12th hole. "I told my caddie I need to birdie the last three to get to 19. We knocked it on the green in two on 15 and lipped out the eagle putt there. Birdied 16, and then lipped it out at 17, also.
"I really felt confident that I was going to make the putts, and I continued to make birdies. You know, I just had a target number in mind, and it was a lot of fun trying to get there."
Stricker felt like his best chance to win came on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th that cascades down the West Maui mountains. He chipped onto the green only to see his ball pop off Chopra's mark, but he still had a 10-footer for birdie to Chopra's of 7.
"I figured if I could make that putt it was going to put a lot of pressure on him, and I thought I had it read pretty well," Stricker said. "You know, whether I mis-hit it or pulled it or what, I don't know, or just started it over there left of the hole, I don't know. But I thought that was a good opportunity.
"And I had it right in the jar on (the second playoff hole), too; it just came up short. But you learn from that, and next time I'll get that ball to the hole. Even if it runs by two or three feet, at least I gave it a chance. That one was a little disappointing."
As Stricker would later say, this "was no Tiger Woods and Ernie Els playoff," referring to the thrilling 2000 spectacle. " Both players had their chances -- they were throwing jabs, Stricker said -- but putts kept scaring the hole and stubbornly refusing to fall.
Chopra sealed the victory, his second in his last three PGA TOUR starts, with a two-putt from 23 feet on the fourth playoff hole. His eagle putt hung on the lip there, giving Stricker, who had sent his second shot over the green, one last gasp from 14 feet but the putt missed its mark.
"I thought I handled it pretty well," Stricker said. "I hit the ball well. A couple of putts I came up short on. It's difficult with the low sunlight, a lot of shadows around, to really figure the speed of the greens, really. I knew the putts. I had similar putts in regulation, but I just didn't get the speed right on a few of them.
"And the one on 18 really was a fooler because I had almost the identical putt in regulation, and the thing I swear stayed straight or maybe went a little to the right, and mine broke to the left and it looked like Chopra's kind of hung out on the right on him. It's late in the day and they're growing and they're probably a little slower.
"But I thought I handled it pretty well. I hit the ball fine, just didn't get it in the hole when I needed to."
Stricker, who won the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup last summer, leaves Maui second in the race for the $10 million bonus -- which is where he ended the 2007 campaign.
"This is definitely a good start for the season," Stricker concluded. "A little bittersweet again today where I played a great round and ended up with some opportunities in regulation to make a couple more birdies coming down the stretch, hit good putts, but I can't be disappointed.
"It was a great start to the year. I mean, I can be a little disappointed, I guess, because I didn't win. But again, it was a good start. I'm very pleased with the way I played. Especially after the first nine holes, I was a couple over after the first nine holes, and to get it back to 18 under, I did a lot of good things."
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