Stricker returns to where latest comeback started
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
BETHESDA, Md. -- A year ago, Steve Stricker came to play at AT&T National in the midst of a solid, but not spectacular season.
Funny how quickly things can change. Stricker left Congressional Country Club on the heels of a solo second and then sprinted toward the finish line in the inaugural PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
He proceeded to post top-10 finishes in five of his final eight events. That win at The Barclays, the first Playoff event, vaulted him to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, and he eventually finished runner-up to Tiger Woods in the race for the $10 million bonus.
"(This area has) always been a special place (for me)," said Stricker, who won the 1996 Kemper Open at nearby TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms with his wife on the bag.
"To finish second here last year propelled me to a good, strong, season-ending push towards that FedExCup, and I had a good rest of the year from here on out."
The momentum carried over into 2008, too, as Stricker lost a four-hole playoff to Daniel Chopra in the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship. He didn't finish lower than 14th in seven of his first nine events, either.
By the time the Masters rolled around, though, the soft-spoken man from Wisconsin thinks he basically just hit the wall. Those two straight Comeback Player of the Year seasons after three years of being on the outside looking in had taken their toll.
During the 2006 and '07 seasons, Stricker made all but six cuts in 40 starts. He played at an extremely high level, too, posting 16 top-10 finishes after only having two in the previous three non-exempt years combined.
"Mentally [I] got a little fatigued I think," Stricker said. "My tempo kind of left me there for a while. [I'm], starting to get that back, but I think for so long, for a good, solid, year and a half, two years, I was playing at a pretty high level, and it's tough to maintain.
"I always have kind of known that there's still going to be bumps in the road. I'm not a Tiger Woods. I'm still going to have some bad tournaments along with some good tournaments, so I realize that more than ever now, and I'm just working hard to get it back again and moving in the right direction."
With Tiger Woods on injured reserve and a new points system designed to encourage volatility in the Playoffs, the race for this year's share of the $35 million bonus pool is more wide open than ever. Who will be this year's Steve Stricker is anyone's guess.
At least one Playoff win -- as Stricker did at Westchester Country Club -- will be key. He also tied for ninth at the Deutsche Bank Championship and placed third to Woods at the BMW Championship.
"It was exciting for the first year, and I think this year is going to be much the same,' Stricker said. "Kenny Perry has been showing that he's been playing really well.
"But you know, when we get into that Playoff system, and everybody gets a little bit closer together, it all is going to depend on what you can do in that Playoff system, and if you can win one early on and jump up a bunch, you can find yourself right with a chance to win it all.
"It's going to be exciting. I think obviously we would love to have Tiger playing in it and being a part of it, but there's going to be another form of excitement without him out, too, to see who can step up and do well."
Fred Funk, the ageless Maryland native who turned 52 earlier this month, agrees with Stricker. He says most people would probably think Phil Mickelson, who currently ranks second, seven points ahead of Perry, has the most to gain.
Funk likes the way Perry, who picked up his second win of the season on Sunday, is performing, though, as the final seven weeks in the Regular Season play out.
"I'm not in that position, but the guys like Phil, and Kenny Perry right now is playing extremely well, are in a position where, wow, you know, I could win this FedExCup," Funk said. "And they really can. So it's not like if Tiger was there and they were starting to inch closer to Tiger but Tiger was still playing; they would be saying, well, all right, second place looks pretty good, too.
"Now they have a really good shot at winning, so it does create a lot more excitement for those guys that are trying to position themselves at the top of the FedExCup, and that's really neat."
And Stricker knows just how it feels.
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