Stricker fights off early failures, makes '09 a success

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Stricker didn't just reap his own benefits from '09 success -- his Presidents Cup partner, Tiger Woods, appreciated the boost as well.

What will you remember about the 2009 season? That was the simple question we asked PGATOUR.COM staffers and writers, who responded with a series of short essays. As we finish up November, we'll post several each day. Click here for next essay

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The last thing Steve Stricker needs is a third Comeback Player of the Year Award. After all, two in a row is a preposterous achievement likely never to be duplicated.

Yet, after watching the quiet, yet popular Cheesehead early in the season, the last place I expected him to finish the season was as Tiger's wingman -- and some might say he actually piloted the pair most of the weekend -- in The Presidents Cup as the U.S. beat the International Team. Three wins and a starring role on America's Presidents Cup team after the startling start to 2009?

It was only eight months before we came to Harding Park that I remember Stricker, after a TOUR record 36-hole run of 61-62 on Friday and Saturday to get to 33 under at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer, coughing it all back up with two bad holes on Sunday. The same player who had only five 5s on his card in 78 holes posted a 7 and an 8 in a 4-hole stretch. He was deflated and defeated, shooting a dismal 77, and went on to miss the cut in Phoenix the next week as well.

After two weeks at home to heal the wounds, he was right back on top of his game at Riviera, catching and then passing defending champion Phil Mickelson on Sunday, leading by two shots with a 12-foot birdie putt at No. 17 to increase his advantage. One of the most clutch putters on TOUR, Stricker missed that putt, as well as another 12-footer to save par at No. 18. Mickelson went birdie-par on his last two holes to successfully defend his crown.

For the second time in a month, Stricker had been left to explain what went wrong. As always, he faced his failure head-on, explaining the bittersweet feeling of getting himself in contention on Sunday by saying, "It's disappointing when you don't finish it off, and I didn't."

Serious doubts could have crept back into Stricker's active mind. Yet, after all he'd been through in his long climb from oblivion in the early part of the decade, he might be the most optimistic player I've ever seen on TOUR. You knew he was wounded by letting not one, but two, chances for a win get away. Remember, although he won The Barclays at the end of 2007, it was still his only win since 2001. All he saw, though, was the silver lining around the dark clouds of doubt.

"I've just come out of the winter snow; hopefully all this leads to bigger and better things the rest of the year," he kept saying. He had three more top-10s after Riviera, but wasn't really in contention again until the end of May when two opening 63s put him atop the leaderboard at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial at the "other" Hogan's Alley. Despite a disappointing third-round 69, I saw him autograph golf balls for the standard bearer and scorekeeper even before he signed his card, rare for any TOUR pro.

He had a roller-coaster Sunday, missing a 4-footer at No. 16 but holing out at the 17th for birdie. When Tim Clark opened the door with missed putts at the 72nd and first playoff holes, Stricker roared through, knocking his approach to 3 feet on the second extra hole and ramming it in to begin a run that didn't end until he won twice more. He played head-to-head with Tiger throughout the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup and capped his remarkable run by winning the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston.

For all his unbridled optimism, Stricker is one of the few pros who still gets overwhelmed with the achievement of victory. Through the tears at Colonial, he remembered the journey that led to those two Comeback Player of the Year awards and through the blows of letting two earlier '09 wins get away.

"Funny how things work out," he said. "You just can't give up. You just have to keep moving forward."

He certainly did that, rescuing a Tiger-friendly season from early disaster.

Bob Stevens, part of the on-air crew at the PGA TOUR Network, never has a roller-coaster Sunday. He's always, ahem, even Stevens.