Steve Stricker - Media Guide

2005. Voted Comeback Player of the Year for a second consecutive season. Capped season off with 3-2-0 performance for victorious United States Presidents Cup team...Started strong out of the gate with a T4 in his first start at the Sony Open in Hawaii...Finished T5 at The Honda Classic, one stroke out of a four-way playoff. Only player in the field to post four rounds of par or better...Posted second consecutive top-10 at the Shell Houston Open. Shot 68-69 on the weekend to finish T9, seven strokes behind champion Adam Scott...Finished second to Tiger Woods at the Wachovia Championship, his best finish (at the time) since winning the 2001 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. Played the final three holes in 3-over par before losing to Woods by two shots...Collected his second runner-up finish of the season after posting a final-round 70 at the inaugural AT&T National...Three strokes back of leader Sergio Garcia through 54 holes at the British Open. Closed with a 74 to finish T8, his first top-10 in eight appearances at the British Open...Won The Barclays in his first start in New York since 1995 after carding four rounds in the 60s at Westchester Country Club for his fourth career TOUR title. Birdied four of the final five holes to overtake K.J. Choi, including birdies on the last three holes. Collected 9,000 FedExCup points and moved into first in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup standings with 104,950 points. First victory since the Accenture Match Play Championship in 2001, a period of 148 starts between victories...Finished T9 at the Deutsche Bank Championship and collected 1,250 FedExCup points but dropped to second place behind Deutsche Bank Championship winner Phil Mickelson...Finished third at the BMW Championship to remain in second place in the FedExCup standings. Shared the third-round lead with Aaron Baddeley and shot 68 in the final round at Cog Hill, but that was bettered by Tiger Woods' final-round 63...Entered THE TOUR Championship looking to surpass Tiger Woods and win the inaugural FedExCup with a strong performance at East Lake Golf Club. Finished T17 to finish second overall in the FedExCup standings, earning a $3-million bonus.

highest finish since No. 30 in 2001. The seven top-10s equaled his output over the previous five years on TOUR...In his fourth start of season, finished third at the Shell Houston Open for his first top-10 of the season...36-hole leader at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot GC at 1-under 139, but weekend rounds of 76-73 dropped him to T6. First top-10 in a major since a T10 at the 2001 Masters Tournament...One week later, continued strong play with a T2 finish at the Booz Allen Classic, five strokes behind champion Ben Curtis. With $330,00 paycheck, surpassed $1 million in season earnings for the first time since 2001...Finished T7 at the PGA Championship, thanks in part to a final-round 3-under 69. Second top-10 (2nd in 1998) in nine starts at the PGA. Second time in his career that he posted two top-10s in majors (1998: T5-U.S. Open, 2nd-PGA)...Recorded his fifth top-10 of the season with a T7 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, earning a spot in following week's Canadian Open field...At the Canadian Open, posted four rounds in the 60s to finish solo 10th for his sixth top-10 of the season...Kept hot streak going with T9 finish at the 84 LUMBER Classic, third top-10 in as many weeks and fourth in five starts. 2005: Playing with Past Champion status, earned fourth-place finish at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson, one shot out of three-way playoff. 2004: Lost his fully-exempt card for the first time since the 1997 season after finishing 151st on the 2004 PGA TOUR money list and seeing his three-year exemption for winning the 2001 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship expire...Lone top-10 was a T4 at the 2004 John Deere Classic with wife Nicki on the bag. 2003: Finished 189th on the 2003 TOUR money list, his lowest finish since he joined the TOUR in 1994. Did not post a top-10 for the first time in his first 10 years on TOUR. 2002: Finished in the top 100 for the seventh time in his nine-year TOUR career. 2001: Won first PGA TOUR title since 1996 Motorola Western Open, defeating Pierre Fulke, 2 and 1, in 36-hole final of World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. Earned way to $1 million by defeating (in order) Padraig Harrington, Scott Verplank, Justin Leonard, Nick O'Hern, Toru Taniguchi and Fulke. Third career victory jumped him from 91st to No. 47 in Official World Golf Ranking. Had not made a cut in TOUR event since July 2000. Win was his first in 89 starts. 2000: For the first time in three years, managed to finish among top-10 only once. 1999: Finished fifth at U.S. Open for second consecutive year on strength of third-round 69, the only player under par that round. 1998: Recovered from off year in 1997 with strong campaign. In a limited schedule of 21 events, made 20 cuts. Played only four times after Aug. 1, due to birth of first child, and finished in top 10 each time. All in all, had career-best 10 top-10 finishes and 12 top-25s...Tied for third-round lead with Vijay Singh at PGA Championship and closing 70 left him two strokes shy of Singh...Followed second-place finish at PGA Championship with another runner-up at Greater Milwaukee Open...Won Wisconsin State Open by 11 strokes. 1996: Impressive season included seven top-10s, all either firsts, seconds or thirds...Earned $1,383,739 to finish fourth on money list...First PGA TOUR victory came at Kemper Open, where he moved to within one stroke of Jay Williamson's lead with third-round 65 and closed with 68 for three-stroke victory...Won again at Motorola Western Open, with an eight-stroke victory...Also T2 at NEC World Series of Golf, third at United Airlines Hawaiian Open, Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic and THE TOUR Championship; and T3 in front of home state fans at Greater Milwaukee Open...Was 2-3 in Presidents Cup...Was 5-0 on victorious Dunhill Cup team. 1994: T2 in second event as a TOUR member, Northern Telecom Open...T3 at Canon Greater Hartford Open. Finished 50th on the money list that year, fourth among rookies. Amateur: All-American selection at University of Illinois in 1988-89.

TOUR card in 2005 by two strokes at PGA TOUR Qualifying School, rediscovered game hitting balls out of a trailer in the December snow on the practice range at Cherokee CC in Madison, Wis...Inducted into the Wisconsin State Golf Association Hall of Fame in December of 2007.