Steve Stricker didn’t think he’d still be here.

During his prime on the PGA TOUR, Stricker expected his 50s to take the shape of an early retirement, maybe competing sparsely here and there but nowhere close to a full season.

But here he is. Stricker authored a historically dominant PGA TOUR Champions season in 2023, winning six times in 16 starts and adding five runner-up finishes. He earned Player of the Year honors and won the Charles Schwab Cup despite not competing in the Playoffs. And despite that banner season, he’s not content to rest on his laurels.

Stricker, who finished third at last week’s season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, is hungry to replicate that success in 2024. Don’t bet against him, either.

“I didn’t think I’d be playing still, at 56 and 57 years of age,” Stricker said last week. “I felt like I had enough on the regular TOUR, and I was going to spend my time at home. But my family’s into golf; my wife caddies, plays a lot. My kids are big golfers, and they’ve been on the bag, so it’s been a family affair. If it wasn’t that way, I don’t know if I’d be out here, but they continue to push me, encourage me to play and to come out here, and they give me the ability to come out here to do this. So it’s been a lot of fun.”

That secret sauce — the encouragement of his wife Nicki and daughters Bobbi and Izzi — has propelled Stricker to great heights. Last season included the bulk of his streak of 55 consecutive rounds or better, surpassing Tiger Woods’ mark on any TOUR-sanctioned circuit. Stricker’s six wins were the most by a player in any Champions Tour season since Bernhard Langer (seven wins) in 2017. He set a single-season Champions Tour record for the lowest stroke average (67.54) and notched a single-season earnings mark with nearly $4 million.

Stricker, 56, won three senior majors — the Regions Tradition, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and Kaulig Companies Championship — earning spots in this year’s PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship with those latter two titles. That means more chances to test his game against the world’s best; could the 12-time TOUR winner up the ante and become the oldest winner in TOUR history?

Iron sharpens iron, and the sky’s the limit. After all, Stricker once won PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year in two consecutive seasons (2006 and 2007), and last season’s success came not long after an illness in the fall of 2021 that caused him to lose 25 pounds and required two separate hospital stints.

Stricker says his wife Nicki plays and practices harder than anyone in the family. Nicki wants to one-up him on the course, and he doesn’t want to let that happen easily, hence he’s inspired to put in the work of his own. Bobbi is a professional golfer; she graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2021 and just completed her rookie season on the Epson Tour. Izzi won last year’s Wisconsin Girls State Championship for the second straight year and will play college golf for the Badgers starting this fall. They’ve taken turns caddying for Stricker, at times, which are always memorable weeks in the household.

There’s too much competitive fire to allow for any complacency.

“Nicki plays more than any of us … she practices harder, she works at it harder; she wants to play better than I do,” Stricker said. “And our girls, they’ve just taken it up on their own and they enjoy the process so far too, which is cool. We never pushed them down that road, but they found that joy in golf too, so that’s been real cool.”

Stricker’s mind is young, and his game is young, too. His Champions Tour peers have certainly taken notice.

“Guy’s the best player,” Steve Flesch said. “Plain and simple … Why is he so good? Why does he win so many events? Well, he’s the best player we’ve got on this Tour, and that’s why.”

Miguel Angel Jimenez agrees, saying he's “very, very aggressive with all 14 clubs.”

Stricker is now a 17-time winner on PGA TOUR Champions, certainly well back of Langer’s record 46 titles. He would need to replicate last year’s six-victory effort for the next five years to surpass that record.

It seems crazy, but…

“If anybody’s got the ability to do it, Steve Stricker might,” said Australia’s Richard Green, who finished No. 12 on last year’s Charles Schwab Cup as a Champions Tour rookie.

“If he continues down that path, he could do it.”

Ben Gavlik contributed reporting.