Steve Stricker's victories might bring him to tears, as last week's win at the Deutsche Bank Championship did, but the 42-year-old veteran has been through too many ups and downs in his career to place much stock in any newly anointed rivalry.

 

"I know I'm up there. But … maybe I'm playing off it," said Stricker, the No. 2-ranked player in the world and No. 2 on the PGA Tour money list. "I don't know if I'm a rival to him or not. I've been playing well, and that's all I try to do."

 

Keeping it simple is what has Stricker playing the best golf of his 20-year pro career. He was a solid PGA Tour player in the 1990s, winning four times worldwide, including the Western Open at Cog Hill in 1996. After his long swing deserted him and he lost his Tour card, he spent the winter of 2005 hitting balls out of a trailer into snow drifts at a practice range in Madison, Wis.
It worked. He won Comeback Player of the Year in 2006 and repeated in the honor 2007 when he finished No. 4 in the world after winning The Barclays in the playoffs. This year, he has won three events (second to Woods' five), has 10 top-10 finishes (second to Woods' 12) and earned more than $6 million in prize money ($2.3 million behind No. 1).

 

"He had the success, then his game slipped away and he came back. He hasn't changed. He's still the same Steve," Woods said. "He's just a great guy, period."

 

The swing, Stricker said, is the one he refashioned in the trailer — shortened to make it easier to repeat and to minimize the mistakes. "What was killing me before is my misses were pretty big," he said. "That's what I've been doing a lot better the last couple years — my misses have gotten to be a lot smaller. And you can play from smaller misses. It's those big misses that end up killing a round."

 

 

TaylorMade R9 Driver;   Callaway X-22 Iron set; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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