Comeback complete, Stricker has more to prove

2007-12-15

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THOUSAND OAKS, California (Ticker) - The Comeback Player of the Year trophy sat in front of Steve Stricker and he looked at it curiously.

It is a trophy he is intimately familiar with, since he won it in 2006. Back then it was well deserved and somewhat expected.

This year Stricker was surprised to garner the award for the second consecutive year.

"I don't know how I did it, but it is an honor to be voted by your peers," Stricker said. "I don't know if the award has the correct name or not. I don't know what I did to deserve it again this year."

It does defy logic, since it is rather impossible to comeback twice in as many years.

Though the way Stricker is going, he may win the award again next year.

In 2005 Stricker was 337th in the Official World Rankings and had missed earning his card for the third consecutive year.

He hadn't won since the Match Play Championship in 2001 and was struggling. He went through a three-year period where he missed earning his card and had to go back to Q-School. He failed to earn his card there and had to rely on sponsor's exemptions.

"Obviously if things didn't turn around ... but I kept seeing signs of better play," Stricker said. "I kept working on small things. I don't think I was ever one tournament away or one week away from calling it quits; I don't think that was the case at all. I knew it was in there. I just was having a hard time finding it at the time, getting it out of there."

At the end of 2005 Stricker went back to Madison, Wisconsin for the off season and began to work.

Ben Hogan said the secret was in the dirt, and in Stricker's case it was in a three-sided heated trailer.

There, in the dead of winter, Stricker turned on the heater and banged range balls out into the snow, trying to regain the form that had earned him three victories in six years.

Somewhere in that chill something clicked and Stricker began to regain his game. He still had to rely on sponsor's exemptions, but unlike the previous years, the results started to show.

Four tournaments into the season he finished third at the Shell Houston Open. Two months later he finished sixth at the U.S. Open. The week after he tied for second at the Booz Allen Classic and secured his card for the following year.

With all the pressure off, he was able to continue to work towards his goal of winning. He finished in the top 10 four other times, including a tie for seventh at the PGA Championship.

He catapulted up the Official World Golf Rankings to 34th and in 2007 moved up even more, though he was starting to get doubts about whether he was going to win again.

He finished second at Wachovia Championship and the AT&T National and though he again had secured his card, was not satisfied.

"You know, you could have looked at them as a negative," Stricker said. "I decided to try and keep it as a positive. I was moving in the right direction and my goal was to win."

At The Barclays, Stricker got his first stroke-play victory since 1996 and the emotion of the win poured out. The victory allowed him into events like this and has given him a new goal to work towards.

"Ryder Cup, I look at that as something that I have not done," Stricker said. "Obviously, the majors as well."

Now at No. 4 in the world, Stricker still feels he has more to prove.