Tag: Steve Stricker

Phil Mickelson doesn’t sound confident in his chances but he has one more week to impress Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker

“I have not played consistently week in and week out to earn a spot,” Mickelson said Tuesday.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Reigning PGA champion Phil Mickelson sounded resigned to the fact he would not be playing for the U.S. in next month’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

Mickelson has played in every Ryder Cup since making his debut in the biennial tussles between the U.S. and Europe in 1995. His experience and energetic ways in the team room would seemingly prove to be beneficial.

But if the member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who counts six majors on his resume is to extend the streak, he needs to impress U.S. captain Steve Stricker enough to be one of six discretionary selections that would round out the squad.

Stricker will make his six picks two days after next week’s Tour Championship concludes. Mickelson isn’t exactly holding his breath, for he knows he needs a drastic turn to the good with his form and right quick.

“I have not played consistently week in and week out to earn a spot,” Mickelson said Tuesday on the 10th tee at Caves Valley Golf Club as he continued his prep for the BMW Championship with a practice round with Emiliano Grillo.

“There are better players, there are younger players,” Mickelson said. “And unless I were to win this week, or finish whatever I need to finish, like top 4 or top 5, to get into the Tour Championship and then win there, maybe I’d deserve a pick.

“Other than that, I haven’t played at the level consistently week in and week out to deserve a spot. I had one great week at the PGA.”

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That he did. At Kiawah Island, Mickelson became the oldest player to win a major as he held off Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen en route to winning his second Wanamaker Trophy to go with his three green jackets and Claret Jug.

But in 17 other starts in 2021, Mickelson, who is 19th in the Ryder Cup standings, has missed seven cuts and posted zero top 10s. He hasn’t played anywhere near his world rank of 33rd. But he has one more week, possibly two, to turn things around.

Mickelson was at Caves Valley on Monday with nary a worry on his mind. While he had missed the cut in last week’s Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club, Mickelson felt secure that his rank in the FedEx Cup standings would remain inside the top 70, the cutoff point for the BMW, and he was getting familiar with this rolling, massive layout.

Then things started happening up and down the leaderboard in the shadow of the Manhattan Skyline and Lady Liberty and his season moved into peril mode.

“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue,” Mickelson said. “Then we started to watch the last hour, half hour, and it became closer than I thought.”

It couldn’t have been any closer. While six players moved into the top 70 with solid weeks of play, Mickelson fell from 58th to 70th and qualified.

“I find the golf course terrific and I am appreciative for the opportunity to play and I really don’t have any to lose,” Mickelson said. “If I go out and have a really great week, I can get into next week. And, if not, I’ll have a few weeks off.”

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Wisconsin’s Bobbi Stricker off to solid start at LPGA Q-School with father Steve Stricker as caddie

Bobbi Stricker is at LPGA Q-School with dad Steve Stricker on the bag and in prime shape to advance.

Bobbi Stricker didn’t start playing competitive golf until after she’d graduated from high school. She’d always had a club in her hand, a self-described 80s shooter who played golf on family vacations and headed to the range in the dead of winter in Wisconsin because there was little else to do.

Now she’s at the first stage of LPGA Q-School with dad Steve Stricker on the bag and in prime shape to advance.

“I’ve been picking his brain in a way that I probably never have,” said Bobbi of her dad. “It took him four tries to get through the whole thing.”

Steve Stricker, of course, has a dozen victories on the PGA Tour and is the current U.S. Ryder Cup captain. Caddies get to use a cart in the desert heat at Mission Hills Country Club, and the Strickers have a stocked cooler.

Bobbi sits at even par and in a share of 61st at the midway point in Rancho Mirage, California. A minimum of 95 players and ties will advance to Stage II out of a field of 339. She opened with a 73 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club followed by a 71 on the Pete Dye Resort Course. Today she’ll play Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Golf Club, just three miles down the road in Palm Desert.

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It had always been a dream of Bobbi’s to follow in the footsteps of her mom, Nicki, a four-year letter-winner on the Badger women’s golf team where grandfather Dennis Tiziani was head coach from 1989-2003. Tiziani also coached the Wisconsin men’s team from 1977-2003.

Bobbi kept thinking she’d switch to golf in high school, but all her friends played tennis and her doubles team was among the best in the state. She was too good to quit, but not quite at the level needed to get a scholarship to play Division I tennis.

So after high school, Bobbi walked on the golf team at Wisconsin and watched her scoring average drop from 79 to 74.6 by her senior year. Earlier this summer, after graduating from Wisconsin, she won the Wisconsin Women’s Amateur Championship with her mom on the bag.

“I’ve tried not to put a ton of pressure on an outcome (this week) because I don’t really know what to expect,” said Bobbi, who is enjoying the mountainous desert scenes.

That’s really the most important question she asked her dad before they got started: What should I expect out of myself?

Dad’s response: This is just a great experience for you.

 “Him not saying anything but that,” said Bobbi, “it kind of put me at ease, you know, starting this whole thing. Nobody else is expecting anything of me. Why should I put this pressure on myself?

“I’ve never played with girls of this caliber before, ever.”

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Bobbi has relied on her dad on the greens — especially in the desert — noting that she’s found reading the grain to be somewhat tricky. The pair have similar personalities, she said, but he likes to know more information than she does.

Mom and dad, Bobbi said, have never put a ton of pressure on her and younger sister Izzi.

Bobbi now likes golf more than tennis, probably because she’s on a steep upward trend. This week is just another step toward answering the question: How good can she get?

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker wants player feedback on his six captain’s picks

“I want this to be a team effort. I want everybody to be all in on who these six picks are going to be and make it a team, a true team deal.”

American Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker will have a unique task ahead of this year’s match in September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

As a result of several tournaments being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, the U.S. changed its selection criteria by increasing Stricker’s captain’s picks from four to six players. Stricker doesn’t believe it’ll be more difficult to make two more picks than usual. Not only that, he wants the other six players who automatically qualified for the team to have a say.

“I don’t think it’s going to be more difficult at all,” Stricker said during his press conference ahead of this week’s 50th playing of the John Deere Classic, an event he’s won three times. “After the top six make the team, I plan on seeing these six players and getting their feedback to the next six that we’re going to pick. I want this to be a team effort. I want everybody to be all in on who these six picks are going to be and make it a team, a true team deal.

“That’s my plan going forward.”

Last June when the changes were announced, Stricker said it became apparent the selection criteria would need to be amended due to the various changes to the 2020 schedule that would impact a player’s ability to earn points for qualification.

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“After many deliberate discussions, we collectively agreed that a smaller sampling of 2020 events — including just one major championship — would justify a one-week extension of the qualification window and an increase in the number of captain’s selections from four to six,” Stricker said at the time. “These changes were sparked by circumstance but conceived with integrity in mind. In the end, we believe they will allow us to put our best team together to compete at Whistling Straits in September.”

The Wisconsin resident recently won the Senior Players on the PGA Tour Champions but is back competing on the PGA Tour this week and skipping another Champions Tour major, the U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club in Nebraska. Sure, the 54-year-old is on a bit of a Ryder Cup scouting mission, but don’t get it twisted. He wouldn’t be playing if he didn’t think he could win.

“I’ve got great memories here that I can kind of fall back on. I’ll use those to my advantage,” said Stricker, noting his three-peat of wins from 2009-11. “I’ve been playing well lately, so hopefully I can keep that rolling.

“But again, it’s a tall order. But that’s why I’m here, to see if I can’t try to do it.”

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Steve Stricker goes wire-to-wire to win Bridgestone Senior Players Championship

Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players.

AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly and nearly fell victim to some loose play on the back nine on Sunday but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.

As sloppy as Stricker was on the first four holes on the back, his play was stellar over the final five and that’s what won him the tournament.

Kelly also faltered late, making bogey on two of the final three holes.

Stricker, 54, became the third wire-to-wire winner of the event and won his third major on the Tour Champions when he shot a final-round 33-37 70 to finish at 7–under 273 to win by six shots.

Kelly, attempting to win a second consecutive Senior Players, finished second after shooting 34-38 72 for a 72-hole score of 1-under 279.

Stricker, who earned $450,000 for the victory, joined Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as previous wire-to-wire winners of this event, which moved to Firestone three years ago.

Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside of Boston.

Undoubtedly, their journeys were less stressful than Stricker’s, who for the second day in a row was nearly done in by the back nine on the South Course.

He began the day with a 4-shot lead over Kelly and had a 5-shot lead at the turn before things began to unravel a bit, just as they did during Saturday’s third round when his 9-shot lead shriveled to three when he bogeyed three of the first six holes and double-bogeyed another.

A similar scenario seemed to unfold Sunday when Stricker bogeyed the 11th and 13th holes and Kelly poured in a 15-foot putt for birdie on 13. The lead had dwindled to two shots.

A saving grace came on the 460-yard 14th hole. Kelly, who won here last year by two shots, left his second shot in a greenside bunker and it led to a bogey to Stricker’s par.

A bigger break came on the 625-yard 16th. Kelly attempted to reach the green in two but his shot hit the far bank and dribbled back into the pond that fronts the green. The penalty shot and two putts resulted in a bogey. Striker chose to lay up and a wedge to 15 feet led to a kick-in par.

Stricker made bogey on the fourth hole, which is where he made his first bogey of the tournament on Saturday. However, this time he responded with a routine par and consecutive birdies on the sixth and 190-yard seventh when his tee shot stopped a tidy four feet from the hole.

Ken Duke, who began the day five shots behind, shot himself out of contention when he bogeyed four of his first six holes.

Fred Couples turned in the lowest round of the day with a 3-under 67 for a total of even-280 to share third place with David Toms, who followed a third-round 66 with a final-round 70.

Steve Stricker leads by 4 after third round at Bridgestone Senior Players Championship

Steve Stricker continued his run during the early going on Saturday of the Senior Players but showed signs of loose wheels later on.

AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker is either going to join Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as a wire-to-wire winner or author a collapse of unimaginable proportions during Sunday’s final round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.

He showed signs of both on a sunny and windy Saturday.

Stricker continued his assault on the famed South Course during the early going on Saturday but showed signs of loose wheels in the later going and teetered on the brink of a stunning collapse.

A third-round 72 left Stricker still on top of the leaderboard at 7-under 203, but reigning champion Jerry Kelly crawled up Stricker’s back and is just four shots behind.

Only a birdie on the 625-yard 16th stopped the hemorrhaging and might have saved the day – and the tournament — for Stricker.

“It was a tough stretch of holes in there from 12, 13, 14, 15,” Stricker said. “I had a five-shot lead starting the day, I’ve got four now, so all in all I didn’t give away too many. But had an opportunity to kind of distance myself; that was the plan today. Go out, get going, be aggressive and make some birdies and get out ahead. But kind of got sidetracked there in the middle.”

He was able to right the ship with the birdie on 16.

“Yeah, I think so. It was a good drive, a good 4-iron that I hit there and a nice, chip, good putt. I played the hole well, played the next hole well, just got a gust of wind at 17, and played 18 well. I’m fine, I just I wish I didn’t have the little hiccups there in the middle.”

Stricker, 54, opened the third round with a 5-shot lead and birdied the first three holes to eventually make the turn at 2-under 33.

But he made three bogeys and one double-bogey on the back and tumbled back to the pack.

What had been a seemingly insurmountable 9-shot lead dwindled to four by day’s end as Kelly showed some heart with a third-round 2-under 68 to end 54 holes at 3-under 207.

Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside Boston.

Stricker, 54, suffered his first two bogeys of the tournament on the fourth and 10th holes and stumbled to a double-bogey on the par-3 12th, but his three consecutive opening birdies extended his lead to a whopping nine strokes, seemingly leaving the field in his wake.

Contenders Paul Broadhurst, Ken Duke and Marco Dawson – or anyone else, for that matter – were not able to mount any challenge to the U.S. Ryder Cup captain.

Broadhurst, a two-time Senior major winner who started the day in second place, five shots behind Stricker, bogeyed two holes on the front and fell into a tie for eighth with Dawson at 2 over, nine shots off the lead.

Dawson also bogeyed two holes to start and added another on the 12th.

Duke was the lone contender able to maintain an even level and eventually pulled into sole possession of third place, five shots behind. He made the turn at even-par and added a birdie on the 12th by making a putt from just off the back edge of the green.

Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and David Toms are tied for fourth at even par, seven shots behind Stricker.

Kelly, who won here last with a final score of 3-under 277, began the day eight shots behind Stricker. He bogeyed the first but rebounded with two birdies and eventually to 3-under.

“I enjoy the chase,” Kelly said. “I’d rather be in the lead and stretch it, that’s everybody’s ideal. But, I don’t mind the chase.”

Now that he is in the hunt, Kelly showed some renewed vigor.

“It feels great,” he said in answering a question as to how it felt to be in the hunt. “I feel the swing is getting better and better each day. I still feel good putting and the short game. I mean, I’ve just got to go out and play. These conditions are tough. It’s going to be even tougher tomorrow. Yeah, it’s going to be a dogfight.”

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Steve Stricker builds lead to five strokes at Bridgestone Senior Players Championship

Steve Stricker fired a second consecutive bogey-free round that kept in front at the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

Bogey-free golf.

Three of the sweetest words a player can hear.

Throw in a birdie or nine and it is golf nirvana. Maybe not the state of perfect happiness but it’s darn close.

Steve Stricker might not be feeling nirvana-ish but he has to be feeling pretty good about himself – as well he should – after a second consecutive bogey-free round that kept him semi-comfortably in front of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.

Stricker’s 2-under 68 was not as dazzling as his opening 63 but it got the job done. His two-day total of 9-under 131 left him with a 5-shot lead over Englishman Paul Broadhurst (67-69) and a 7-shot bulge over Marco Dawson (69-69) and Ken Duke (67-71) at the halfway point of the $3 million event, one of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule.

He is the only man in the 78-player field without a bogey.

Stricker’s five-stroke cushion matches the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history. J.C. Snead led by five after two rounds in 1992 but closed with rounds of 72-75 and finished tied for second behind Dave Stockton. And, it is the largest lead through 36 holes at a Champions Tour major since Bernhard Langer led by seven midway through the 2014 Senior Open Championship.

“You know, it was a little bit more of a grind today,” said Stricker, who parred the first nine holes before cashing in with the first of his two birdies on the 400-yard 10th. “I didn’t make a bogey, but I made a couple good saves for pars that kept the round going. But, overall, you know, really good, solid round again.”

That the 55-year-old Broadhurst is in contention is stunning. The winner of the 2016 Senior Open Championship revealed Friday that he has been suffering from vertigo for the past two months. The symptoms come and go, he said, after starting with an ear infection a few months ago.

“I’m just hoping my health holds out on me so it’s nice to find a bit a form and put a few good rounds together,” said Broadhurst, from Walsall, England. “It’s been tough. Putting’s so difficult, ball’s moving, you’re moving. I’m not swinging how I would like, balance is still not right through the ball. So I’m getting away with it at the moment, but as long as I stay OK for the weekend, I’ll give it my best shot.”

Broadhurst had four birdies and three bogeys to remain in contention in hopes of making a fourth top-10 this season. He said he fears that Stricker will have to come back to the field rather than the field catching Stricker.

“How impressive is what he’s doing?” Broadhurst asked rhetorically. “It’s not a course where you can shoot 6-under but then he shot 7-under yesterday so he proved that theory wrong. That’s what we’ve come to expect from Stricks. He continues to amaze us with some of the scores he puts on the board.”

Stricker, who will captain the Ryder Cup team in three months, had two close calls to having his bogey-free display disrupted.

On the 460-yard 14th he was able to save par after escaping the left rough and avoiding tree trouble from 116 yards. He had hoped to give himself a makeable putt from 10 to 15 feet, but a masterful 8-iron shot stopped about three feet from the hole.

“I wasn’t sitting too well after two shots and just tried to chop an 8-iron, keep it underneath the tree limbs in front of me and try to gauge it coming out of that rough properly. It was a lucky shot. It was like stealing one.”

Stricker hit 3-wood off the tee on the 395-yard 17th but ended up in the right rough, again with a tree in front of him. His 5-iron shot avoided the tree but bounced into some thick rough just off the back of the green, leaving him with a testy chip. He ran his third about four feet past but made the slightly uphill come-backer to keep his streak intact.

His lone birdies came on the 400-yard 10th when he made a 12-footer and on the famed 625-yard 16th. A 3-iron shot from 220 yards found the back bunker but he blasted out to two feet and made the putt.

“It’s a tough test,” Stricker said of the South Course, which is playing to an approximate length of 7,136 yards for the over-50 group “So, I’m happy to get out of here with another bogey-free round. And, if I can continue to do that I’ll be all right.”

Ernie Els, who finished in a tie for fifth here last year after a strong weekend, turned in the day’s lowest round at 3-under 67 and is one of six players tied for fifth at 1-under 139.

Marco Dawson posted his second 69 and shared third place with Ken Duke, each at 138. Dawson, from Freising, Germany, won the 2015 Senior Open Championship but has not had a top-10 finish on the Tour Champions since September of 2020.

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Stricker fires first-round 63 at Bridgestone Senior Players Championship

Fast starts and low rounds at Firestone Country Club are nothing new to Steve Stricker.

AKRON, Ohio – Fast starts and low rounds at Firestone Country Club are nothing new to Steve Stricker.

But, if the Ryder Cup captain gets any faster or goes any lower during the final three rounds he’ll likely leave the field distantly in his rearview mirror as the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship unfolds.

Stricker, 54, birdied five of his first nine holes on Thursday, including three in a row to close out his front nine, and went on to shoot 7-under 63 to take the first-round lead.

The 63 was Stricker’s personal best on the South Course, bettering the 64 he shot on two other occasions. It also was the lowest first round in Bridgestone Senior Players history.

Stricker’s nines of 33-30 gave him a 4-shot lead over two relative unknowns to Firestone fans. Ken Duke (35-32) and Englishman Paul Broadhurst (32-35) shared second place.

Reigning champion Jerry Kelly, who was paired with Stricker, was one of four players tied for fourth at 1-under 69 after nines of 35-34. The others are Marco Dawson (33-36), Bob Estes (34-35) and Gene Sauers (35-34).

Fast starts and superlative rounds on the South Course are part of Stricker’s Firestone DNA.

In the 2020 version of the Senior Players he opened with a 2-under 68 only to shoot 11-over during his final three rounds to finish at 9-over 289 and in a tie for 23d.

Part of that 68 including a hole-in-one on the par-3 seventh hole that helped get him to 5-under at one point.

In 2019, when Retief Goosen won by two shots, Stricker opened with a 6-under 64 then failed to break 70 the rest of the way and finished at 1-under 279.

He also laid a 6-under 64 on the field during the final round of the 2012 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. That lifted him into a tie for second place with Jim Furyk, each one shot behind winner Keegan Bradley. The 64 followed three consecutive rounds of 68.

“I have gotten off to good starts here before so I’ve got to continue with that,” he said, while acknowledging he is winless on the South Course. “Just have to keep playing with the confidence level that I played with today and keep trying to hit the shots I hit today.”

Stricker, who has been toying with his putter, its grip and how he holds it, needed just 22 putts on 14 holes and was not required to make many monsters as he hit the ball close to the hole all day. His longest birdie putts were 20 feet on the 17th and 15 feet on the 18th. His other birdie putts were close to or less than 6 feet.

“I’ve been struggling with my putting, the consistency of it,” he said. “I just haven’t been feeling that great on the greens lately and today was a good day. I putted well. I cleaned up nicely. I made all the little three, four, five-footers and those are what keeps the round going.”

After a roller-coaster front nine in which he had three birdies and three bogeys, Duke settled in for the final nine holes. He birdied three of his final four, including a chip-in from just off the 18th green for his seventh birdie of the day.

Broadhurst, who won the 2018 Senior PGA and the 2016 Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie, was nearly as steady as Stricker. The 55-year-old birdied the eighth and ninth holes that led to making the turn at 3-under, then reeled off nine consecutive pars to shoot himself into contention.

Stricker began play on the 10th hole on a sunny and windy day in which the winds grew progressively stronger as the day wore on.

“It got obviously windier as the day went on,” Stricker said. “There was a little bit of breeze right at the start and then it kept picking up, especially on our second nine. Coming down the stretch it was blowing pretty good.”

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Steve Stricker leads by one entering final round of KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship

Steve Stricker, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, has the lead at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.

This will be a big year for Steve Stricker regardless, what with the Ryder Cup approaching this fall. But Captain Stricker could make 2021 more memorable this week if he can hold on at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Sunday to win the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.

The 54-year-old Stricker will take a one-shot lead into the final round.

“I struck it nicely today. I putted it nicely,” Stricker said. “Couple bogeys I made just kind of some wrong clubs. I hit a 4-iron at the 6th hole and kind of just flagged it, penetrated right through the wind, went over the back, didn’t get that up-and-down. And another one too, I hit it in the middle of the green and 3-putted. But, yeah, it’s a tough place and it’s, it gets your attention on a lot of shots. So it’s a great test and I feel good about what I did today.”

Stricker’s score has dropped with each round, with a Saturday 67 being his lowest yet. He made three consecutive birdies from Nos. 3-5 on Saturday but gave one back with a bogey on No. 6. He played the back nine in 1 under and after 54 holes is 6 under.

That’s one better than Alex Cejka in second and three better than Mike Weir in third. Weir lost ground on Saturday with a 4-over 74.

“I mean, sure, I’m not happy with the way things turned out today, but, yeah, I have a good chance tomorrow and it was one of those days,” Weir said. “It was a little bit of bad golf, a little bit of misfortune, the wind was difficult and I seemed to – there’s a little bit of guessing out there and I seemed to guess wrong quite a bit. But all in all I feel good about my game, I was a little bit off, missed a few short putts and just got to do a little better job tomorrow to have a chance and Strick’s playing great so I’m going to have to play well to catch him and so is Alex, he’s playing well too.”

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‘I’d love to have him there’: Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker on possibility of Tiger Woods being a vice captain

Will we see Tiger Woods at the Ryder Cup, in any capacity? It’s too early for U.S. captain Steve Stricker to say for sure.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – U.S. captain Steve Stricker said Wednesday it was too early to commit to Tiger Woods being at the Ryder Cup in September.

Whether or not Woods will travel to Whistling Straits in Wisconsin as an assistant captain, his presence will be a part of the red, white and blue charges.

“I’ve talked to him. He’s still got a lot going on and his spirits are great,” Stricker said at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, home to the 103rd PGA Championship. “We were on a Zoom call with him just this last week and he seems like he’s in a better place. Like I said, though, he’s still got some ways to go.

“I’d love to have him there. Who wouldn’t, right? The guys really respect him, and he did a great job obviously as a captain (for the 2019 Presidents Cup), and he was an assistant captain of mine in 2017 at the Presidents Cup and he was unbelievable. He would do anything for you and he’s totally, totally vested in the situation and the process and almost to the point of he’s on it early and so much, it’s like, dude, we’ve still got months to go yet.”

Tiger Woods Steve Stricker Presidents Cup
Steve Stricker talks with Tiger Woods on the first tee during the Presidents Cup at Liberty National Golf Course. (Photo: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)

Woods is continuing his recovery at his Florida home following a single-car crash in February that left him with severe injuries to his right leg, ankle and foot. In recent photos, Woods had a cast on his lower right leg.

Stricker said Woods told him that whether or not he could be at Whistling Straits, he could lean on Woods for all things Ryder Cup.

“That shows his level of commitment to me, to the team, and his desire to be there if he can be,” said Stricker, who earlier this year chose Davis Love III, Zach Johnson and Jim Furyk to be vice captains. “As an assistant captain, it’s almost like he’s taken it up a notch. He can worry about the whole team where, when he’s a player, he’s just thinking about getting his own game ready so he can get those blinders on a little bit. But as an assistant captain, he is all-in with everybody and the players love it.

“They love being around him and he adds a tremendous amount when he is there.”

As for Stricker, he’s been playing well on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions and is getting to know players who could be on the team.

“A lot of it now is watching players and see how they are doing during tournaments and playing practice rounds with some of these guys,” Stricker said. “I played with Will Zalatoris Monday and Jordan (Spieth) yesterday. So it’s a great opportunity for me to come out and see some of these guys that are making their way up the points list. Played with Collin Morikawa earlier in the year.

“So I’m taking this opportunity, this extra time to get to know these guys. A lot of the prep is done. It’s just about watching these players and watching the point list and seeing how they are doing, how they are playing.”

Stricker also announced that the format for the Ryder Cup will remain status quo – foursomes in the morning Friday and Saturday, four-balls in the afternoon on Friday and Saturday.

As for the course, Stricker has visited Pete Dye’s layout overlooking Lake Michigan multiple times.

“We’ve made some tweaks, and I’m sure everybody knows what they are going to be. I’m not going to get into that part of it,” he said. “We did some things to kind of enhance the benefit towards our side just like they do when we go over to Europe and play their side. So it’s minor little things. It’s not going to change the way the course plays dramatically.”

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Alex Cejka ends six-year winless drought with major at PGA Tour Champions Regions Tradition

Alex Cejka has joined Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Lydia Ko and Mike Weir in ending prolonged victory droughts.

Alex Cejka has joined Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Lydia Ko, Mike Weir and Rory McIlroy in ending prolonged victory droughts.

Cejka, making his third PGA Tour Champions start, outlasted third-round leader and defending champion Steve Stricker in a playoff at the Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.

It’s Cejka’s first win in 2,254 days.

He got in the field for the Champions tour major as the first alternate after Jay Haas withdrew. Cejka’s last win—and lone PGA Tour win—was in the 2015 Puerto Rico Open when he outlasted four others in a playoff. He now has a Champions major in just his third start on the circuit.

Cejka did collect a couple victories 13 months ago on the Outlaw Tour in Arizona, including one in which he rallied to win from six strokes back with six holes to go, when the major golf tours paused during the pandemic.

On Sunday, he had three straight birdies on Nos. 12, 13 and 14 to take a two-shot lead.

Stricker, the 2021 Ryder Cup captain for the Americans, had four birdies on the front nine then stalled with a pair of bogeys on the back. But he got clutch when he needed to, making birdie on 16 to cut the lead to one and draining a 15-footer for another birdie on 18 to tie for the lead at 18 under. Cejka then made his par putt from two feet to force a playoff.

Leaderboard: Regions Tradition

On the first playoff hole, despite a wayward second shot, Cejka drained a 15-footer for birdie, his first birdie on the 18th hole all week. Stricker then faced a birdie putt of his own to extend the playoff but he pushed it right of the hole.

Robert Karlsson finished solo third at 14 under. Ernie Els and Jerry Kelly tied for fourth at 11 under. Bernhard Langer and David Mackenzie tied for sixth at 9 under.

Two weeks ago on the PGA Tour Champions, Cejka finished tied for second at the Chubb Classic. His senior circuit debut came in Tucson, Arizona, at the Cologuard Classic in February, where he tied for 38th.

The tour next heads to the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia, May 14-16.

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