On Sunday, regardless of his position on the leaderboard, Steve Stricker will hoist the Schwab Cup trophy.
PHOENIX — For just the third time since it started in 2001, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship has been decided before reaching the final event of the year.
Steve Stricker lapped his over-50 cohorts in 2023, winning six times, including three senior majors. He’s closing in on the $4 million mark in earnings for the season, and even if he were to finish last this at Phoenix Country Club, he’d earn enough to become the first Champions player to reach that plateau in a single season on tour.
Stricker had more than doubled the No. 2 golfer on the money list, Steven Alker, and with such a sizeable lead, Stricker chose to skip the first playoffs event. Then, anyone with a shot to catch him finished far enough down the leaderboard that he was able to clinch the season title without even playing.
He also chose not to play last week’s TimberTech Championship but will compete in the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, an event he skipped a year ago. On Sunday, regardless of his position on the leaderboard, he will hoist the Schwab Cup trophy for the first time.
Steve Stricker’s amazing season just got better. And he didn’t even play this past weekend.
Steve Stricker’s amazing season just got better. And he didn’t even play this past weekend.
Holding a commanding lead in the season-long points race, Stricker benefited from his nearest competitors underperforming enough to allow him to clinch the Charles Schwab Cup with two events still to be played.
The first of the three events in the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs took place in Virginia, with Harrison Frazar winning in a one-hole playoff. Stricker didn’t play, choosing to take the week off. Participation in the playoff events isn’t mandatory and besides, Stricker had such a commanding lead in the points race, there was a scenario whereby he could skip all three playoff stops and still claim the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup.
The PGA Tour Champions post-season had 72 players qualify but only six had a mathematical chance at winning the points race but none of them made a serious run in Stricker’s absence: Ernie Els tied for seventh; Stephen Ames tied for 20th; Steven Alker and Bernhard Langer tied for 25th and David Toms tied for 35th.
Three weeks ago, ahead of the Furyk & Friends event on the Champions tour in Jacksonville, Stricker verbally committed to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club, Nov. 9-12, saying “I’ll definitely be at the last one.”
The next tournament is Nov. 3-5 at the TimberTech Championship. Stricker has said he “probably won’t” play that one.
The finale in Phoenix is a 72-hole event with only the top 36 in the points eligible. It’s a no-cut event and even if Stricker should finish last, he’d bank $16,500 and become the first on the Champions tour to surpass the $4-million mark in a season. He currently stands at $3,986,063.
Stricker’s early clinch is not the first time it’s happened on the PGA Tour Champions. In 2002, Hale Irwin did it after the 32nd of 35 events. In 2014, Bernhard Langer clinched after the second-to-last event of the season.
There are just three events left in the 2023 season to determine the top player on the PGA Tour Champions.
There’s dominating your tour and then there’s what Steve Stricker is doing in 2023.
Stricker has such a massive lead in the season-long points race on the PGA Tour Champions that it’s possible he could skip all three playoff events and still win the title.
Since 2001, the winner of the season-long race has won the Charles Schwab Cup. The Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs are a three-tournament series used to determine the winner of the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup.
Stricker has been the hands-down best player on the circuit in 2023, winning the most events and earning the most money. The money earned through last week’s SAS Championship has since been converted into a points list for the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs and Stricker’s lead will be difficult to overcome.
Here’s what else you need to know about the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.
Is the Ryder Cup due for a close contest? Which new stars will shine? Will fans become a storyline?
Is it 2025 yet?
For golf fans across the globe the countdown to the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, has already started despite the fact the 44th playing of the biennial bash between the United States and Europe is just one day in the rearview mirror.
For American fans, they want to wash away the embarrassing performance at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy last week. As for the European supporters, they want to ride the momentum of another win at home and avenge the historic loss at Whistling Straits in 2021.
A lot can happen over two years, especially in golf, but don’t let that get in the way of a fun thought exercise. Here are some way, way too early predictions for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
[afflinkbutton text=”Book your trip to Bethpage for the Ryder Cup” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/tournaments/the-ryder-cup/?cid=999741185&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=ryder_cup_2025_q4_23_gw”]
“The shots I hit good or bad, the scores I shoot good or bad, don’t define me.”
At first, Nicki Stricker didn’t tell anyone in the family that she’d signed up for U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur qualifying. She wanted the challenge to be hers for a little while.
Stricker, 54, and her mental coach, Kathy Hart Wood, sister of Dudley Hart, came up with trying to qualify for a USGA Championship as a way to give purpose to her practice.
“Just getting really frustrated because everyone was kicking my butt in my house,” said Stricker, wife to Steve and mom to Bobbi, 25, and 17-year-old Izzi, with a laugh. “I’m a fairly competitive person so was just like, what is happening?”
Caddie Nicki Stricker, caddie for Steve Stricker, of the United States looks on from the 11th hole during the second round of the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course on May 21, 2021 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Needless to say, everyone in the Stricker house is competitive, and Nicki, a former collegiate player, wasn’t having too much fun on the golf course. She also wanted to set a good example for her girls. Nicki didn’t like how she treated herself on the golf course after a bad shot, and with one daughter playing the game professionally and another one playing high-level junior golf, she knew they were watching.
“The shots I hit good or bad, the scores I shoot good or bad, don’t define me,” said Nicki of what she’s learned.
Wood taught Sticker to hit shots from one of the three c’s – calm, confident, certain. Rather than put numbers down on a scorecard, she’d write which “c” she hit from.
Beginning on Saturday at the 61st U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Troon Country Club, there will be numbers on the card. It’s the first tournament Stricker has competed in in some 20 years, and the first USGA championship since the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Kemper Lakes.
With Steve working as a vice captain this week at the Ryder Cup in Rome with eldest daughter Bobbi by his side, and Izzi playing in the postseason for high school golf, Nicki won’t have any family by her side in Arizona, though she will have Wood, who will caddie.
Nicki, of course, has caddied for Steve throughout his career. Bobbi played tennis through high school and didn’t take up golf until college. Izzi, a high school senior, won a Wisconsin state golf title last year. It’s not uncommon for the two sisters to take on their parents in a match.
“The game keeps us together,” Bobbi told Golfweek last year. “We travel with (dad), we practice with him.”
Steve was getting a lesson from Nicki’s father Dennis Tiziani at Cherokee Country Club (now TPC Wisconsin) the day they met. Nicki, who was a lifeguard at the club, went over after her shift ended to see her dad and there was Steve.
“My dad had said something after,” she recalled. “ ‘You know the guy you met? He asked for your number.’ ”
After waiting for three days, Nicki finally decided to call Steve and ask him out. Nicki was going into her freshman year of college at Wisconsin and Steve was a junior at Illinois.
The couple married in 1993.
Stricker family: Nicki, Steve, Bobbi and Izzi (courtesy Bobbi Stricker)
Steve, now a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour and a 17-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions, including six titles this season, won the 2019 U.S. Senior Open with Nicki on the bag.
All that time caddying for Steve changed Nicki’s approach to a golf course, how she looks at green complexes and how she views the importance of short game. She shot 7-over 77 at Glenview Park Golf Club in Illinois to secure her spot in this week’s field of 132. She’d love to advance to match play and see what happens.
“They’re super proud of me,” said Nicki of what her kids think of mom back in a USGA Championship. “Which to have your child say that they’re proud of you for something obviously warms my heart … makes me choke up a little bit.”
“I’m kind of like a gnat, like I just hang around, you know.”
By just about any measurement, Zach Johnson has exceeded expectations for his playing career.
The former Drake University golfer wasn’t even the No. 1 player on his team but, as he put it, he just kept getting better every year. So much so that he would go on to claim 12 PGA Tour titles, including two major championships, the 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open played at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. In doing so, he became only the sixth golfer to win majors at St. Andrews and Augusta National joining an exclusive group of players which includes Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
In February 2022, Johnson was named Team USA captain for the Ryder Cup, which begins Sept. 29 in Rome at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club,
Johnson has represented the U.S. side in the Ryder Cup five times as a player, being part of the winning team in 2016, and compiling an 8-7-2 record. Johnson has also served as a vice captain in the last two editions of the biennial contest in 2018 and 2021.
Attempting to win on European soil, something the American side hasn’t done in 30 years, sounds like an enormous task but Johnson just might be the right person for the job. Last week, while competing at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, Johnson sat down exclusively with Golfweek for the following Q&A.
The Ryder Cup vice captain opened the week with course-record 62.
K.J. Choi and Steve Stricker posted matching course-record 62s on Friday to open the 2023 Sanford International.
Stricker then went 66-66 over the weekend at Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to earn a one-stroke win, his sixth victory of the 2023 season and 17th overall on the PGA Tour Champions.
One of two Ryder Cup vice captains in the field (Jim Furyk is the other), Stricker had 16 birdies – including five in a row on the back nine during the first round – and two eagles over 54 holes. The eagles came on the 12th hole on Saturday and Sunday. He had only four bogeys on the week, including one the 18th Sunday, but a two-shot cushion before that hole assured him some wiggle room.
“There are a lot of guys up around the lead and it just became a two-man race there towards the end. It’s always a challenge. You’re fighting your game, you’re fighting your nerves, you’re just trying to get it done,” he said. “It’s so rewarding when you do, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun to come here and play and enjoy the area, enjoy the course. Couldn’t ask for a better week.”
Stricker picked up $300,000 for the win and in the process set the mark for most money earned in a season on the Champions tour with $3,956,127.
Bernhard Langer finished solo fourth, marking his seventh straight top-10 finish of the season, a streak that started when he won the U.S. Senior Open in July. He shot a final-round 64 and was 12 under for the week, four shots back of Stricker.
John Daly, meanwhile, had had his best finish in more than a year with a tie for eighth. Daly’s average finish this season is 65th and he has WD’d from two events. This week, he went 66-64-70.
Aces high
There were two holes-in-one during the first round. Fred Funk aced the 17th hole using a hybrid from 199 yards while John Senden got his on No. 8 with a pitching wedge from 132 yards. There was another ace on Sunday when Jerry Kelly got one on the 17th hole.
Dick Mast, 72, got in the field after Monday qualifying and bettered his age with even-par 70 in the first round. He matched his age with a 72 in Saturday’s third round. He beat his age by a shot during Sunday’s final round and tied for 67th, beating nine golfers, including Jim Furyk and European Ryder Cup vice captain Jose Maria Olazabal.
Tiger Woods won the same stop three times in a row six different times.
Only six golfers have ever done it. It’s only happened 11 times at all on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods has done it six of those times. On two of those occasions, Woods won the same tournament four years in a row.
Three in a row, however, hasn’t happened in 12 years, not since the 2011 John Deere Classic.
The list of PGA Tour golfers who have won the same tournament three consecutive seasons has some big names on it, for sure. Woods, as mentioned. Jack Nicklaus was the first to do it. Many of the game’s greats never pulled off this feat, though.
Check out the list of names and tournaments below. Source: pgatour.com.
Check out the photos of the new TPC Wisconsin in Madison.
The former Cherokee Country Club in Madison, Wisconsin, has been renovated by PGA Tour player Steve Stricker and reopened to members today as TPC Wisconsin. A grand opening will be planned for a later date.
Stricker, a resident of Madison, was helped in the renovation by PGA Tour Design Services. The private club becomes the 30th property in the TPC Network as part of a licensing deal signed in 2022, with ownership and operations remaining under Cherokee Park Inc.
Much of the course was rerouted and it all was re-grassed, and a new irrigation system was installed. Spectator mounding was added, as TPC Wisconsin will be the site of the PGA Tour Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship starting in 2025.
The club’s teaching center was enhanced — a new indoor hitting structure for club and putter fitting, plus Trackman technology, an indoor putting facility and an outdoor short-game area — and named the Steve & Nicki Stricker American Family Insurance Learning Center. The clubhouse was also extensively renovated.
“I’ve lived on this course for many years — since it was Cherokee Country Club,” Steve Stricker said in a media release announcing the news of the opening. “This is my home. I consider it a privilege to bring my PGA Tour career experience to bear on its re-envisioning, and I have totally enjoyed working on the project with PGA Tour Design Services. TPC Wisconsin will play to exact PGA Tour standards. It’ll be a fair test for players of all levels, and yes — it’s going to be exceptional.”
The renovation also saw the restoration of more than 35 acres of degraded wetlands that are tied to Cherokee Marsh.
“The redesign of the course has gone exceptionally well; we’ve raised our fairways two to four feet to ensure drainage and playing surface perfection,” Wisconsin golf legend Dennis Tiziani, owner and president of TPC Wisconsin as well as Steve Stricker’s father-in-law, said in the media release. “The work that has been put in on the property from 2021-2023 is an engineering marvel and an ecological miracle.
“I’ve been around the game of golf for a very long time, and I assure you that what we’ve created is not only going to be a challenging course, but a memorable one. Players will remember every hole — not just two or three ‘signature’ holes like on many courses. And because golf instruction is my passion, TPC Wisconsin will be among the best places in the world to improve your game.”
After opening with a 5-under 65, Steve Stricker stumbled during the second round of the Kaulig Companies Championship, shooting a 3-over 73 on Friday. He bounced back nicely on Saturday, however, firing another 65 at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, to get to 7 under for the tournament and tied atop the leaderboard.
Harrison Frazar, the 36-hole leader, shot a third-round even-par 70 and is tied with Stricker. Frazar is looking for his first win on the PGA Tour Champions and hasn’t finished inside the top 10 of an event since February. Sticker on the other hand, has already won four times on the senior circuit this season. His worse finish in 12 starts is a tie for eighth at the Cologuard Classic in March.
Stewart Cink, after and third-round even-par 70, is in third at 6 under, one back.
Ernie Els and K.J. Choi are tied for fourth, two back of the leaders at 5 under. Scott Parel is solo fifth at 4 under while David Toms is alone in sixth at 3 under.
