Steve Stricker, who was hospitalized on and off last winter with a strange sickness that lasted months and rendered him unable to play golf for nearly six months, has already won more tournaments this season than any other PGA Champions Tour player. He recently won his fourth Constellation Furyk & Friends event.
It appeared to be simple, like Tiger Woods’ golf. He was able to keep his drives in play and birdied the par fives. Everything was going swimmingly until his second shot at the 18th. That’s when, according to Peter Jacobsen of Golf Channel, he placed the sod over it. Stricker, if nothing else, helped golf spectators feel better about their own games. Regardless, he won.
Even with the last hole theatrics, Steve Stricker was too far ahead of a charging Harrison Frazer, who was 7-under for the round, and a determined Jim Furyk, who made four straight birdies on the back nine, for anything else to matter. Nobody could stop him. He slowed himself down by a shot, but that was all.
Steve Stricker has had a most unusual year.
After recovering from his illness, which ended up giving him pericarditis and an irregular heartbeat, Stricker didn’t know what to expect for the rest of the year. He was taking a beta blocker and blood thinner for a while, but eventually he was able to wean himself off those drugs.
Then there was the question of his golf.
“I didn’t know where my game was going to be. When I was starting to come back and hitting it super short and my body felt awful, I was just hoping to play really more than anything,” he admitted after winning.
Steve Stricker’s wife, Nicki, suggested they take it in two-week increments.
“That kind of proved to be the savior because we just could see improvement every couple weeks, whether I felt better, starting to put on weight, putting on muscle, all that kind of stuff,” he explained about the recovery process.
On the bright side, Steve Stricker had a lot of time to work on chipping and putting, although most people would agree that he was already one of the best at those two disciplines.
The victory at Constellation Furyk & Friends put him into strong contention on the Schwab points list, and with the success he’s had in the last month, winning twice since mid-September, he may decide to return in November for the last two events of the season.
However, his immediate plan is to climb a tree. No. He hasn’t lost his mind. Stricker loves deer hunting, and there is only one month during the year when deer are in season. That time is now.
So, Steve Stricker will take his bow and arrow and climb into a tree somewhere in Wisconsin and wait for the deer to come out. In the past, he has hunted elk on occasion, but this year, it’s deer, watch out.
“I did set a goal of these last three events, and I achieved the goal, so I said if I could achieve this goal, then I could probably, maybe, play in November time,” he explained, sounding not quite convinced.
His goal, amazingly enough, was to win two of the three events, and he did.
