The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stricker, at 51, looking to play more on PGA
Pull of regular tour keeping him from Champions full time.
HONOLULU — Steve Stricker came to Hawaii for two weeks of work, just like the old days, but with a twist. Instead of starting at the winners-only field at Kapalua and then going over to the Sony Open, he started at the Sony Open and heads to the winners-only field on the Big Island for the PGA Tour Champions opener.
The question is how long he stays with players his own age.
It’s a question Vijay Singh and Davis Love III have contemplated over the past few years.
Stricker, who is about to turn 52, played 13 times on the PGA Tour and six times on the Champions in his first year of eligibility. Last year, he was up to seven Champions events and one fewer on the PGA Tour.
Now he appears to be leaning toward the PGA Tour, with Pebble Beach and Riviera on his schedule, and possibly Phoenix.
“I talked to Tom Kite at the Ryder Cup about my position a little bit. He gave me the idea like I should be on the Champions tour. Take advantage of this opportunity, you have a short window, all this kind of stuff,” Stricker said. “Then you talk to somebody else and they say: ‘The number of years is winding down for you on the regular tour. Stay out there as long as you can.’
“I don’t know which way to go,” he said. “Everybody has their opinion. I think bottom line is I’m just doing what I feel like doing . ... My intention right now is to be out here and try to play as well as I can and try to win again. I still feel like it can happen.”
Both sides make sense, though times were different when Kite turned 50 in 2000. The arrival of Tiger Woods and his impact on TV contracts and prize money was just starting to kick in. Stricker already had more than $40 million in career earnings when he turned 50, and that includes five lean years in his prime. Ditto for Love, minus the lean years. Singh was over the $65 million mark.
It’s also hard to ignore that Stricker made $1,196,235 in seven Champions events last year, and $582,566 in 12 starts on the PGA Tour.
“I’m not looking at the money part of it,” Stricker said. “If that was the case, I would be playing more on the Champions tour. I feel it’s a challenge, and I’m still feeling good enough and excited enough to take on that challenge.”
Love won the Wyndham Championship in 2015 at age 51, so he has proof it can be done. He also tied for seventh in the Sony Open.
“I’ve talked to Vijay about it,” Love said. “You’ve got to pick one or the other.”
Scheduling issues
The story hasn’t changed for several years now as PGA Tour players try to build a schedule and find too many tournaments they don’t want to miss.
Adam Scott is taking a simple approach, even if that means missing $10 million events with no cut.
“I don’t know how everyone can define a big tournament different,” Scott said. “But at the moment, I have not scheduled a World Golf Championship because they don’t fall in the right place for me.”
Ten years ago, that would have been surprising to hear someone skip out on a World Golf Championship. Now, not so much.
The first one of the year is in Mexico City and falls right after a popular West Coast stretch that includes Phoenix, Pebble Beach and Riviera, and right before a packed part of the schedule in Florida as the Masters gets closer.
Match Play in Austin, Texas, falls after four straight Florida events — Honda Classic, Bay Hill, The Players Championship and Valspar Championship outside Tampa, Florida — and two weeks before the Masters. Some players have skipped Match Play in recent years because of the format, which no longer is single elimination. Tiger Woods likely will have to choose between Tampa and Match Play as it relates to his pre-Masters play.
The difference in FedEx Cup points is minimal — 550 to the winner of a WGC event, 500 for a regular event (and 600 for majors). Money? The WGC purse is $10.25 million this year. The Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational purses are at $9.1 million.
These days, what’s $1 million, anyway?
“I feel like there are good tournaments right around them that are a preferred option,” Scott said about missing the WGCs.
The other one is in Memphis, Tennessee, the week after the British Open in Northern Ireland.
Final word
“The thing for us is not to get caught up in today’s news. I learned that lesson already because I know what’s wrong with Jordan Spieth, and I know what’s right with Jordan Spieth. I know how to get to where I want to go with my golf game and have fun doing it.” — Jordan Spieth.