Stricker set for comeback

IMAGINE trying to come down from cloud nine after three years of planning for a Ryder Cup taking place in your hometown ends in a record victory? In November last year, just over a month after the triumph at whistling straits, Us captain steve stricker was hospitalised with a soaring white blood cell count and an inflammation around his heart. He lost almost two stone from an already lean frame. the heart muscle put to the test during those pulse-racing days as captain was arrhythmic by thanksgiving Day. ‘It stayed that way until Christmas eve,’ said stricker.

‘the doctor told me it might be six months before I could think again about golf. I’m sure the letdown after the Ryder Cup had a lot to do with it.’ Happily, stricker, 55, will return to competition a little ahead of that forecast on the Champions tour this week, and the season’s first senior major.