Steve Stricker looking to surprise again

Steve Stricker is the defending champion at the Match Play Championship, only it didn't seem that way when he arrived at La Costa Resort on Monday.

Not many defending champions feel like they have something to prove.

"Deep down, I know what I did, and I feel good about what I did," he said.

The trick is convincing people that his victory last year in the Accenture Match Play Championship could have happened no matter who showed up at Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia.

Stricker won six matches, and only one was close. He beat Ryder Cup members Padraig Harrington, Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard, squeezed past local favorite Nick O'Hern and then got past Toru Taniguchi and Pierre Fulke for the $1 million prize.

No, he never had to face a Tiger Woods, David Duval or Darren Clarke because they were among 28 players from the top 64 in the world rankings who decided to stay home instead of traveling halfway around the world for Australia.

That's the only reason Stricker, No. 90 in the world at the time, got to play.

Did that matter? He showed why he is one of the best putters on tour and one of its scrappiest players. In 118 holes that week, Stricker was behind on only nine.

Will he ever get proper credit?

"Unfortunately for him, maybe not," David Toms said. "He's a great player. I went down there. A lot of people went down there. But the straight answer is no, probably not."

That's of little concern to Stricker.

In a field that included Vijay Singh (beaten in the second round), Tom Lehman (third round) and Ernie Els (semifinals), Stricker emerged the winner of the World Golf Championship and its $1 million prize.

By late Monday afternoon, he was still on the range at La Costa alongside Duval, still recovering from a stomach illness that knocked him out of the final round at Riviera, and Clarke, who won the Match Play at La Costa two years ago.

Clarke defeated Tiger Woods in the finals, 4 and 3. Woods took last week off and checked in Monday afternoon, said to be swinging well and determined to win the only WGC trophy he doesn't have on the mantle.

The stars are back.

And the defending champion is thankful to be back, having squeezed in at No. 55 in the world ranking. He will get Chris DiMarco in the opening round.

Even Stricker admits that people will look at his victory with an asterisk because of the depleted field, which isn't all bad.

The attention and the focus won't be on me," he said. "Hopefully, I can surprise a few people again."

His goal is to win, but even a few victories or advancing to the weekend -- no small task, even for the highest-ranked players -- would be vindication.

"Maybe a little bit," he said. "But again, I don't feel like I need to back that up or try to prove anything. I played well that week. I don't need to prove myself here."

He wasn't a one-hit wonder.

Stricker won twice in 1996 and was considered one of game's young stars until he got sidetracked by equipment changes and his constant pursuit of finding the fairway. He never used anything but a 3-wood off the tee until he was in college, and still tends to hit the ball sideways from time to time.

Put him anywhere on the green, however, and he's one of the best. He was 11th in putting last year, and a defining moment in Australia came on the first extra hole against O'Hern, when Stricker holed a tricky, downhill putt from 12 feet to stay alive.

It should come as no surprise, either, that Stricker was only three strokes back going into the weekend at the Masters and wound up in a tie for 10th.

Was his victory at Melbourne a fluke? That will be debated for years because of a 64-man field missing nearly half of the top players.

Then again, it is not often that a Match Play Championship goes according to play. Because the matches are only 18 holes until the finals, anything is possible.

In the first year, Jeff Maggert, the 24th seed, defeated 50th-seeded Andrew Magee in the finals. In 2000, Clarke was the No. 19 seed when he defeated Woods. A year ago, Stricker was No. 55 when he beat Fulke, seeded No. 21.

In three tournaments, Woods is the only player seeded 16th or higher to even reach the finals. And with the depth in golf these days, it's hard to call anything an upset -- even if the guy who wins is Stricker, a mild-mannered 34-year-old from Wisconsin with a killer instinct in match play.

Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page