Restraint urged as Americans get behind Stricker
Valhalla Golf Club may have been a quagmire thanks to pounding rainstorms, but Stricker’s performance was not so difficult to believe. He is, after all, a remarkable study, a 47-year-old who seems to play his best golf when he provides himself with larger spells of rest. Good for him and great work, if you can find it, but as the personable American signed his card for 3-under 68 and a 36-hole total of 5-under 137, you could almost hear the groundswell building: Forget being a vice-captain on the upcoming American Ryder Cup team, tell Stricker to bring his clubs and tee it up.
American golf romantics may love such a storyline. The lovable veteran steps away from the game for long periods so that he can embrace his family time and simple way of living in the country’s heartland. Though million-dollar prizes tempt world-class players every week, Stricker has been able to reject the full-time grind and perform admirably as a part-time player.
Somewhere the plot will veer you into the Tiger Woods angle and the supposition will be that Stricker, if chosen, would bring out the best in the former icon.
Oh, imagine the joy the story could provide, were it only plausible. Sadly, it seems fantasy. The Woods angle in itself is a massive stretch given how things have unfolded of late. Having finished 69th at the Open Championship, his worst 72-hole finish in a major, Woods appeared as a shell of his once bionic self in trying to take on a long, wet, and demanding Valhalla Golf Club. When he three-putted from 18 feet to double-bogey the par-4 sixth, then hit his drive at the seventh miles left, though presumably still inside state borders, it seemed to confirm suspicions: In dodgy health, for sure, his game is even sicker.
Yet Woods remains a live dilemma for US captain Tom Watson. When you consider that some of his choices might be named Brendon Todd and Chris Kirk, Webb Simpson or Matt Every, an injured and rusty and shaken Woods isn’t that bad an option.
But Stricker? Unless he were to shock the senses and somehow do what he’s never been able to do – that is, win a major championship — the feel-good charm of his second-round 68 needs to be tabled. He should not be a candidate to make this year’s US. Ryder Cup team.
Great guy. No question. But put sentiments aside. If you study the entire picture, you’ll notice that Stricker has followed an American trend in this biennial gathering. He hasn’t been effective. He’s been on three teams and twice he has failed to win a match — in 2008 right here at Valhalla, Stricker went 0-2-1, which included a singles loss to Ian Poulter, then in 2012 at Medinah CC it was shockingly miserable, an 0-4-0 mark that ended with a Sunday singles loss to Martin Kaymer, Europe’s clinching point that ignited an eruption that could be heard clear to Germany.
The other three losses put into Stricker’s column? They came alongside Woods, as the dynamic duo — at least as America hoped — was humbled and silenced.
To count on Stricker drawing upon his veteran skills and cool demeanour and provide the American side with a spark would be foolhardy. Stricker even seems to know that. “I’m obviously going to try and do the best I can this weekend, but it hasn’t really crossed my mind as a (Ryder Cup) player,” he said.
This is only Stricker’s 10th stroke-play tournament of the year and for a second straight summer he turned down his spot in the game’s greatest event, the Open Championship. His prerogative, and he should be commended for his devotion to his family. But he should not be given a different set of standards by which to play. Watson had asked of his American players to be in form late in the summer and show that you really want to make the team.
His good form in Round two at Valhalla notwithstanding, Stricker could have tossed more enthusiasm into his Ryder Cup quest.
He didn’t, so that’s that. Fact is, though, he’ll make a great vice-captain and should be first in line to be the American captain for 2016.
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