Wisconsin’s Stricker happy Open is at home

Associated Press

ERIN, Wis.

Steve Stricker was missing a critical piece of equipment when he finished a practice round for the U.S. Open.

He walked under a tunnel off the ninth green at Erin Hills and saw a line of fans on both sides of the rope, bending to the left for another 100 yards or more. He grasped at both back pockets and realized he didn’t have a pen.

Not to worry. He had plenty of friends to bail him out.

Stricker saw them on every hole during nine holes of practice. He heard them, too, with applause greeting him at every green.

“It’s cool,” Stricker said Monday. “It’s special. One of the reasons I wanted to play here is I knew it would be fun to play in front of your home crowd. I don’t get this on a weekly basis. It’s fun to be part of it. It’s our first U.S. Open in the state. I don’t know how many more I have in front of me, so I’m glad I made it.”

This was the big one, and Stricker never felt more proud to be playing.

He is the most prolific PGA Tour winner from Wisconsin. Andy North won a pair of U.S. Opens during a career slowed by injuries. Stricker has won 12 times on the PGA Tour, was a regular on Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams for seven straight years and is such a popular figure in golf that he was appointed Presidents Cup captain for this year. None of that got him into the U.S. Open an hour from where he lives.

He had to earn that.

The USGA declined his request for a special exemption. His world ranking was too low because of his part-time schedule. So the 50-year-old headed to the U.S. Open qualifier in Tennessee and shot 67-65 to win it.

That made a U.S. Open in his home state even better.

“As it turns out, it’s the way it probably should have been,” he said. “They decline, and I get in on my own merit. That’s what makes me feel good. I feel like I belong here. I wasn’t given anything. I earned my way in.”

In so many ways, it feels like the perfect ending to a PGA Tour career no matter how he fares.

Stricker’s wife, Nicki, used to caddie for him when he first turned pro. His first big chance at winning a major was the 1998 PGA Championship at Sahalee. Nicki was home in Wisconsin about to give birth to their first child, Bobbi Maria, who was born two weeks after his runner-up finish.

Nicki is caddying for him this week at Erin Hills.