Fire and nice.
That’s Steve Stricker.
Shy at heart, but not timid about his game. A 31-year-old of unlimited potential, superb talent and great expectations–ingredients that when mixed together led to a meltdown he never saw coming.
“Slumps don’t exist,” wrote Timothy Gallwey in his book, `The Inner Game of Golf.’ We create them in our own mind.”
If so, Stricker conjured up a doozy.
From $1,383,739 in winnings in 1996 to an income of $167,652 over the next 12 months. From two victories (Kemper, Motorola Western Open) in ’96 to none last year. From world-class player (Presidents Cup, Dunhill Cup) to “Uh, could we see your ID, sir?” in one fell swoop.
“I had lost all confidence,” the former University of Illinois All-American said of his ’97 campaign. “I was playing so bad. I wasn’t having any fun the whole year. What goes through your mind at that point is, if this continues, maybe I should give it up. But then you say, no, and what you really do is work harder at it. What I also learned was not to put so much pressure on myself.”
Stricker’s first instinct was to find something to blame. His gaze came to rest on: The Club.
A year ago at the Western he was sure he had the culprit dead to rights: a new Taylor Made driver he was using as part of his new club deal with the manufacturer. The stats bore him out: 191st on the PGA Tour in fairways hit.
Now that he has game back ($491,447 in ’98 winnings, including a fifth in last weekend’s U.S. Open), and his smile, too, Stricker admits there was more to it than that. He realizes the bub hitting the club bore some responsibility too.
“The club was an issue,” said Stricker’s father-in-law and instructor, University of Wisconsin coach Dennis Tiziani. “But not nearly as much as lack of preparation for ’97. The extensive travel was part of it. Toward the end of 1996 he only took one week off. And there were fundamental swing changes that needed to be made, but how much do you fool with someone who is one of the top players in the world?”
Little by little, as he missed the cut in the Masters and the PGA and the Tour Championship and seven of the 20 events in which he played, Stricker’s confidence was shaken.
“He’s all about competition,” Tiziani said. “Whether it’s trap shooting, rifle shooting or golf. He’s all about winning. He can handle rejection. What he couldn’t handle was not performing.”
Stricker took it out on himself. And his caddie. That his caddie happened to be his wife, Nicki, only made it worse.
“It was hard on both of us,” said Stricker, who shot a 1-under-par 71 in Thursday’s opening round of the Western Open at Cog Hill. “I was not a happy person last year, and it probably hurt her to see me that way. As I look back, though, it also showed the strength of our marriage. Through that whole time there were no major fights.”
What Stricker needed most was a rest. And a new game plan. He got both over a long Christmas break. He arrived at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic a new man–with a new outlook, a new body and some wonderful new news: Nicki was pregnant.
The baby is due Aug. 31. Stricker, however, was overdue. He tied for 29th at the Hope. Since then he has tied for seventh at Hawaii, sixth at Bay Hill, placed fifth at the Bryon Nelson, eighth at Kemper and fifth in the U.S. Open.
“It was a combination of working with Dennis and getting more comfortable with my equipment,” Stricker said. “But it was also hitting bottom. I felt like I couldn’t get any worse than last year. The only way I could go was up.”
Stricker began working with a personal trainer.
“He reduced his body fat,” Tiziani said. “It made him a lot more flexible. There’s a reason guys exercise. Until this year he never did that.”
He fiddled with the driver enough to become more comfortable with it. He’s hitting the ball shorter (270.3 to 274.8 yards), but straighter (144th in fairways hit).
“It’s a lot better,” said Stricker, who hit 92 percent of his fairways Thursday. “I’m not hitting the titanium head. I’m hitting one of their metal heads. It doesn’t have the bubble shaft. Maybe the bubble’s not for me.”
And he fired his caddie. Well, actually, it was Nicki who quit. To rest up for the baby.
“It has been different without her,” Stricker said. “Both good and bad. She does an extremely good job on the course. We had a great rapport. But we’re so happy to see each other now. The off-course time is more precious. We have more fun because she’s not getting burned out on the course with me.”
Stricker has a new caddie, Jimmy Walker of Louisville, who carried Jeff Sluman’s bag for seven years.
“We’re still adjusting,” Stricker said. “Jimmy is a little more conservative than Nicki, but that has also been good. He makes me lay up sometimes when I want to go for it. It may be one of the reasons I’m playing better.”
Steve Stricker is still the same nice guy from Edgerton, Wis., on the outside, and still a driven competitor on the inside.
Fire and nice. Who said they couldn’t coexist?
