LA QUINTA, Calif. – Steve Stricker wasn’t even supposed to be here.
The 53-year-old U.S. Ryder Cup captain was supposed to be in Hawaii this week kicking off a year on the PGA Tour Champions and enjoying the fruits of 27 years of hard labor on the PGA Tour. Instead, he spent the week as a Tour player and moonlighting as a Ryder Cup captain. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Stricker isn’t clinging to his former glory on Tour like so many others, and he’s far too much of a realist to think he can still regularly compete in the big-hitting big leagues. No, the soft-spoken father of two is here because when last year’s Ryder Cup was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic so was his fade into semi-retirement on the over-50 circuit.
Following rounds of 75-74 at The American Express, Stricker was bound for the parking lot. But if it was a wasted week on the course it was very much time well spent as a captain.
“I get a look at some guys. This year I was planning on being on the Champions Tour,” he smiled. “I feel like I still need to be out here. Just being around is important.”
He played a practice round with Patrick Cantlay on Tuesday at PGA West and “talked” to Patrick Reed yesterday.
It’s what modern captains have to do in order to keep up with a rapidly changing landscape and Stricker said he plans to play 10-12 events on Tour leading up to the Ryder Cup in September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. It’s going to be a home game for the favorite son and he’s leaving nothing to chance, and that includes regular pop-ins on Tour.
The matches may be eight months away, but the captain has been keeping himself busy going over his potential team and keeping track of players. One of those potential players dropped a bit of a surprise on Stricker this week when Tiger Woods announced he’d recently had his fifth back procedure and would miss his next two starts.
Stricker, Woods’ longtime friend, was genuinely concerned for the 15-time major champion. Stricker, the captain, was equally as concerned.
“I was shocked,” Stricker said. “I knew he wasn’t feeling great watching him at the [PNC Championship]. It looked like he was not 100 percent, but I just figured he maybe wasn’t playing as much at home. I haven’t reached out to him yet but I will. Hopefully he gets it cleared up.”
If that doesn’t sound like a captain with player issues know that Stricker is aware how quickly Woods can change the narrative. He also knows there is plenty of golf between now and Aug. 29 when the top 6 players on the U.S. points list earn spots on the team and the process begins to pick an unprecedented six players to round out the American side.
“I’m looking at [the points list] now. I looked at it after the Sony Open just to see where the team stands,” he said. “I know it’s a long way away, but it’s still good to keep watching and see who is playing well.”
Stricker conceded that the selection process won’t begin to solidify itself until well into the summer, but he’s not the kind of captain to sit around and wait, which is why he made the trip to Palm Springs instead of Hawaii for the senior tour opener this week.
“It’s still good to think about things and see where guys are and potential pairings,” he said. “We’ve got some young guys who are probably going to make that team.”
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It’s a measure of how thoroughly Stricker has already embraced his role as captain that there were no awkward introductions this week: “Hi, I’m Steve. I’m the Ryder Cup captain.”
He’d already met Collin Morikawa (who is currently fourth on the points list) during a practice round at last year’s PGA Championship, which the 23-year-old won, and he had already spent time with Matthew Wolff, although that didn’t stop him from reaching out to him again this week.
“These guys are playing great, there’s no scar tissue with some of these young players,” he said. “They want to be a part of that team.”
And Stricker wanted to be at PGA West doing captain stuff, even though he wasn’t supposed to be here.