Steve Stricker is a 12-time PGA Tour winner and captain of a Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team that won by a combined score of 38-20. His oldest daughter, Bobbi Maria, has had limited Epson Tour status. His youngest, Izzi, is the Wisconsin State Golf Association amateur of the year.
Just don’t forget about mom.
Nicki Stricker played at Wisconsin, was an assistant for her father, Dennis Tiziani, for a year at Wisconsin and then got married and raised two daughters.
With a little more time, a little more practice, she qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur two years ago, her first USGA competition since the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She looked at the the golf schedule this summer and noticed the Wisconsin State Women’s Four-Ball Championship.
Nicki needed a partner and didn’t have to look very far.
“I told her, ‘I want to do something golf-related and competitive with you. Let’s do the Four-Ball,” Izzi said. “So we ended up winning.”
This wasn’t a case of mom leaning on her daughter, a sophomore at Wisconsin. Nicki Stricker made seven birdies, including the final three holes.
Why the renewed interest? She’s not sure.
“I was hitting a lot, not playing a lot,” she said. “I think just to see how I could do, put myself out there. Clearly not competing against them (her daughters) or feeling like, ‘Oh, everybody else is doing it.’ I hadn’t done it for a while, and just seeing what would happen.”
They are among the most athletic families. Bobbi concentrated mostly on tennis — her mom thinks she could have played Division I doubles — and shifted to golf midway through high school. She twice made it to the second stage of the LPGA Q-Series, giving her some Epson Tour status.
Stricker is remarkable in his own right, nearly winning a major, losing his card, then returning to reach No. 2 in the world. He dominated the PGA Tour Champions two years ago and won the Charles Schwab Cup without having to play in the postseason.
Nicki Stricker always stayed involved, mainly as her husband’s caddie early in their marriage and and more lately now that their girls are grown. But she kept playing.
“Not competitively,” she said. “I’d hit some, go out and play, shoot 75, no big deal. But these last few years, it’s like I got worse. The expectations got unrealistic. Watching these guys, it was like, ‘Wait, now I’m putting in the time and effort and I’m worse.’ I had to define what it is I wanted to get out of it before I know if I’m getting it.”
What she got out it this summer was the rush of competing again in a year when her husband played only four times because of a back injury that led to surgery. Nicki also tried qualifying for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. She played in the state Senior Women’s Amateur, along with the Wisconsin Women’s Amateur.
“That was the one she won,” Nicki said, looking over at Izzi. “She kicked my (butt).”
One thing the Stricker family rarely does is compete against each other. They are a competitive bunch, and the vote was unanimous that Nicki handled losing the worst.
“We stay away from the family competition for the most part because there’s a couple people in the family that don’t like to lose. One of them is not here today,” Stricker said at the PNC Championship on a day when his wife stayed at their winter home in Orlando, Florida.
“So we just go out and try to have friendly games and try to keep it good between the four of us.”