I wonder if he's thinking "dang, that'll hold a lotta beer?". With guys from Wisconsin you just never know what kind of synaptic connections are made at any given time. Spending a lot of time in a tree stand while hunting deer will give you ideas about things other folks never consider. Like how cool it would be to cut open a trailer, put in a big heater, and hit golf balls from it out into a snow covered range. I guess when your a professional golfer who's lost playing privileges and tumbled to number 337 in the world that idea might also make sense.
Personally, I think it's a cultural thing. Remember that this is a state where deep fried cheese is a delicacy, and beer drinking a profession. I digress. Congratulations to Steve Stricker for winning the Northern Trust Open by two stokes over Luke Donald and three over J.B. Holmes and Dustin Johnson. It wasn't as easy as it could have been, after all the lead at the start of the final round was six shots, but it was satisfying.
“The position I was in, it was a good one,”Mr. Stricker, 43, said. “But if I don’t win the tournament, you’re going to be looked upon as the guy that didn’t finish it off. Those thoughts run through your head, and the guys from behind, they have nothing to lose. And I knew that, too, they’d be firing at the flags. The round seemed to last forever,” Mr. Stricker added. “It was just very difficult.”
After winning for the fourth time in fifteen months Mr. Stricker was asked if his comeback is complete? “Good question,I don’t know. One of my goals trying to come back was to obviously get my game in order and to win again, and I’ve done that. I hate to say the word ‘complete’ because I feel like I still have things to do. I came back from one part of my career that wasn’t so good to where I’m at now. But I still want to continue. I don’t want to quit what I’m doing, and I still work very hard at it.” Hence the trailer in the snow and the No. 2 world ranking. I can't imagine he considers his resume complete, especially without a major championship to his credit. Especially after contending in the 1998 PGA Championship won by Vijay Singh, a fellow who won a lot of tournaments after the age of 40, being in contention for a while at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, the 2007 US Open at Oakmont, and the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah. How much would he like to win this years PGA Championship at Whistling Straits? My guess would be a whole lot, given that it's a home game and that Milwaukee lost it's tour stop for this year due to sponsorship issues.
Sorry, I got ahead of myself. This is just February.
How good was J.B. Holmes on the 17 hole Sunday? Blasted a drive some 60 yards past Mr. Stricker and even further past Mr. Donald, hit a hybrid about 250 yards which landed about four feet past the hole and checked up to five feet. Tap the putt off the toe of the putter, downhill and into the hole for an eagle. Pretty easy game. That was fun to watch.
How much money did Kevin Stadler toss away by three putting from 8 feet on the final hole. Only $78,000. Only. I wonder where his brain wandered off to while he was missing those putts? What to have for dinner? Where did I park the car? Where did I put that phone number? Expensive brain cramp.
