On Thursday afternoon, I made the short drive down the street to the local Subway sandwich shop to pick up my healthy fix before heading back to the computer. Parked outside Subway was an obnoxiously expensive car with the license plate "Stricker" personalized across the back of the shiny vehicle. On the phone with my Las Vegas buddy, who was busy losing the rest of his money, I joked "I wonder if Steve Stricker is grabbing a quick foot-long?"He was not. Stricker was 1,000 miles away, beating up Colonial Country Club like the golf course owed him something. Colonial, the longest-running PGA Tour event at its original site, has never had someone do what Stricker did through 36 holes. Consecutive 63s have put the 42-year-old Stricker ahead of the pack at a windless Colonial, where he has made a birdie on 44 percent of the holes he's played this week.
The problem is, he isn't running away from anyone. Vijay Singh, who was nearly pronounced dead earlier this year before a comeback week at TPC Sawgrass, is charging up the leaderboard after a first round 64 and Jason Day and Sean O'Hair are right behind Singh, staring up at Stricker.
The success of Stricker has been rather interesting over the years. Two wins in 1996 by a combined 11 shots over his closest competitors had him as a name to be known in the golf world, but it took him five years to card another victory and six more years to garnish win number four on tour. Not many people can say that they have been named PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year twice in a row like Stricker earned in 2006 and '07, but that is the career we've seen from the putting maestro.
A Saturday pairing of Stricker and Singh wouldn't be that unusual. In 1998, Stricker had one of his best shots at a major, but Vijay took that PGA Championship by two shots over Steve. Now, Stricker will be the one that Vijay has to look up to.
