ing the third round of The Greenbrier
Classic, it was Steve Stricker Bobble-head Night at Modern Woodmen Park
in Davenport, Iowa, where the Quad
Cities River Bandits were hosting the
Clinton Lumberjacks. That ought to
be worth a couple of Ryder Cup points
right there. —Jim Moriarty
Hunter Martin/Getty iMaGes
play some and play well. I was going
to play the AT&T National and just
decided to flip the two.”
Altering his schedule also meant
arriving without his usual caddie,
Jimmy Johnson. Instead, wife Nicki
came out of retirement to carry
the bag, something she did early in
Stricker’s career.
Although Stricker doesn’t exactly
need it, knowing the matches will be
held in suburban Chicago at Medinah
CC is extra incentive. “I went to school
in Illinois just a couple hours away,
and it’s just a couple hours from home
[in Madison, Wis.] for me so, yeah, I’d
love to be a part of that,” says Stricker.
“I was on the last team, we ended up
losing over in Wales. I’d like to be on
that team again and try to help get the
Ryder Cup back to the U.S.”
Stricker is heading to his personal
cash cow, the John Deere Classic, a
tournament he has won the last three
years. In fact, such is his Midwestern
street cred that, although he was play-
lpga
Some progress and
more questions for Wie
�� That 66 on Friday seemed to
suggest Michelle Wie had found
whatever has been missing this year
and that she was ready to return as
a force on the LPGA. It was her first
round in the 60s since her second
round of the year, and it was a course-record performance on a difficult
Blackwolf Run set-up to demanding USGA standards for the U.S.
Women’s Open.
Most remarkably, Wie needed only
23 putts— 13 one-putt greens—after 35
putts in her opening-round 74. There
was definitely a buzz in the air Saturday in Kohler, Wis., when Wie was in
the final group of the day with Suzann
Pettersen. But 78 strokes later—with
33 putts—she was eliminated from
contention. On Sunday, Wie was even
worse, with an 80 and 33 more putts.
“It was one of the most frustrating
rounds for me,” Wie said Sunday. “I
hit a lot of missed shots today. The
long game didn’t feel comfortable
for me out there, and I hit every putt
really good and every putt looked like
they were going to go in [but they]
didn’t go in.”
Wie at times seems to be as much
at a loss over her play as everyone
else. Certainly, she has had off-course
distractions with her graduation from
01Na Yeon Choi becomes the 10th Korean to win an LPGA major at
the U. S. Women’s Open.
And she might become the first since Se Ri
Pak to win another.
02 Lydia Ko, 15, finishes T- 39 to take low amateur honors.
She’s Korean, so if form holds, she’ll win the
2020 U. S. Women’s Open.
03 Meg Mallon names Dottie Pepper an assistant captain
for the 2013 Solheim Cup.
Honestly, we got a little choked up when we
heard the news.
04 Unsung lefty Ted Potter Jr. beats equally unheralded Troy
Kelly at The Greenbrier Classic.
He’s now won $1,099,870 in two weeks,
thanks to earning $1,870 for a T- 51 at the
Web.com Tour event a week earlier.
05 Kelly loses the playoff but still gets a berth in the British Open.
Our hunch is he would rather have the win,
the Masters spot and the two-year PGA Tour
exemption.
06 The winner of Golf Channel’s “Big Break Greenbrier” to get a
spot in the 2013 Greenbrier Classic.
We’ve lost track. Have they already done Big
Break Augusta National?
07 Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson (above) miss the cut in the
same event for the first time as pros.
We like to see them paired, but this isn’t
what we had in mind.
08Lorena Ochoa will return to golf on a limited basis this year.
What else is a retired person supposed to do
besides play golf?
PunchLine
contest!
-
.
nathan Wilson, Punta Gorda, Fla.
09 Phil Mickelson drops his marker on his ball to incur a penalty at
The Greenbrier Classic.
Just another reason the Rules of Golf need
to be revamped.
