Stricker's win is no surprise

HARRISON, N.Y. -- The first comeback was a fluke.

Steve Stricker had gone 4½ years and 88 starts on the PGA Tour without a victory when he won a tournament he had no business playing. Because so many stars stayed home from the Match Play Championship in Australia at the start of the 2001 season, Stricker got into the 64-man field even though he was No. 90 in the world ranking.

He mowed down Padraig Harrington, Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard in the first three rounds, beat Pierre Fulke in the final match to capture the $1 million prize and couldn't get through the trophy presentation without choking up.

The second comeback was anything but a fluke.

No one was surprised to see Stricker win at Westchester, only that it took this long.

The Barclays was the 147th tournament stretched over 6½ years since Stricker won in Australia, and he was beginning to wonder whether if it would ever happen again. Adding to those doubts were fresh wounds of failure, so many chances over the last four months that Stricker was getting the reputation as a guy who couldn't finish.

That brought him to Sunday afternoon at Westchester, where he made 4 birdies on the last five holes for a 2-shot victory.

That the victory put him atop the standings in the PGA Tour playoffs was insignificant, at least for now.

This was about a 40-year-old from Wisconsin who showed amazing resiliency -- first turning around his game when he lost his PGA Tour card, then turning around his fortunes on the back nine of The Barclays.

"I was just happy that it worked out my way this time," Stricker said.