Is Stricker ready to match Woods at Cog Hill?
The eternal quest to find a player to duel with Tiger Woods seems to produce a new name every couple of months or so.
Over the years there's been Mike Weir, Phil, Sergio, Vijay, Ernie, Padraig ... name a player, and they couldn't toss paws with Tiger.
As a field of 69 prepares to take on a renovated Cog Hill this morning in the first round of the BMW Championship, the latest name on everyone's lips is Steve Stricker, the FedExCup points leader courtesy of his victory last week in the Deutsche Bank Championship.
"Obviously it was a great win for me; it was really the first time I had won a golf tournament with probably all the top players in the field - Tiger being there, Phil being there - you know, all the top players in the world were there," the low-key Stricker said. "So it was a pretty special win."
The Wisconsin native and University of Illinois alum will try to make it back-to-back wins, and for the third consecutive week, he'll do it playing alongside Woods in at least the first two rounds of a playoff event.
And he'll do it feeling more and more like he belongs in the upper stratosphere where he currently resides.
"I'm up there, I know I'm up there," Stricker said. "But I don't know, maybe I'm playing it off. I'm just doing my thing, and that's what my caddie and I keep telling each other - just do what I do and not worry about any of the other things.
"I don't know if I'm a rival to him or not. I've been playing well, and that's all I try to do is just go out and play well."
It's that attitude of not trying to keep up with the Jones' - or the Woods' for that matter - that has Harrington convinced that Stricker might just be the guy to keep up with Tiger, both this week in his own backyard and in Atlanta for the Tour Championship in two weeks.
"I think Stricker is in an ideal position," Harrington said. "What's great about Steve Stricker is he's trying to be Steve Stricker. He's going to try and beat Tiger Woods by playing Steve Stricker's golf. He's not going to go out there and try and play Tiger's game, and that's very important to distinguish those two things.
"That's the only way any player can compete with Tiger. The best way of beating him is doing your own thing and making Tiger perform better. And when he does, you'll say 'well done.'"
And if Woods has to say 'well done' to anyone on Sunday, he'd probably have less of a problem with it if that guy happens to be all-around nice guy Stricker.
"He's just a great guy, period," Woods said. "He's still the same Steve. From the time I came out here on tour until now, he hasn't changed one bit. He's just a great guy overall."
But don't let Stricker's calm demeanor fool you.
"He's extremely competitive," Woods said. "People don't realize how competitive he is, but he is. It's another side of him we don't get to see very often - we see how nice he is all the time."