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 No surprise there, since he has only two top-10 finishes in 13
appearances in the third major of the year, a tie for eighth at
Carnoustie in 2007 and a tie for seventh the following year at Royal
Birkdale.
Chances are, he won't be at Royal Liverpool in two weeks either.
"Ask me tomorrow, I could be going," Stricker said. "Ask me another
day, I could be going home. I'm leaning toward not going. ... It's a
long trip and I'm not too fired up about it.
"But then I look at it, and it's a major. And I should be going
there."
Stricker always plays the week before the Open Championship in the
John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., because he
played at the University of Illinois and lives not far away in
Madison, Wis.
When he does play in the Open Championship, he takes the charter
flight to the United Kingdom on Sunday night that John Deere
provides for players in the tournament.
"When I watched on TV (last year), it was like, 'I should be
there,'" said Stricker, who is missing only a major title on his
career resume. "Then I look at it like I'm not a full-time guy on
the Tour and I shouldn't worry about it.
 "I play the things I want to play. My kids and wife might come to
Greenbrier. They wouldn't come with me to the British."
Stricker tied for 21st in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, rising to No.
124 in the FedEx Cup standings. He has never missed the Tour
Championship since the FedEx Cup playoffs began, a streak that is
almost certain to end because he is a long way from the top 30.
With only three or four starts remaining, he is not even certain to
qualify for the Barclays, the playoff opener.
"It's not a priority of mine," Stricker said. "If I'm exempt for the
Barclays, I'll probably play. But I do have an elk hunting trip I've
scheduled (during the playoffs).
"Last year I missed out on (the hunting trip). This year, I'm going
to be a part of that."
If that is the case, he will miss the Tour Championship for sure.
--Holding the U.S. Women's Open a week after the U.S. Open at
Pinehurst No. 2 was the latest attempt by the United States Golf
Association to boost the distaff event.
The USGA announced its next effort in that regard, playing the
Women's Open in 2018 at Shoal Creek ahead of the men's Open in June.
"Making this permanent change allows us to elevate the visibility of
the Women's Open and provide optimum agronomic and playing
conditions on a much broader variety of golf courses around the
country," USGA Vice President Dan Burton said.
"We believe this will make our best championship in women's golf
even better."
The U.S. Women's Open has been played ahead of the U.S. Open only
three times, in 1996 and 2001 at Pine Needles in North Carolina, and
in 1999 at Old Waverly in Mississippi.
The next three Women's Open will be in July at Lancaster Country
Club in Pennsylvania, at CordeValle Golf Club in California and
Trump National in New Jersey.
One USGA attempt to boost the tournament about 10 years ago didn't
work out so well. Early in the 2000s, the tournament was scheduled
for the week of the Fourth of July.
With families going out of town for the holidays, it was difficult
to find volunteers.
--Robert Gamez, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, underwent
quadruple bypass heart surgery last week in Orlando, Fla.
Gamez, 45, experienced difficulty breathing a few days earlier and
was taken to the hospital.
"It was definitely unexpected," said Gamez's manager, Paul Graham,
the vice president of Empire Sports Management.
Gamez has played in only one tournament on the PGA Tour this season,
shooting 77-78--155 to miss the cut in the Arnold Palmer
Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando.
It was at Bay Hill as a PGA Tour rookie in 1990 that Gamez had the
most memorable moment of his career, holing his 7-iron approach from
176 yards for an eagle on the 72nd hole to beat Greg Norman by one
stroke.
Gamez won the Northern Telecom Tucson Open earlier in the 1990
season, and he added the 2005 Valero Texas Open title.
By winning in Tucson, he became one of only four players to capture
his first event on the PGA Tour. The others were Marty Fleckman in
1967, Ben Crenshaw in 1973 and Garrett Willis in 2001.
--Lucy Li will have some unique stories to tell her friends when she
returns to her home in Redwood Shores, Calif., to attend sixth grade
in the fall.
Li, the 11-year-old who became the youngest golfer to qualify for
any golf major, spent nearly two weeks at Pinehurst No. 2, first
watching the 114th U.S. Open and then playing in the 69th U.S.
Women's Open.
She was particularly excited to meet her favorite player, Webb
Simpson, who won the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San
Francisco, which is her favorite course.
[to top of second column] |
During the opening round of the U.S. Open, Simpson said there
several youngsters outside the clubhouse wanting an autograph. When
the others left, he noticed a young girl with braces who stayed
behind without anything to be signed.
"I said, 'Do you need me to sign something?'" Simpson asked. "She
said, 'No, I'm playing in the tournament next week.'"
Simpson had to be thinking, "Oh, so you're the one."
--Ollie Schniederjans of Georgia Tech resisted turning pro, unlike
some of the other top college golfers, even though his game
certainly seems to be pro-ready.
Schniederjans, who will be a senior for the Yellow Jackets in the
fall, won five times during his All-America junior season at Georgia
Tech and was runner-up at the NCAA Championship in May. Then he
tied for fifth in his first pro tournament, the Air Capital Classic
in Wichita, Kan., on the Web.com Tour.
"I definitely think I'm ready (to turn pro)," said Schniederjans,
who rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Rankings recently when
Patrick Rodgers of Stanford turned pro. "But I'll be more ready in a
year. It's just not my time right now."
Schniederjans hopes to finish first or second in U.S. Amateur in
August at Atlanta Athletic Club to earn the tournament exemptions
that go along with those finishes. He would take advantage of those
opportunities and remain an amateur through the 2015 Walker Cup,
Another possibility is turning pro after next year's NCAA
Championship, assuming he fails to earn any amateur-only exemptions.
Schniederjans said he would not turn pro midway through his senior
year in December, as Jordan Spieth did before becoming the PGA
Tour's Rookie of the Year and playing in the Presidents Cup last
year.
"You see what Spieth is doing, and I don't believe that I can't do
that right now, too, but that's not the only reason to turn pro,"
Schniederjans said. "There's no sense in jumping in early with no
plan. "Right now, I don't know who I'd sign with, I don't know where I'd
live, and you look at all the good players who just turned pro out
of college and (took) most of the spots (in PGA and Web.com tour
events), and there's just not a lot of opportunity out there."
Schniederjans opened with a 6-under-par 64 in the Air Capital
Classic before shooting 71 in round two. He played the weekend in
65-67, including a hole-in-one in the final round.
"I played some good golf that first day and then had a rough stretch
where I was flirting with missing the cut," Schniederjans said. "But
I was really proud of the way I came back and got myself back into
contention."
Even had he won, Schniederjans said he probably would have resisted
going pro.
--Vijay Singh's attempt to get a good look into the PGA Tour's drug
policy will be limited, according to a recent court ruling.
Judge Eileen Bransten of New York's Supreme Court granted part of a
motion to compel documents and answers from the Tour but denied
other parts of the motion, notably regarding specific questions
about the Anti-Doping Program.
"We believe the ruling is a partial victory for Mr. Singh," Jeff
Rosenblum, Singh's co-counsel, said Saturday.
Singh, 51, is suing the PGA Tour over its three-month investigation
early last year of his use of deer-antler spray, which contained
insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which at the time was a banned
substance under the Tour's Anti-Doping Program.
The 10-page ruling, dated June 12, limits the scope of the discovery
only to documents of prior violations that were linked to the use of
deer-antler spray or products that contained IGF-1.
Singh had asked for much broader discovery that included documents
of all violations of the PGA Tour's Anti-Doping Program, including
recreational drug use, documents regarding the establishment of the
program, involvement of PGA Tour players in the drafting of the
program, and documents regarding colostrum, a substance that is not
on the banned-substance list.
"The scope of the demands and any responses thereto shall be limited
to each named individual's possible or actual violation of the
Program for the alleged use, attempted use, or use of IGF-1 or any
product that allegedly contains IGF-1," Bransten wrote.
Within these limits, Singh might have a difficult time establishing
a breach of implied covenant of good faith or conversion, which are
the remaining two causes of action from the original seven
allegations of wrongdoing that he filed.
The PGA Tour does not comment on on-going legal matters.
Singh was cleared of anti-doping claims after the World Anti-Doping
Agency determined that use of the substance IGF-1 no longer violates
the drug program.
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