Wisconsin News and Sports
Six holes into his final round, Steve Stricker’s 5-shot lead was down to 1. From there, Stricker rebounded to win for the 8th time on the PGA tour in the last 33 months and for the 12th time overall.
AUDIO: Stricker on his final round 4-under-par 69 :10
Stricker finished the tournament at 23-under par and moved up to No. 5 in the world.
AUDIO: Steve Stricker says this win feels special :18
Stricker pockets $1.12-million for the season opening win in Hawaii.
Madison’s Steve Stricker never did get comfortable during the 3rd round of the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Sunday.
Just when it looked like Stricker was going to allow everyone back in the hunt again, he birdied the final four holes to finish with a 4-under-par 69 and maintain his 5-shot lead heading to the final round today. That 5-shot cushion is the same cushion that he started the round with.
AUDIO: Steve Stricker on getting off to a slow start Sunday :21
Stricker was at 19-under 200, five shots in front of defending champion Jonathan Byrd, Martin Laird and Webb Simpson.
With the first round of the PGA Championship more than half way complete,
Steve Stricker
two guys from Madison sit atop the leaderboard. Steve Stricker tied the lowest score ever shot in a major championship by firing a 7-under par 63 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Stricker had a chance to become the first player in the history of the majors to shoot a 62, but he missed a 10-foot birdie putt on hole #9. He tapped in for a par and a 63.
Stricker’s good friend, Jerry Kelly, also from Madison, finished his round with a 5-under par 65.
In golf, two Wisconsin natives, Steve Stricker & Jerry Kelly finishing 1-2 after the first round of the PGA is like Christmas in August. Now we’ll see if they both can stay atop the leaderboard again tomorrow, which would give them a chance to play together in round 3 on Saturday.
Not many golfers were able to navigate through the elements over the weekend at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke did as he captured his first career Major finishing the tournament 5-under par.
Only seven of seventy-one golfers who made the cut finished even par or better after thirty-one entered the weekend in that category. Dustin Johnson and Phil Micklelson each collapsed down the stretch to finish 2-under after giving Clarke a challenge on Sunday.
Steve Stricker just couldn’t take advantage of some good conditions in the first half of the day at the British Open in Sandwich, England, but he’ll still have more opportunities to make up some ground on the weekend.
Stricker shot a 1-over par 71 and stands at even-par after the first two rounds of “The Open Championship”.
Wisconsin native Mark Wilson, after a 4-over par 74 on Thursday, rebounded with a 2-under-par 68 to move to 2-over for the tournament. That’s good enough to get Wilson to the weekend as well.
Madison’s Jerry Kelly wasn’t so fortunate. Kelly also was at 4-over par after his first round, but shot a second round 9-over-par 79 to slip to 13-over par. That will get Kelly an early return to the States instead of playing two more rounds of golf on the weekend.
WRN Blog