LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Steve Stricker won't pick up a bow next week.
Instead, he'll have his golf clubs in his hands.
Stricker, who cut back his schedule to spend more time with his family and considered himself semi-retired at the beginning of the season, will skip a long-planned hunting trip for elk in Colorado and instead stalk the FedExCup title by playing in The Tour Championship, the final stage of the FedExCup playoffs.
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On his part-time schedule, Stricker, 46, never imagined he'd be in the position he is in heading into Thursday's start of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club, the third leg playoffs. But through 11 events this season, he has finished second three times and earned another three top-10s. Not only is he No. 8 in the FedExCup standings — a solid position to make a serious run at the $10 million grand prize — Stricker also made the Presidents Cup team, which means no hunting the first week of October, too.
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Before he finished second in the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston two weeks ago, Stricker was all set to go hunting. He was still leaning toward going after some elk afterward, too. Then he got on a plane to return home.
"I had a good talk with (wife Nicki) on the way home right after Boston and thought it was pretty important for me to go and play and not go hunting instead," Stricker said. "Even though I'd rather go hunting, I think it's pretty important, being in the position I am in, top 10 going into this week. I still have the opportunity and the chance to win, which I didn't think I'd be in this position starting the year with the limited playing schedule.
" … It's our marquee event. It's the Super Bowl of our year, and for me to just kind of say, you know what, I'm in the top 10, I'm not coming, to walk away from that I think would have been foolish."
Other factors weighed on his decision to pick golf over hunting. One involved the field at The Tour Championship, which is capped at 30 players. If a player for some reason doesn't play, there is no alternate. If Stricker headed west to Colorado instead of south to Atlanta, one player each day would be on his own island playing by himself in The Tour Championship.
"If I don't go there's one guy that's going to be going out in a single every day, and under his breath he was probably going to be cussing me," Stricker said. "I didn't think that would be fair to the field or the other players."
The likeable Stricker's change of heart is obviously welcomed by the PGA Tour and his colleagues. On the other hand, his hunting buddies are giving him a lot of grief for canceling.
"They were actually rooting against me at Boston if you can believe it," Stricker said with a hint of a smile. "No, but it's all in good fun. You know, and I told them going into the playoffs, I said, 'You know, something really strange is going to have to happen for me not to go on this hunting trip. I'm going to have to be in the top 10 of the FedExCup, win one of these next events or finish high up for me to not go on that trip.' And maybe that's why I did finish second (In Boston). I didn't have a lot of pressure on me. It's a good problem to have to try to make the decision between the two things."
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