He followed with a chip-in short of the 16th green — “I stole one there,” Stricker said — then crushed a tee shot and hit 9-iron into about 4 feet on the 17th. With a 406-yard drive on the 18th — down the hill, down the grain, the wind at his back — he came up just short of the green for an easy birdie.
BY DOUG FERGUSON | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KAPALUA, Maui — Steve Stricker reached his boiling point Sunday in the Tournament of Champions when he walked off the 12th tee, his lead down to two shots and his ball in the bunker after he missed a fairway almost as wide as Wisconsin.
As he reached a clump of trees that shielded him from the fans, he thumped his 3-wood on the soft grass.
For the mild Midwesterner, this constitutes a meltdown.
“I was frustrated at that point,” Stricker said.
But he never lost his patience. More importantly, he never lost his lead. Stricker closed with four straight birdies, including a chip-in from short of the 16th green, for a 4-under 69 that restored the five-shot lead he started with in the third round at Kapalua.
It only looked as though nothing had changed.
Defending champion Jonathan Byrd had a 4-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole for a share of the lead. He missed it and had to settle for two more pars and a 67.
Webb Simpson had long birdie putts on the 13th and 14th holes to catch Stricker. He missed both of those and was left in the wake of Stricker’s great finish.
“That was key to finish that way,” Stricker said. “Sets me up for some momentum going into tomorrow. I just kept telling myself that I had the lead still and just to be patient. Things were not really going the way I had hoped, but I just kept telling myself to hang in there.”
Stricker was at 19-under 200, poised to start the new season off with a trophy in his hands and a lei around his neck.
Only two other players have led by as many as five shots through 54 holes at Kapalua — Geoff Ogilvy in 2009 and David Duval in 1999 — and both went on to win handily. Stricker doesn’t expect it to be that easy.
He will play in the final group with Byrd, who overcame back-to-back bogeys early in his round for a 67. Byrd would have taken a spot in the last group at the start of the week. Five shots behind the highest-ranked American in the field?
“He’s a tough guy to catch,” Byrd said. “But I don’t think any lead is too much.”
Martin Laird had a 67 and also was five shots behind at 14-under 205, along with Simpson, who had to settle for a 69.
“I don’t know what it will take, but I’m guessing a minimum of 8 under probably,” Laird said of his chances today. “But this is a golf course that you can do it.”
Stricker showed that Saturday when he had a 10-under 63. As uncomfortable as he felt Sunday, such a score looked impossible.
“I wasn’t making any birdies, and it seemed like everybody else was,” Stricker said. “I knew it was going to be tough. When you’re leading a golf tournament, it’s just hard to keep that momentum. When you’re not making birdies, you feel like you’re letting things slip away. I felt everyone was coming after me, and I was coming back to the pack.”
But he owns the closing stretch on the Plantation Course.
With his four straight birdies at the end, Stricker is now 13-under par on the last five holes. This time, he started his birdie run on the par-5 15th with a 3-wood that he had to hit perfectly to get onto the green, and he did just that for a two-putt birdie.
He followed with a chip-in short of the 16th green — “I stole one there,” Stricker said — then crushed a tee shot and hit 9-iron into about 4 feet on the 17th. With a 406-yard drive on the 18th — down the hill, down the grain, the wind at his back — he came up just short of the green for an easy birdie.