Stricker gave game effort

KAPALUA, Maui >> Steve Stricker was down in the junk along the 13th fairway trying to help eventual Hyundai Tournament of Champions winner Dustin Johnson find his golf ball.

Johnson had just hit a 406-yard drive at the 12th en route to an 8-foot birdie putt to build a three-shot lead over Stricker, the defending champion of this prestigious winners-only event.

But instead of playing it safe at the 13th tee, Johnson pull-hooked his big stick into and out of a bunker guarding the left side of the fairway and to a spot where few folks venture, unless absolutely necessary.

Johnson eventually found his golf ball, decided to play it, then left it in the tall grass on his first attempt, before finally getting it out in the fairway with his third at the 356-yard par-4 hole that led to an eventual double bogey.

Before locating it, Stricker said, “We found a shoe, some sunglasses, about five or six other balls. There might have been a guy living up in the tree. I don’t know.”

It brought a smattering of laughter from those in the media room as Stricker described how hard it was for him to climb back out of that hole Johnson had landed in. Imagine any other sport where competitors help each other out, but Stricker explained that’s how it is out here on the PGA Tour.

“You always appreciate the help if your ball is lost,” said Stricker, who has been battling a baffling left leg injury since playing in Tiger Woods’ event in December. “I just thought I would get in there and help him find it and he found it right there.”

Stricker tried to explain to Johnson that you don’t need to use the driver at every hole, especially when you have a three-shot lead midway through the back nine, prompting Johnson to say, “Yeah, yeah I know.” But later Stricker conceded that’s how Johnson approaches the game.

“Without fear.”

Stricker showed some moxy of his own by playing Willis Reed-style, never really knowing if he could complete the round judging by the pain he was in. While Johnson could grip it and rip it, Stricker was more of a counter-puncher, trying to hit his second shots into the green before Johnson, giving Stricker a perceived advantage if he could knock it in close.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Stricker said of playing a power hitter on a long course like this, basically on one leg. “I had to counter his shots with good wedge play, good putting, stuff like that. That was my answer to his length.”

For a while it worked.  Stricker moved to within two shots of the lead at the par-4 third and within one at the 13th after he parred and Johnson double-bogeyed. But Johnson slammed the door on Stricker’s face at the 14th by bombing another drive to within chipping distance of the par-4 pin, where he displayed a deft touch by knocking it in for eagle. As Stricker explained, basically that was game, set and match.

“He pulled it off, especially at 14,” Stricker said. “That was the deciding shot and chip for the tournament.”

As for Stricker, he is hopeful the injury is only a muscle strain since his back is not giving him any problems. He doesn’t know what’s wrong, but conceded it was possible his back was causing the nerve pain he has been experiencing the last few weeks. As part of a plan to cut back in his golden years, Stricker will not play again until the World Golf Championship in six weeks. He’s hopeful he will be fit for duty by then as he tries to get a win in 2013 in order to play here again in 2014.

“It was a long week,” Stricker said. “But I had an opportunity. And that’s why we play, to have that opportunity to win.”