ASCENSION CHARITY CLASSIC

September 5, 2024

Steve Stricker

Norwood Hills Country Club

Press Conference

Q. All right, Steve, welcome to St. Louis. Just overall thoughts being back this week. Just finished playing the course. What's to looking like out there?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it's in great shape. Great to be back. I don't know why I couldn't be here last year. I think I had somebody either caddieing for my daughter or some reason I couldn't be here.

It's been a couple years. I enjoy the course and enjoy the area where we stay. It's a great setup and it's in great condition. A lot of fun to play.

Q. What about your game makes this course suitable for you, do you think?

STEVE STRICKER: You know, I think it's a tough test. You know, I don't know if that suits my game or not. I haven't played for a few weeks. You know, it's challenging. The greens are challenging. You got to put it in the right spots on the greens to have good birdie opportunities, otherwise you're playing defensively on the greens some of the times if you get on the wrong side.

So you got to play well going around here. Got to hit some quality shots.

Q. How would you assess your year so far this year?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it's been pretty good. I haven't been in the winner's circle, but I had some opportunities throughout the year. Haven't been able to capitalize on any of them really, but, yeah, solid year.

Struggled with parts of my game here and there, but overall pretty solid.

Q. How would you characterize the experience of working with your daughter and where did she come out?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, caddieing for her, being with her that week during the tour school for the LPGA Tour, that was my fourth year doing it. It's actually a lot of fun. It's a great opportunity for me to be with her, to see her play the game, to be inside the ropes with her, to try to get some of the mental side of things, see how she's reacting to things.

Just to be up close and personal with her. If I see something after the round that I can kind of, you know, address it then kind of thing. So it's an opportunity for me to learn from her as well. Just to see what she's doing out there, some of the mistakes or some of the positive things, reinforce those and work on the things that she's not going so really.

So it's just a great opportunity for me to be with her, not on as a kind of her teacher, but also her father.

Q. Does she listen to you more on the golf course or off the golf course?

STEVE STRICKER: (Laughter.) She's a good kid. You know, she listens also I tell her to clean her room. She accident clean her room worth a s***.

But she listens for the most part. She's like a sponge. She wants to learn a lot about the game and all the little idiosyncrasies of the game, so she's receptive of that.

Q. I know you're focused on this week, playing this tournament. If you could reflect back on just how magical last year was, like rarely been done.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, I mean, it was just one of those years where I had the opportunity to win almost every time I tee'd it up, and actually won quite a few of them.

Didn't win some that I thought I could have. It was just one of those magical years, like you said. You know, this year wasn't so, and you know, and that's the game of golf, right? And that's okay.

So I just been going out, trying to learn from some of the issues I've had, some of the mistakes I've made, and trying to clean those up. I've got probably three for events in me through the rest of the year and see if I can get a win before the year's end.

Q. Steve, there is a lot of pride with having this event in St. Louis. Been out here for a few years now. Can you talk about the excitement, the idea of this tournament sticking around and being able to come back here? What does this golf community mean the players out here?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, we've been in St. Louis over the years on the regular TOUR as well. Bellerive, major championships. So to come here at a venue that's quite old school to say the least, it's been around for a long time, it's in great shape, fun course to play. To be here in St. Louis, big market like that means a lot for us.

I know the guys enjoy coming here. I enjoy coming here. It's a great test.

Q. Steve, you literally launched the Scottie Scheffler year on tour, because when he was matched against Rahm on Sunday at Whistling Straits he took on a player that had steamrolled your team. What did you see about him as a player at that time? What's caught your attention?

STEVE STRICKER: Well, I tell the story a lot. Nicki was caddieing for me at the PGA TOUR Championship earlier in the year when it was at Kiawah Island and we played with Scottie on Saturday or Sunday.

He was just a wonderful kid to play with, to be around. My wife loved him. Just an all-around great kid, and obviously a great player. At the time he hadn't won at that point but he was up around the lead a lot. He had the respect of the other guys.

And it really became kind of a no-brainer of a pick once we started talking about him. You know, he caught my eye and then obviously the guys that were out there all the time playing with him, they knew how good he was or is.

So it was kind of a no-brainer of a pick. The rest is history, right? He beat Jon Rahm. Obviously gained a ton of confidence from that week. I've seen clips of when he talked about that Ryder Cup week, too. Means a lot to him. He still carries the yardage book cover for that Ryder Cup.

So it meant a lot to him and gave him a ton the confidence. He hasn't stopped since. Fun to see.