Stricker Wins

What a great moment today, for Steve Stricker at the Fed Ex cup playoffs. A win by two strokes, he was having trouble holding back the tears as he was being interviewed on the 18th green. He said he was beginning to wonder if he would ever win on the PGA tour again. His relatively new caddie was there to share it with him since his wife Nicki has now retired from being Steve's caddie in order to raise their child.

Steve is one of the more respected and liked players on the PGA tour. I have never met him, even though we are from neighboring states, Minnesota and Wisconsin but I have always been a big fan of both he and Jerry Kelly another Wisconsin Badger. I have, however, played a round of golf with Jerry Kelly.

When I was on my quest to play the Top 100 golf courses in America, I played the Olympic Club in San Francisco with Mike Butler. Mike had played on the PGA tour years ago and as we were on the first tee, the head pro came out of the pro shop and said there was a guy here, who was in town, between tour stops who wanted to play Olympic and it turned out to be Jerry Kelly. He was on a mini tour then and neither Mike nor I had ever heard of him, but it was quite a day. They swapped stories about Mikes old days struggling on the PGA tour and Jerry's struggling to move from his mini-tour to the PGA tour. I just played my usual game, but the competitive juices came flowing from both of them and it was a pleasure to watch these two go head to head.

We all exchanged phone numbers and a couple years later Jerry called me. He remembered I was a concert promoter and was looking for some help getting tickets to a concert in Fla. I certainly knew who he was when he called. He had won 2 million dollars on the tour that year.

I have seen him a two or three times since, at the Greater Milwaukee Open, The Masters and the Tour Championship.

The story about that round is in my book A GOLFERS DREAM; HOW A REGULAR GUY CONQUERED THE GOLF DIGEST TOP 100 GOLF COURSES IN AMERICA. You can find more about the book at www.GolfersDreamBook.com or www.amazon.com

More later
Larry Berle