Steve Stricker

Steve Stricker saw deer and coyotes and plenty of birdies Saturday at Riviera Country Club at the Northern Trust Open after spotting a Kardashian sister Friday night at the Lakers game. Stricker needed Google to find out it was Khloe K. hanging at Staples Center, but the 42-year-old needed no search engines to find his way around Riviera. Through 14 completed holes Saturday, Stricker recorded four birdies and no bogeys and opened up a five-shot lead after almost three rounds of the tournament were completed.

Steve Stricker has a bad habit of losing big leads. He managed to slip back into his old habit of winning. Despite losing most of his five-shot lead in only six holes, Stricker steadied himself in time to kick off the new PGA Tour season with a three-shot victory in the Tournament of Champions on Monday in Kapalua, Hawaii. Right when it looked as though Stricker was coming unglued, he made back-to-back birdies at the turn. That restored his lead to three shots, and no one got closer than two shots the rest of the way. Stricker birdied his last hole for a four-under-69 for his 12th career win, which moved him to No. 5 in the world ranking.

Steve Stricker gave us more great golf and more humble pie Sunday, when he won the Northern Trust Open at Riviera. We all saw that, enjoyed it, and appreciated a middle-age man reacquiring his athletic prime on the big stage. We got four days of a sports event where maximum effort was put forth, often in trying conditions, and perspective was retained throughout. When it was over, Stricker, 42, tried to avoid crying and failed. Then he hugged the TV guy interviewing him just off the 18th green.

Steve Stricker finished the third round at Kapalua the same way he started — with a five-shot lead. Only it wasn't that easy. Stricker watched his lead dwindle to a single shot on the back nine Sunday before running off four straight birdies for a four-under-par 69 that gave him a big lead going into the final round at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. He was at 19-under 200, five shots clear of defending champion Jonathan Byrd (67), Martin Laird (67)

Steve Stricker is a man without a major golf championship. He is nearly 43 years old but without a defining professional moment, yet when Stricker won the Northern Trust Open on Sunday afternoon at Riviera Country Club, he was exhausted, teary-eyed and officially the second-best golfer in the world. And the best who is actually playing. Tiger Woods is still No. 1, but as far as we know, not in imminent danger of playing competitive golf soon. So the computer says that Stricker, humble and unassuming and absolutely unwilling to place his game at any level comparable to Woods', is the best man actually playing competitive golf right now. If Stricker's final round score of one-under-par 70 and his four-day total of 16-under 268 felt more like hanging on than transcendent brilliance, if Stricker acknowledged he wasn't a good front-runner, unsure of how to protect what had been a six-stroke lead, it was still Stricker standing on the 18th green being interviewed on TV and wiping tears from his eyes.

Steve Stricker birdied his first two holes, and Tiger Woods could see what was coming. Walking to the next tee Friday at the TPC Boston, Woods said to his caddie, "He's going to shoot 62." Woods' instincts were off by one. Stricker ran off five consecutive birdies and only once came close to a bogey in an eight-under-par 63 to share the first-round lead with Jim Furyk in the Deutsche Bank Championship at Norton, Mass. Furyk, without a victory in more than two years, shot his 63 in the afternoon.

It was almost dark when golf started at 6:50 a.m. Friday at Riviera Country Club. It wasn't very light out when Steve Stricker sloshed his way through a considerable downpour for 18 holes. And it was hard to tell it was dusk at 5:02 p.m. when play was halted at the Northern Trust Open because of darkness. There were two co-leaders at the end of play, but they were not equal. Stricker shot a six-under-par 65, giving him a two-day total of 10-under 132. First-day leader Dustin Johnson, dressed appropriately in black and helped by a hole in one on the sixth, also was at 10 under, but he will have two more holes of his second round to play Saturday morning.

Friday was a day of men playing golf in winter stocking caps in Los Angeles. "It was pretty miserable out there," said Steve Stricker, who made it even more miserable for the other players in the Northern Trust Open, as did Dustin Johnson. Both shot incredible scores in horrible conditions. It started raining at the famed Riviera course about 7 a.m., or 10 minutes after the first tee time. It never stopped and neither did the players. Stricker and Johnson were the stars, with Phil Mickelson close behind.

Steve Stricker finished the third round at Kapalua the same way he started — with a five-shot lead. Only it wasn't that easy. Stricker watched his lead dwindle to a single shot on the back nine Sunday before running off four straight birdies for a four-under-par 69 that gave him a big lead going into the final round at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. He was at 19-under 200, five shots clear of defending champion Jonathan Byrd (67), Martin Laird (67)

Ross McGowan of England rolled in a 30-foot par putt on the 19th hole Wednesday to beat Steve Stricker , only the second time in the Match Play Championship that the No. 1-seeded player was beaten in the opening round. McGowan got into the 64-man field in Marana, Ariz., only because Tiger Woods did not enter while on his indefinite break from golf. That elevated Stricker to the No. 1 seeding, and he became the first top-seeded player since Woods in 2002 to lose in the first round.

Steve Stricker took a big step toward booking another trip to Maui with a 10-under-par 63 and built a five-shot lead Saturday through two rounds of the PGA Tour's season-opening Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, Hawaii. Stricker played his final five holes in five under, including an eagle on the 15th hole that gave him separation from Webb Simpson and the eagle-eagle finish by Kevin Na. Stricker was at 15-under 131 and will be paired Sunday with Simpson, who shot 68.

After a night in which severe winds swept through Southern California, Tiger Woods and K.J. Choi found welcome calm Thursday morning in Thousand Oaks as they teed off in the Chevron World Challenge. Not ones to waste an opportunity, Choi birdied the first five holes at Sherwood Country Club and Woods was nearly as good, with birdies on four of the five. But then the winds reappeared with gusto and, while Woods struggled on the back nine, Choi held steady and the South Korean finished atop the first-round leaderboard with a six-under-par 66. Woods, seeking his first win in two years, was tied for second place with Steve Stricker after both shot three-under 69s on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains.

From Bethesda, Md. — The U.S. Open golf tournament is no place for child's play, but Beau Hossler will tee it up anyway here Thursday. Go ahead. Be jealous. While this is going on, your 16-year-old will be shopping for pimple cream, oiling the wheels on his skateboard or texting his girlfriend. Hossler, the sophomore golfing pride of Santa Margarita High School, will be strolling the same fairways as Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood; putting on the same greens as Martin Kaymer and Steve Stricker.

Steve Stricker went from doing everything right to having everything go wrong Saturday at the PGA Tour's Memorial tournament. All that mattered was being atop the leaderboard by three shots going into the final round at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. Stricker holed out from the second fairway for eagle, made another eagle with a three-iron to 6 feet and stretched his lead to six shots at one point in the third round. But he missed three putts inside 7 feet on the last five holes and had to settle for a 69. Jonathan Byrd also had a 69 and was in second place.

Reporting from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The crowd of contenders for the PGA Tour's richest title did little to separate themselves Saturday. Then again, they didn't have much time to do it. Thunderstorms that brought damaging wind and small hail brought the Players Championship to a standstill for 4 1/2 hours, leaving the lead groups to cool their heels until nearly dinnertime and promising a long Sunday finish. "I'm glad we got some holes in," said Nick Watney, who shared the lead with U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell when darkness fell over TPC Sawgrass.

The Northern Trust Open golf tournament, which begins Thursday at Riviera Country Club, has five of the top 10 golfers in the world and 16 of the top 30. One of them is Steve Stricker, 43, the defending champion and the 2009 runner-up. He is ranked eighth and is pleasant and accommodating with fans, willing to shake hands and sign visors. If anybody asks. And yet the star power this week seems to belong more to two-time champion Phil Mickelson, who has been rolling through the PGA Tour's West Coast swing with some swagger and two top-10 finishes but is in need of a victory.

Steady Eddie has taken Los Angeles by storm, or at least those parts of it still dry enough to care about golf. In a city where glitz plays best, Steve Stricker has turned it up by toning it down at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera. He is about as flamboyant as a slice of Wisconsin cheddar; also, about as effective a striker of the golf ball and manager of a golf course as you'll find right now on the PGA Tour. During Saturday's third round, Stricker built a five-shot lead at 14 under par by fashioning a masterpiece of sensible shot making and shot selection.

The difference between the current top two active golfers in the world was on fascinating display Thursday afternoon, as the first round of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera ended. On a little porch overlooking the practice green, No. 2 Phil Mickelson, fresh off his one-over-par 72, stood and signed autographs for an adoring horde. Caps, T-shirts, slips of paper were thrust forth and Mickelson, as is his nature, signed all. Ten feet away, on the putting green, No. 3 Steve Stricker, having carded a four-under 67 and positioned himself only three shots off the lead, talked quietly with a reporter, uninterrupted and mostly unnoticed.

kapalua, hawaii ? Robert Garrigus recovered from an atrocious start Saturday by holing a 50-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole to join Steve Stricker and Jonathan Byrd in the lead at the Tournament of Champions. In the notorious Kona wind ? the toughest at Kapalua ? Garrigus chunked a four iron into a hazard to open with double bogey and followed with a bogey to quickly fall out of the lead. By the end of the third round, he was back where he started. The eagle gave Garrigus a four-under 69 and gave him a good chance to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win the season opener after winning the final event of the previous year.

Carmelo Anthony, at the center of swirling trade rumors, said Monday at the Denver Nuggets' media day that he never asked to be traded. "I'm leaving my options open right now," said Anthony, who will be a free agent after the upcoming season. "At the end of the season, I'll sit down with my team, I'll sit down with the Nuggets, and we'll talk about it. This has been a long summer. I'm just excited to get back to the court. " Anthony turned down a three-year, $65-million extension from the Nuggets during the off-season.