Making Westchester Cheese... O.T.

[RJ_Daley]

We dairylanders like a good sharp cheese with our beer and brats...  

Gotta have a nice salty brine and a vat in which to age the cheese...

Stricker provided enought 'tears of joy' to fill a vat with brine to emmerse the cheese.   Maybe we can use that Fed-Ex cup for the vat.  

It was exactly 30 years since his fellow Mad town Cherokee CC friend Andy North won one of his few tour victories, ironically at Westchester.  

We gotta name this rare 30 year aged cheese, a 'Sharp Westchester Classic'.  

[Phil McDade]

Cheeseheads unite -- our man from Edgerton is once again back in the winner's circle.

Can we convince him to give up this FedEx nonsense and join us on the Langford/Moreau tour?

[RJ_Daley]

Geez, then I'd get all weepy...  

[Adam Clayman]

Flipping between the AM and The Barclay's, There were a number of times I couldn't tell which channel I was on.

Steve is no Journeyman. He's the Fedex cup point leader.

[Marty Bonnar]

Nice goin', Chapeaux de fromage,

I recall seeing young Mr Stricker in St Andrews a gazillion years ago when the Dunhill was a real proper International tourney thing. He played fantastically well and I remember thinking: "Great Player! He'll do well". He's taken a weeeeee bit of time to get there, but congrats nonetheless.....

Orevoir,
Lardyone.

[SL_Solow]

I spent the better part of last Sunday and Monday with Steve Stricker along with more than 100 other University of Illinois boosters (including our own Ryan Potts) at the 6th annual Steve Stricker Classic.  While Steve is a cheesehead, he played his college golf at the University of Illinois and his best friend is our coach, Mike Small, who was the low "club pro" at hte PGA Championship.  Steve gives his time every year to help our alma mater.  I have been lucky enough to spend a fair amount of time with him including playing some golf.  He is a gentle, unassuming man who is a pleasure to be with and who seems totally unaffected by his success.  He is genuinely grareful to those who stayed with him during his down years.  It would be hard to think of a more deserving winner and golf should be happy to have someone like Steve to hold up as an example to young fans.

[JR Potts]

Well said Shelly.  

Many of you have previously asked what it would take for you to get interested in the Fed-Ex Cup....I have just found my reason.

Steve Stricker is a great man and I cannot wait to follow him over the next several weeks.

Note to you Cheeseheads - Find another representative....remember, he picked Illinois over Wisconsin!  He is rightfully ours....and we won't share him.

[Glenn Spencer]

I hardly had an opionion on him until last year at Winged Foot, although I did cheer for him in 98 at the PGA. Anyway, since last year he has become one of my 5 or so favorite players. It is nice to see that you guys think so highly of him. Win them all Steve!!

[Phil McDade]

Ryan:

He lives about 15 minutes from my house. I think the state of Wisconsin -- what was the pot size at Westchester? -- is quite confident of his residency in Wisconsin.

All that aside, Stricker is known far and wide in Wisconsin as a genuinely nice guy, and not just a genuinely nice golfer. He very quietly does some very cool charity work for kids in Wisconsin, and he seems about as ego-less as a guy can be who's performing on the kind of stage he is, and will be, for the next several weeks. I've been following his career since the early 1990s, well before his break-out wins at the Western and Maryland more than a decade ago, and while I obviously root for all the Wisconsin guys -- Jerry the hockey guy, little Skip Kendall, JP Hayes, a few others -- Stricker's the one I think every golf fan in the state really roots for, because he had such great success relatively early and fell so low. It's a great story.

[RJ_Daley]

Ryan, this matter of where Steve Stricker's loyalties lie can be settled by which state does he obtain his fishin and huntin license...  

If he keeps winning, sooner or later Andy North will have to interview him, then the water works will really start flowing...  

BTW, I don't doubt SS is very loyal to his UofI alma mater.  But, wouldn't it have been awkward if he played at UW for his future Father-in-law and uncle-in-law as the coaches?  Hell, North went to UofFlorida because golf at Cherokee CC in winter in Mad town sucks...  

[SL_Solow]

Lets not get into a foolish argument.  Steve is a great guy who deserves all the support he gets.  When he got up to speak at the U of I dinner last week he broke down and cried in trying to express his gratitude for all the support he received during his down period.  Clearly , unlike Andy North, weather was not a factor in his choice of schools.  All of us should enjoy his success.

[Matthew Rose]

Good on the man....Now that I live on this side of the world I have a real sense of pride whenever I see him do well, having spent my formative years just 10 minutes down the road in Janesville.

I've had a few brushes with him....my older brother played with him in the Fischer one time, and I also used to see him tooling around Cherokee. Anytime we played against East up there, he was usually following around all those Tizianis (who became his in-laws).

That damn course....I can still see my feet sinking six inches into the ground every time I stood still.

[Phil McDade]

Matt:

Madison has had about 15 inches of rain this month; I'm pretty sure Cherokee is darn near unplayable these days. That course is wet when it's dry.

The Fisher is held at a pretty good muni -- Janesville Riverside, an early RB Harris design that has some odd and interesting holes. Everyone tears it up, because there is hardly any room to lengthen it, and it wasn't long to begin with. A course with working railroad tracks running through it!

[RJ_Daley]

What's in the Madison water these days?  Now Sherri Steinhour is making a charge, leading State Farm.  Strick finished only 2 back -4 on first day after win last week.  These cheeseheads Mad-towners are HOT!