The New Bernhard Langer? How ‘Animal’ Steve Stricker Is Ripping Up The PGA Tour Champions

Steve Stricker did not even make it to the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship but still walked away with a remarkable record-breaking PGA Tour Champions campaign.

With his father Bob Stricker in hospital, the 56-year-old stayed in Wisconsin, but his failure to make it to Arizona did not stop him collecting the $1 million bonus from winning the Charles Schwab Cup after a dominant season.

Stricker is playing some of the best golf of his career and on the seniors circuit that translated into some monumental performances - including a record 55 rounds under par which broke Tiger Woods' previous best in PGA Tour sanctioned events. 

Stricker won three of the four senior Majors he played in 2023 - only missing out on the US Senior Open when finishing second to seniors legend Bernhard Langer.

Langer may have pipped Stricker to that one Major in his home state of Wisconsin, but the German couldn't live with him over the course of a truly remarkable season.

Winning three of his four Majors and finishing second in the other just shows how Stricker was a level above the rest of the field throughout the season.

Stricker added three other wins, making it a total of six from just 16 starts, with five further runners-up finishes and just once all season did he finish lower than T8.

He was on course to become the first man to break the $4m barrier in winnings on the Champions Tour, but for missing the finale seeing him fall just short but still pocketing a hefty $3,986,063 for his efforts.

“I get so emotional because we put so much into it,” Stricker said after claiming his third Major of the season. "Six wins? Three majors? Five runner-up finishes?

“Yeah, I’m just having a ball. I’m enjoying the ride and just hopefully continue.”

And his season continued, with his good friend and fellow seniors player Jerry Kelly says that on the course, the mild-mannered Stricker is a genuinely tough competitor.

“This game burns in him as hard as anybody, and he’s seen the other side, where he had those tough years,” Kelly said. “It put a chip on his shoulder.

“He's basically an animal out there. He really is. We are best of friends, like brothers, and you fight hardest against your brother. 

"We want to beat each other so bad. But that spurs us, because we're truly happy with the other person's success, too. It's a great dynamic.”

Ernie Els said that Stricker's biggest strength was "his consistency” with the South African adding: “All disciplines of his game really work. 

"His short game, his wedge game, his driving and obviously his putter. He’s always a good putter. You keep making those putts, that keeps getting that 66 on the board. And he’s a competitor.”

And the stats back that up, with Stricker topping the PGA Tour Champions standings in scoring and putting, while he also had the fewest putts per round and the best one-putt percentage 

With seven senior Majors now tucked away, Stricker is tied with Hale Irwin in fourth and five behind the imperious Langer who has 12, but is nine years older than the American.

But it's not the senior circuit that Stricker now has his eye on, as his Major wins from 2023 get him into both the PGA Championship and The Players next year, where he'll be keen to show the young guns on the PGA Tour that he can still compete.

And after the year he's had on the PGA Tour Champions, Stricker could certainly hold his own.