Steve Stricker is an American professional golfer who has been a prolific winner on the PGA TOUR and PGA Champions Tour.

Noted for being a brilliant putter and superb wedge player, he accumulated 12 victories on the PGA TOUR, gaining his first win in 1996 and most recent in 2012.

The man from Wisconsin became a regular on the Champions Tour in 2018 and racked up three wins in his debut season.

He's since added four more, including three Majors - the Regions Tradition and US Senior Open in 2019 and the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship in 2021.

Stricker has also shown himself to be a popular and gritty leader for Team USA.

He skippered the United States to victory in the 2017 Presidents Cup and will take charge of the USA for the 2021 Ryder Cup against Europe in his home state of Wisconsin.

Amateur career

Stricker attended the University of Illinois and was a key part of the team.

He earned All-American honours for the Illini golf team in both 1988 and 1989.

The first of his five wins in his local Wisconsin State Open also came in 1989 when he played it as an amateur.

Early PGA TOUR success

Stricker turned pro in 1990 and played initially on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour where he won twice.

He came through Qualifying School in 1993 to earn his PGA TOUR card for the 1994 season.

After two years of consolidation, he took flight in the 1996 season and recorded two wins and seven top 10s to finish fourth on the PGA TOUR Money List.

His breakthrough win came at the Kemper Open where he scored a three-shot win, and less than two months later he followed it with a dominant eight-stroke win at the Motorola Western Open.

It took five years before his next win. That came when he landed the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Australia. Stricker beat Pierre Fulke 2&1 in the final.

Losing his card

After only finishing 188th on the Money List in 2003 and 151st the following year, Stricker lost his tour card in 2004.

With limited status, he could only manage 162nd in 2005 and it appeared as if he was in a career slump that perhaps couldn't be turned around.

Stricker turned 39 early in the 2006 season and was relying on sponsor exemptions. The outlook didn't seem great.

Resurgence and a flurry of wins

The 2006 season proved a turning point in his career.

Stricker secured seven top-10 finishes and was voted Comeback Player of the Year.

That proved a building block for a complete turnaround in his career as a rejuvenated Stricker won nine times in his 40s and turned into one of the TOUR's elite players.

He got back on the winning trail in 2007 by landing The Barclays, a prestigious FedEx Cup playoff event.

His most successful season came in 2009 when Stricker added three more wins.

The American won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in a playoff, romped to a three-shot win with 20-under at the John Deere Classic and then fired 17-under to win his second FedEx Cup playoff event, the Deutsche Bank Championship.

His excellent record in the late-season playoff events earned him the nickname 'Mr September'.

Stricker finished second on the Money List in 2009 and kicked on with two wins in both 2010 and 2011.

In 2010 he successfully defended the John Deere Classic, this time shooting 26-under. That followed a victory at the Northern Trust earlier in the season.

Another prestigious title came his way in 2011 when he fired 16-under to win the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

That gave him a 10th PGA TOUR title and he quickly made it 11 when making it a hat-trick of John Deere wins. His third straight victory in the event made him just the 10th player to win a tournament three times in a row since World War II.

Stricker kicked off the 2012 season by registering his 12th PGA TOUR win when landing the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

In the seven seasons from 2007 to 2013, Stricker finished in the top 10 on the Money List five times and never worse than 22nd.

That success helped him spend over 250 weeks in the top 10 of the World Rankings and he hit a peak of No.2 in September 2009.

Major consistency but no cigar

Stricker has accumulated 13 top 10s in Majors but never managed to win one.

His first big performance came via tied fifth in the 1998 US Open and later that year he finished runner-up in the PGA Championship at Sahalee.

He didn't know it at the time but that would prove his best finish in a Major.

Overall, he's had four top 10s in both the US Open and PGA, three in the Open Championship and two in The Masters.

Stricker was second after 54 holes of the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie thanks to a Saturday 64 but had to settle for tied eighth.

Champions Tour success

Stricker turned his focus to the over-50s Champions Tour in 2018 and won on his very first start, taking victory in the Cologuard Classic.

He then won his second start, the Rapiscan Systems Classic, before completing a three-win season with victory in the Sanford International.

While Major success eluded him on the regular PGA TOUR, he made amends on the Champions Tour.

He won a first Seniors Major with a dominant six-shot win in the 2019 Regions Tradition and repeated that margin of victory at the US Senior Open a month later.

Stricker added a third Seniors Major in 2021 and, once more, did it via a six-stroke margin. That came in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

Captain Stricker and Team USA

Stricker's popularity along with his cool, calm temperament and gritty underbelly made him an ideal candidate to captain his country.

He first got that honour in the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey.

Stricker's Americans outplayed the Internationals and powered to a 19-11 win. That added to his five Presidents Cup wins as a player (1996, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013).

A year later, Stricker was a non-playing vice-captain for Jim Furyk's 2018 Ryder Cup team. The Americans suffered a heavy defeat to the Europeans in Paris.

Stricker played in three Ryder Cups as a player, winning in 2008 but losing in both 2010 and 2012.

In 2019 he was named as US captain for the 2020 Ryder Cup in Wisconsin. As a native of Wisconsin it had particular resonance for Stricker.

Stricker oversaw his Team USA side make history at Whistling Straits. Dismantling Team Europe 19-9, it was the most points earned in a single Ryder Cup since 1979.

On the victory, he said: "These guys all came together. Two weeks ago they came together. Showed me a lot about this group of guys. They all showed up for the practice rounds, all the assistant captains showed up at the practice rounds. They had a mission this week and you could tell. They played great and they came together."

Steve Stricker's personal life

Stricker married wife Nicki in 1993. They have two children, Bobbi and Izzi.

Nicki's family both have notable backgrounds in golf. Her father Mario Tiziani played on the PGA TOUR, as did brother Mario.

Nicki has often caddied for Steve while daughter Bobbi is also making strides in the game.

Congrats, @BobbiStrick! ?@SteveStricker's daughter won the @WSGAGolf State Amateur Championship. pic.twitter.com/pCIArl6skj
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 14, 2021

Steve Stricker's net worth

Stricker has a reported net worth of $40million.

He ranks 17th on the PGA Tour's Career Money Leaders having won $44,936,354.

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Steve Stricker is a 12-time winner on the PGA TOUR who spent over 250 weeks in the top 10 of the World Rankings.