Steve Stricker, the world's second player from the United States, decided not to attend this week's Phoenix Open recently. His next game will be the WGC-CA Championship. This means that people will not see his shadow in the greens of Honda Classic next week.
Steve Stricker is the champion of this year's Northern Trust Open. It was by virtue of this victory that he surpassed Mickelson in the world rankings and became the world No.2. But in last week's Accenture World Match Play Championship, he was swept out of the green by Ross McGowan, the British player in the 64th place at the first round. Thus, he became the second top player who was beaten by the lowest ranked player. The first one is Woods beaten by Peter O'Malley from Australia in 2002.
Stricker's name had been earlier on the list announced by Phoenix Open, but finally he decided to return to Wisconsin home for two weeks' relax. The reason for which Stricker changed his idea might be that he had played in the TPC Scottsdale (TPC Scottsdale) Golf Club course 12 times. However, he squeezed into the top 10 only once and it was in 2001. Stricker did not participate in this race in the past two years. In addition, it seems that Stricker was seriously hurt by his quickly lost to McGowan in the first round last week. McGovern's entering into the top 64 might be attributed to the absentness of Woods and Mickelson. In the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, the British managed into the 30-foot par putt in the 19th hole and permitted into the top 64 while Stricker became the seed eliminated in the 1st round.
Padraig Harrington made the same decision as Stricker. He will also rest for two weeks and then return to the United States to participate in another World Championship - CA Championship. Coincidentally, Harrington was eliminated in the first round last week's World Match Play Championship. He lost to Jeev Milkha Singh from India by 3 and 1.
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