At first, Nicki Stricker didn’t tell anyone in the family that she’d signed up for U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur qualifying. She wanted the challenge to be hers for a little while.
Stricker, 54, and her mental coach, Kathy Hart Wood, sister of Dudley Hart, came up with trying to qualify for a USGA Championship as a way to give purpose to her practice.
“Just getting really frustrated because everyone was kicking my butt in my house,” said Stricker, wife to Steve and mom to Bobbi, 25, and 17-year-old Izzi, with a laugh. “I’m a fairly competitive person so was just like, what is happening?”
Caddie Nicki Stricker, caddie for Steve Stricker, of the United States looks on from the 11th hole during the second round of the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course on May 21, 2021 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Needless to say, everyone in the Stricker house is competitive, and Nicki, a former collegiate player, wasn’t having too much fun on the golf course. She also wanted to set a good example for her girls. Nicki didn’t like how she treated herself on the golf course after a bad shot, and with one daughter playing the game professionally and another one playing high-level junior golf, she knew they were watching.
“The shots I hit good or bad, the scores I shoot good or bad, don’t define me,” said Nicki of what she’s learned.
Wood taught Sticker to hit shots from one of the three c’s – calm, confident, certain. Rather than put numbers down on a scorecard, she’d write which “c” she hit from.
Beginning on Saturday at the 61st U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Troon Country Club, there will be numbers on the card. It’s the first tournament Stricker has competed in in some 20 years, and the first USGA championship since the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Kemper Lakes.
With Steve working as an assistant captain this week at the Ryder Cup in Rome with eldest daughter Bobbi by his side, and Izzi playing in the postseason for high school golf, Nicki won’t have any family by her side in Arizona, though she will have Wood, who will caddie.
Nicki, of course, has caddied for Steve throughout his career. Bobbi played tennis through high school and didn’t take up golf until college. Izzi, a high school senior, won a Wisconsin state golf title last year. It’s not uncommon for the two sisters to take on their parents in a match.
“The game keeps us together,” Bobbi…
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