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Odd couple Stricker and Fulke: An unlikely duo plays for $1 million
Updated: Saturday January 06, 2001 1:01 PM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Pierre Fulke was delighted to win two matches after flying 26 hours from Sweden. Steve Stricker's gratitude runs much deeper. He was thrilled just to be here, the 90th-ranked player in the world who got into the $5 million Match Play Championship only because Tiger Woods, David Duval and two dozen others from the top 64 didn't want to come to Australia so close to the holidays. On Sunday, Stricker and Fulke play a 36-hole match with $1 million on the line. "This is unbelievable," said Stricker, an Edgerton, Wis., native. "To go from thinking I wasn't going to get into the tournament and to have an opportunity to win ... I'm trying to take advantage of this situation. I feel like I made it this far, why not give it my all?" That's what it required Saturday on another thrilling day of clutch putts and gutsy performances. Ernie Els went out with a fight. He made an incredible shot at Metropolitan Golf Club, but it wasn't enough to give the championship match a player with championship credentials. Els, the No. 1 seed, was 2-down to Fulke at No. 17. He was blocked entirely by the trees with 190 yards between him and the putting surface. When he was about to give up, he saw a gap wide enough to take a gamble, split it with a 5-iron and had a 15-foot look at a birdie. He missed, like he had done often in his semifinal match against Fulke, and the Swede's 6-foot par putt gave him a 2-and-1 victory. "If I won two matches, I was going to go home and feel pleased with myself," Fulke said. Instead, he already has won enough money to nearly guarantee himself a spot on the Ryder Cup team for Europe. A victory Sunday would give him a three-year exemption on the PGA Tour, where the prize money is twice as great as in Europe. "I don't know if I'm destined to win this tournament, but I would like for it to be that way," Fulke said. Earlier Saturday, Els holed crucial putts on the final five holes, including an 18-footer for birdie at the 18th, for a 1-up victory over Craig Stadler. The putting magic disappeared in the afternoon. Els played the final 12 holes in 2-over, and three-putted for par at No. 12 that swung the match in Fulke's favor. "Pierre did what he had to do," Els said. "He didn't have to play very well to beat me." With the top-seeded Els eliminated, the final will be missing a top-10 seed for the second time in the three-year history of the tournament, again proving that anything goes in the fickle format of match play. In the inaugural year, No. 24 Jeff Maggert beat No. 50 Andrew Magee in 38 holes, a final match that was missing the marquee names but not the drama. Sunday could be a repeat of that. Stricker became the highest seed (No. 55) to reach the final, only he is playing like he did two years ago when he went shot-for-shot with Vijay Singh before losing in the PGA Championship. Stricker, a well-mannered Midwesterner, has been tough in match play. He saved his grittiest performance for a mild, cloud-covered Saturday. In the quarterfinals against Aussie favorite Nick O'Hern, Stricker twice made 7-foot par putts in the closing holes to keep from falling behind, and sank a lightning-quick 12-foot birdie on the first extra hole to extend the match. He won it on the next hole with an approach over the trees to within 3 feet. Stricker got 3-up through 11 against Toru Taniguchi in the semifinals, before his swing deserted him and, for a brief time, so did his putter. Taniguchi, who beat Japanese compatriot Shigeki Maruyama in the quarterfinals, was only one hole down when Stricker hooked his next tee shot so badly that his only options were to try to hack out sideways or go back to the tee. "I figured the way I've been driving the ball, I have a better chance of hacking out," Stricker said. He did, hitting a 9-iron to 15 feet and holing the par putt to halve the hole. "That was probably the turning point, the reason I won the match," Stricker said. "That shows you the turnarounds in one hole." This tournament has shown turnarounds in one player's fortunes. Just two weeks ago, Stricker left frigid Wisconsin for Florida to get ready for the start of the season -- the Tucson Open next week. Here he has beaten 10th-seeded Padraig Harrington, 23rd-seeded Scott Verplank, seventh-seeded Justin Leonard and two lesser names Saturday but with higher stakes. "I know I have that good player inside me somewhere," Stricker said. "I'm very competitive. I don't give up."
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