Stricker Defeats Fulke in Final for $1 Million

Not even eligible for Match Play Championship three weeks ago, Steve Stricker completed an unlikely journey with a gutsy performance today to defeat Pierre Fulke of Sweden and win the $1-million prize.

Stricker, No. 90 in the world ranking and the 55th seed in a 64-man field missing Tiger Woods and a slew of other top names, never trailed in the 36-hole match and survived a grueling day at Metropolitan Golf Club when Fulke’s putter betrayed him.

Stricker closed out the match on the 35th hole, 2 and 1, when the 29-year-old Swede failed to save par from the bunker.

It was Stricker’s first victory in four years, and the $1-million prize might be enough to get him into the Masters.

“This is unbelievable,” Stricker said after beating Japan’s Toro Taniguchi, 2 and 1, in the semifinals. “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?”

The field was the weakest of the seven official World Golf Championship events to date, as Woods, David Duval, Phil Mickelson and top Europeans like Colin Montgomerie decided against a long trip to Australia so close to the holidays.

Stricker could not afford to pass it up and he made the most of his opportunity.

He became the lowest seed to win the Match Play Championship in the three-year history of the event, but so fickle is the format that the highest seed to ever win was Darren Clarke last year at No. 19 when he beat Woods at La Costa.

Fulke, who won $500,000 and all but clinched a spot on the Ryder Cup team for Europe, likely will think back on all the chances he squandered over the final 18 holes.

Two-down to start the second 18, he missed a four-foot birdie putt on the sixth with a chance to trim the lead. The Swede, one of the top putters on the European tour, missed another four-foot birdie try on the 12th that would have squared the match. He also missed a 12-foot putt on the 14th as Stricker hung on for dear life.

Top-seeded Ernie Els, by far the biggest name left through three rounds of the tournament, lost to Fulke, 2 and 1, in the semifinals, then was routed by Taniguchi in the third-place match, 4 and 3.