Northern Trust defending champion Steve Stricker surveys the field

The Northern Trust Open golf tournament, which begins Thursday at Riviera Country Club, has five of the top 10 golfers in the world and 16 of the top 30.

One of them is Steve Stricker, 43, the defending champion and the 2009 runner-up. He is ranked eighth and is pleasant and accommodating with fans, willing to shake hands and sign visors. If anybody asks.

And yet the star power this week seems to belong more to two-time champion Phil Mickelson, who has been rolling through the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing with some swagger and two top-10 finishes but is in need of a victory.

Even international stars seem to be getting more attention than Stricker — defending British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen; Irishman Padraig Harrington, who has won three majors in his career; charismatic 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa of Japan and rookie Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela, already a PGA Tour winner.

Then there are the older and admired veterans, including two 51-year-olds — Fred Couples, who won here in 1990 and 1992, and Corey Pavin, who was captain of last year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team.

This is fine by Stricker. He is the defending champion but said Wednesday he is not the man to beat.

“There’s so many good players,” Stricker said. “I just go in, try to play my game, not worry about trying to win again … keep plugging along.”

That’s kind of the way Stricker won here last year in circumstances that might mimic what’s coming this week, in which the weather forecast is showers, showers and more showers.

Last year, he opened a five-shot lead during his Saturday round, when he finished only 14 holes because of darkness after rain in the early rounds delayed play. And he slogged through a long final day, initially increasing his advantage over the field to six shots before hanging on to win by two over Luke Donald.

“I remember Luke putting on a great charge in that final round,” Stricker said, “and remember trying to hang on.”

That is the opposite of the style of someone such as Mickelson, who prefers to be aggressive — either power ahead or accept the consequences of creative shot-making — and sometimes fall behind.

“I’ve been playing well,” Mickelson said. “I’ve got just a slight hurdle to get over where I’ve got to get the scores down to how I feel I’m playing. I feel like I’m right on the cusp of playing some really good golf.”

Even Mickelson’s style of travel is more in-your-face. He is flying himself from his home near San Diego. That commute became more complicated Wednesday when bad weather forced Mickelson to land in Van Nuys instead of Santa Monica. That’s still better than sleeping in a hotel or traveling up the 5 Freeway in bad-weather traffic.

Stricker has played twice on the PGA Tour this season, both events in Hawaii and both with top-10 finishes. But he hasn’t played in any of the previous three California tournaments and was home in snowy Wisconsin last week.

So right now Stricker describes his game as “a little rusty.”

“This time of year,” he said, “I never know really what to get or what to expect of my game.”

While not prone to boasting or even offering himself a little praise, Stricker was finally prodded into conceding that coming here as a defending champion is offering some comfort: “I guess you do have a little more confidence know you’ve played well here. Knowing that … gives you a good frame of mind.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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