Steve Stricker recorded a 7-under 65 in the first round of the 2023 American Family Insurance Championship. That was the fifty-third consecutive round of par or better that he had scored, surpassing the record held by Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour. Stricker and Woods also had a face-off together at the 2023 PNC Championship, where Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods finished in the third position and Steve Stricker and Izzi Stricker finished in the fifth position.

via Imago

This year, the Stricker duo is all set to tee up at Ritz Carlton but Woods’s participation is still hanging. Before the 57-year-old golfer tees off with his daughter, he was recently moved to tears, and it was for a special cause. The American Family Insurance Championship, established in 2016 through a collaboration between American Family Insurance, PGA TOUR Champions, and Wisconsin native Steve Stricker, has become a significant philanthropic event. Since its inception, it has raised over $17 million for the American Family Children’s Hospital and numerous other charities, demonstrating its impact beyond the golf course.

This year alone, the event raised $2.5 million. The American Family Insurance Championship is to be introduced with a new team competition format in 2025. Scheduled to be hosted on June 6, it will involve a day of scramble play, to be seen first time in the PGA Tour Champions. “With this tournament moving to a new course in 2025, it’s an ideal time to try a new format as well,” said Stricker. He believes that this will add a level of intrigue and excitement to the game. “We appreciate how the Madison community has embraced the AmFam Champ, and the new format and course will continue to provide a unique experience for our fans,” added Stricker.

He will be hosting it in 2025 TPC Wisconsin in Madison for the first time. The PGA Tour Champions shared a video of him breaking down while talking about what this tournament means to him, “I don’t know why I’m crying already, but as you can tell, this means a lot to me and Nicki.”

Despite being dubbed rivals by the golf community, Steve Stricker has had long dreams of sharing the field with Tiger Woods. He even wanted to play together at the 2024 Zurich Classic.

Steve Stricker expressed his desire to get back on the field with Tiger Woods

Stricker is a “huge Tiger fan,” and “wants to see him playing as much as he can.” In one of the episodes of The Loop Podcast, Steve Stricker shared, “I thought about asking him to see if he wanted to play in New Orleans at the team event.” He went on to add how they have had amazing times being teammates on the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams.

“We had some great times being teammates on some of those [Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup] teams over the years. I guess I blurted it out loud when I was on a podcast with somebody, I said wouldn’t it be cool to get the band together one more time, for him and I to play again,” he said, adding “I don’t think that will happen, he’s got other issues than playing with me, but it would be fun, and it’s fun thinking about it.” He was also realistic and was concerned about the Woods’s health concerns.

He was to ask him at the PLAYERS but ended up saying, “Yeah, for him and me to play again. I don’t think that will happen; he’s got other issues than playing with me, but it would be fun, and it’s fun thinking about it.” A few weeks later, the field list was released, and well, Woods was not in the field, and the 12X PGA Tour player was paired up with Matt Kuchar. As it turns out, his dream of pairing up with the 82X PGA Tour champion will have to wait for quite some time now.