Stricker puts spouse above British Open MyZA

Nicki and Steve Stricker. Photo: Getty Images

It very rarely happens that a professional athlete puts a spouse above a sporting event or match, but Steve Stricker has announced that he will skip the British Open next week to spend time with his wife.

Stricker and wife Nicki will be celebrating 20 years of marriage, and the Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner landed the scoop that the 12-time PGA Tour champion is planning on spending that time with family instead of the links of Muirfield.

How crazy is this? Well, not as much as you think.

Stricker already announced before the 2013 PGA Tour season started that he planned to only play about 10 events this year, and this week’s John Deere Classic marks eight starts for the 46-year-old.

If you toss in the PGA Championship that he plans to play, that makes nine, and then you have some of the FedEx Cup events and such that he might sprinkle in at the end of his season (he did say that he will not be at the Tour Championship as he already has a trip planned during that week).

Another reason that Stricker might ditch out on the Open is he hasn’t had a lot of success across the pond in his career. Stricker has played in 13 British Opens, never finishing in the top-five and carding just two top-10 finishes.

His game is pretty simple, so coming up with creative ways to play wedge shots around the green, bump-and-runs and putter from 20 yards off the green just doesn’t seem like something that would totally fit his game.

Still, if you are going to give an important championship a miss for something, it better be the wife. She most probably thinks that he golfs enough as it is already. – Yahoo! Sports