{"id":8258,"date":"2012-02-24T02:31:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T00:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/golf-strickers-clutch-putt-on-18-a-birthday-delight\/"},"modified":"2012-02-24T02:31:56","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T00:31:56","slug":"golf-strickers-clutch-putt-on-18-a-birthday-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-strickers-clutch-putt-on-18-a-birthday-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Stricker’s clutch putt on 18 a birthday delight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mark Lamport-Stokes<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MARANA, Arizona<\/span> Feb 23 (Reuters) – Steve Stricker
\ngave himself a timely birthday present with a one-up victory in
\nThursday’s second round at the WGC-Accenture Match Play
\nChampionship after trailing most of the way.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Stricker, who celebrated his 45th birthday, ended the match
\nby sinking a curling 20-foot birdie putt at the par-four 18th
\nwhere his opponent, South African Louis Oosthuizen, missed his
\nattempt from 12 feet.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It really wasn’t back and forth until the end,” the 2001
\nchampion told reporters of a tight encounter in dazzling
\nsunshine at Dove Mountain’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Club where he was
\ntwo down after 10 holes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“He had the lead on me all day long, so I was scratching
\nfrom behind all day. We each gave each other a couple of holes
\nhere and there. I am just lucky to be moving on really. It
\ndidn’t look too good for a while.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Long regarded as one of the best putters in the game,
\nStricker was delighted to have the opportunity to putt first on
\nthe 18th green.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“My dad has told me the first one (putt) in usually wins,
\nand that was the thought,” the softly-spoken American said.
\n“There was a lot of movement in the putt, probably a good three
\nor four feet.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was a big swinger to the right. I thought I lost a
\nlittle speed there right at the end … and it was going to miss
\non the low side, but it just hung in there nicely.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Stricker was surprised he won three of the four par-fives in
\nthe second round despite conceding a good 40 yards in distance
\noff the tee to Oosthuizen.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Lamport-Stokes MARANA, Arizona Feb 23 (Reuters) – Steve Stricker gave himself a timely birthday present with a one-up victory in Thursday’s second round at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after trailing most of the way. Stricker, who celebrated his 45th birthday, ended the match by sinking a curling 20-foot birdie putt at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}