PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 19, 2025

Steve Stricker

Izzi Stricker

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hi, Steve, Izzi. Welcome. This is your third time coming back to PNC playing together. How special has this event been playing together and getting closer as a father/daughter duo?

IZZI STRICKER: I think it's really cool. We play together all the time and we're a really close-knit family. We have kind of bonded with each other like through golf, and I think to bring it to such a big stage and competitive stage is really fun.

We get to work together. Mom and sister are out here. Us four are really close and it's really fun to be here.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, very much the same answer. Yeah, it's an opportunity for us all to be together, to work towards something, for Izzi and I not only to play together, but have Bobbi and Nicki out here as a well is a lot of fun.

It's definitely a family week for us. Get to see a lot of other people too here this week that we don't normally get to see, you know, favorites of ours throughout the years that we played a lot of golf with.

So, yeah, it's a great week and we're just lucky and fortunate to be a part of it to tell you the truth. To get the invitation, we grind on it each year to hopefully get it. The last three years have been pretty special for that.

THE MODERATOR: And recently Izzi you played with your mom in June in the Wisconsin State Women's Four Cup Championship. What is the difference playing with your mom versus your dad?

IZZI STRICKER: They're both really competitive. I would say my mom is more competitive. That was so fun. Yeah, she actually carried me that day. She made seven birdies.

I'm 1-0 with her, so she's clearly the better partner. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

No, that was really fun. I told her, I said I wanted to do something golf related and competitive with you. Let's do the four ball. So we ending up winning this summer, and it was fun.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. And Steve, just watching Izzi and how she's progressed at Wisconsin in her own golf journey, what are you most proud of in just seeing her?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it's good to see her progressing in general really. She's getting better and better all the time. Her swing is getting more technically sound. Her little mistakes are becoming less I would say.

She's improving in all facets of the game really. Each and every year she can see it, too. That's the exciting part in golf. If you're staying neutral and not improving it's a tough game, but I think she can see the improvement. I definitely see the improvement. She's getting longer. She's more accurate.

Now it's working on all the little stuff. The playing, the little shots around the green, all the little stuff that adds up to a big difference at the end of a round or tournament.

So it's cool to see her progressing and getting better.

Q. I'm curious, when you talk about the excitement of getting this invitation, how do you get? Is it email? Phone call? Something in the mail?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it's an email.

Q. When does it usually come in and what's the reaction at the household?

STEVE STRICKER: Like a couple months. I think I got it maybe in October sometime.

IZZI STRICKER: First year I think it was even later.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah. But it's not like, you know, six months ago. It's a month or two ahead. It's more than a month. I think like six or eight weeks out from the tournament.

Yeah, and then, yeah, super excited when I get it. Immediately call her and Nicki and Bobbi and tell them that we get to play again.

Q. And then I was going ask this of Izzi. She's going to have to hit the ball and drag you all week.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah.

Q. Specific to you, how did the Cup go and how are you coming along post surgery? That's you, not her.

STEVE STRICKER: I thought you were going to ask her.

Q. Nah. Too young.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, post surgery, coming along. Neck surgery was August 4th or 5th I think. I hit balls about 16 days after that. Didn't press it very much for the next couple months because I knew I wasn't going to play.

My game is not very strong. That part has been hard to come back so far. I hit some great shots and then I hit some shots that are just God awful.

But I'm trying to figure out what's going on and working on my game a little bit. But as far as the surgery went and my neck, everything went really well.

Q. Izzi, have you dipped your toes in any USGA waters yet?

IZZI STRICKER: No. I have not.

Q. Qualifiers?

IZZI STRICKER: Qualified; have not qualified. Fell short a few times U.S. Girls Junior, but this summer was I think my first U.S. Open qualifier. But I'm -- I have, just qualifiers.

Q. Mr. Stricker, in 2012 you won the PGA TOUR's Payne Stewart Award for character, charity, and sportsmanship. If you think about it, these are all values of the PNC Championship. Your family has the Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation that shows kids that your dreams are not only attainable but worth the effort. How happy are both of you during a season known for giving to participate in a tournament that's had a huge charitable impact on the Orlando community over the years?

STEVE STRICKER: I tell you what, Doug Ferguson, the guy behind you, could learn a lot from you and the questions that you ask. (Laughing.) That was a great question. You've done your homework. Sometimes the guy back there doesn't do his homework. You know I'm kidding.

That was a great question.

We're super excited. We try to give back. We have that foundation. We raise a lot of money for our local community, charities. Our kids are involved in that tournament. They feel the need and the desire to also help and give back through our foundation. Obviously each and every week we go play on TOUR, the Champions TOUR or the regular TOUR, that community is getting those charitable dollars through this event. It's no different here this week at the PNC Championship. They're doing the same thing here.

So to participate in that, to be a part of that in a small way is very rewarding for all of us to be able to be here, to help support the community, to give back to Orlando community charities.

Yeah, that's what golf S we learned that from the predecessors before us, our peers. The great players of the game all did the same thing. They raised money through either private events, golf days that they put on, whatever they did.

But we all learned that in the people before us. So we're just trying to keep that going, and it's no different for us in Madison, Wisconsin and our golf tournament and doing that for all the charities that we give back to.

Q. Thank you so much.

STEVE STRICKER: Thank you.

Q. Izzi, I was hoping you could do this vice versa here, that you could share your favorite moment watching your dad play and then if you could do the same thing for Izzi, your favorite moment.

IZZI STRICKER: You know, honestly it's not when he was playing. I think it was the 2020 Ryder Cup. To see like our entire hometown and state support my dad and the Ryder Cup team, I think to be inside the ropes for that was the coolest thing I have ever seen.

I think my dad's whole career led him to that spot, so that was probably my favorite moment.

Q. Did it give you a different perspective for your dad's career?

IZZI STRICKER: Yes.

STEVE STRICKER: I think me watching Izzi win her second state championship, state high school championship. And I know how hard that is. I was in that position as a high schooler. I won my junior year; fell flat on my face my senior year just because the expectations and all the things that you -- you know you did it the year before. You feel like you should do it again.

You know, you're looked at as the defending championship and should win again. She set that goal to do it again and did do it. That's probably one of the hardest things in any sport, to try to get to a position of winning year before, put all that pressure on yourself to win again, and she did it.

So that was pretty cool.

Q. When you watch Izzi play are there certain aspects that remind you of yourself?

STEVE STRICKER: I wish I was as flexible as she was or is. Yeah, no, I mean, she does a lot of good things on her own. We all help. Grandpa, uncle, mom, Bobbi. They all got a part in Izzi's game. So it's cool to see her get better, progress, and then actually work towards that, work hard towards that.

We'll give her stuff to do and she'll go off and grind on getting that one thing done. That showed up even this last couple months where she's worked really hard at a few things and it's getting better all the time. Yeah, it's cool to see her own progression.

And she runs with it. It's definitely her game. She's doing a lot of good things.

Q. Were you there when they were playing the four ball?

STEVE STRICKER: I was not. I was not there.

Q. Were you refreshing the scores?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, I was -- I kept in contact with them and then it was good to see Nicki help out. Actually Izzi is right, she's probably the most competitive person in our family. To have her come through and make all those birdies, and she made a couple bombs coming in when they had to, it was cool for her to help out.

Q. So on that note, Steve, talking about how competitive the family is and given what Nicki has done, Bobbi, Izzi is doing, have you guys ever played as a foursome and kept score? If not, why not?

STEVE STRICKER: We stay away from the family competition for the most part because there is a couple people in the family that don't like to lose. One of them is not here today at all and she -- you know who I'm talking about. So we just go out and try to have friendly games and try to keep it good between the four of us.

Is that true?

IZZI STRICKER: Uh-huh.

STEVE STRICKER: So...

Q. What would happen if you guys did have a family competition? Would you still be a family?

IZZI STRICKER: Might end in tears and being mad. No, but it's fun. We recently have paired up in twos, kids against the parents. It's a little more lighthearted. It's not flat out stroke play all four of us.

Q. Who wins?

STEVE STRICKER: Nicki and I won the last two times. Yeah, we've only done it twice so we're 2-0 against the kids.

Q. Izzi, obviously being a part of such a golf loving family you were going to get exposed to the game, but at some point you have to embrace the game yourself and fall in love with it. What was that progress like and was there a moment, a tournament or whatever that made you decide, I want to do this, too?

IZZI STRICKER: Yeah, I think I had a love/hate relationship with it growing up for sure just because of that reason. Golf kind of was my life growing up and I loved that. I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

But I would get really competitive and I would want to be at the level my sister was at. I think once I realized how much fun the work is to get to that level I started to love it on my own.

I think in high school when I started to create goals about maybe looking at a college, I put my head down and I kind of made it my own thing and my own game. I incorporated my entire family to help me with that, so I think once I realized all those things I started to love it and I love it now.

Q. Steve, could you see the love/hate relationship early on?

STEVE STRICKER: Oh, yeah. I just told NBC over here that she saw her sister play at the college level and then turn pro, and Izzi is like oh, I'm not going to play in college. I don't want to play the game. I don't want to turn pro. Now look at her. So she's in college playing golf.

You know, she works hard at it. She likes it. There are times for all of us that it's a love/relationship. You just got to walk away when you start to hate it. You know in the few hours you'll want to be back out there and practicing and grinding at it again.

So, yeah, she is to that point where she -- it's in her. That golf bug is definitely in her and she works at it hard and is doing great with it.