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Q-School Grad Leads Barclays

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By JOHN NICHOLSON

The Associated Press

Published: August 24, 2008

PARAMUS, N.J. - Steve Stricker shook his head and flashed a wry smile when he walked out of the scorer's room Saturday at The Barclays.

If nothing else, the defending champion was glad he was finally off the sun-baked Ridgewood Country Club course after a humbling round that left Kevin Streelman atop the leaderboard and more than two dozen players in the title chase.

"I just stunk it up," Stricker said. "I've got to try to regroup."

He lost a ball and the lead on the par-4 12th.

After fading a drive into the rough, his aggressive approach shot from a tough angle skipped along the far side of the left rough and into a tangled mess of shoulder-high grass, bushes and weeds.

Despite TV replays and a large search party, the ball couldn't be located and Stricker - four strokes ahead after 10 holes - took a penalty stroke and trudged back to the spot where he hit the costly shot.

The winner last year at Westchester Country Club, Stricker advanced the new ball 40 yards short of the green, hit his fifth shot 30 feet past the hole and two-putted for a triple-bogey 7 to drop to 7 under - a stroke behind Sergio Garcia.

"I got off to a good start, then I made two stupid plays in a row on 11 and 12," Stricker said. "The one at 12 was one of the dumbest plays I ever made trying to do what I did out of the rough there. From that point on, it was a struggle to get in."

By the time Stricker signed for a 6-over 77, he was four strokes back at 4 under in a 12-way tie for 11th.

Stricker was 12 under through six holes, then dropped a stroke on No. 7 to end a 23-hole stretch without a bogey. He also bogeyed the 11th, made the triple on 12 and dropped three more strokes with bogeys on 14, 16 and 17.

Streelman, a 29-year-old Q-school graduate in his rookie season on the PGA Tour, took the lead at 8 under with a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the par-4 16th and parred the final two holes for a 68 and an 8-under 205.

"It will be a fun day for me," Streelman said. "I'm interested to see how I kind of react to it. That's what I've been working for my whole life."

Streelman made news this year at Torrey Pines, playing with Tiger Woods on the weekend in the Buick Invitational in January and sharing the first-round lead in the U.S. Open in June on the San Diego course.

"That day with Tiger was the greatest preparation I ever could have imagined," Streelman said. "I know it will be crazy tomorrow, but I guarantee you it won't be quite as big as that day in San Diego with Tiger."

The former Duke star's parents are from nearby Glen Rock and his grandparents are buried in a cemetery next to the course.

"My cousin came and watched me last week and told me," Streelman said. "I was like, 'Well, that's kind of cool.'"

Vijay Singh shot 66 to join Garcia, Mike Weir and Paul Casey at 7 under.

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