A Win for Steve Timms and a Jordan Spieth Clarification

Every time I see Steve Stricker enjoy success on the PGA Tour, the first person I think of is Steve Timms.

Stricker’s improbable birdie-birdie finish Sunday earned him his third consecutive victory at the John Deere Classic. Among the nicest, friendliest guys on Tour (definitely one of the best guys I’ve had the pleasure to meet and interview), the 44-year-old Stricker joined the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson as players to win the same PGA Tour event three years in a row.



Steve Stricker won the John Deere
Classic for a third straight time.

He shot a final round 2-under 69 today and posted a winning, four-day total of 22-under 262. Next week he’ll try to win his first major championship at the British Open.

No doubt, Timms is smiling ear to ear right now. Stricker never shies away from giving Timms, the Houston Golf Association president and CEO and tournament director of the Shell Houston Open, a heaping load of credit for the success Stricker has achieved in the past five years.

After winning three times in his first seven years on Tour, Stricker lost his game in 2005. As a result, he lost his PGA Tour card, finishing 162nd on the money list that year.

Steve Timms, president/CEO
of the Houston Golf Assoc.

The next season, he relied on sponsor’s exemptions to get into tournaments and make a living. Timms gave one of those coveted exemptions to Stricker for the 2006 SHO, and the Wisconsin native made the most of it. He shot 65-66 on the weekend and finished in the top 10. The confidence gained propelled Stricker to six more top 10s in 2006; he won the first of his two PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year Awards.

When Timms made the decision to offer the exemption, Stricker was ranked 331st in the world. Before his win Sunday, Stricker ranked fifth in the world. He's won eight times since Timms helped him in 2006.

"It all got started here (in Houston), and it kick-started my good play," Stricker said in 2008. "I gained a lot of confidence from this event a couple years ago and have kind of rolled with it since, and this place means a lot."

A win for Steve Stricker is a victory for Steve Timms.

Two of the nicest guys in the world of golf.

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Just in case anyone got the wrong idea about the column I wrote here on Friday (Blaming Jordan Spieth), I felt I might explain myself.

The column was supposed to be funny.

I don’t blame Jordan Spieth for anything except making my job exceptionally fun every time I get to watch him play golf and write about his accomplishments. In my seven-plus years of covering golf exclusively in Texas, no amateur golfer has impressed me more -- on and off the golf course -- than Spieth.

It’s really not even close.

The fact that he calls me Mr. Button only shows his solid character and upbringing. The best junior golfer I’ve ever seen play is also the most respectful and humble.

I guess if I really had to document one complaint about the future PGA Tour star, it would be that I was unable to convince him to play his college golf at the University of Kansas, my alma mater.

I wouldn’t bet against Spieth leading the University of Texas to multiple national championships in the next few years.

He did promise me once that whenever Kansas plays Kansas State in basketball, he’ll root for the Jayhawks.

I’ll take what I can get.

- Mark Button, Texas Links Magazines.

Blaming Jordan Spieth

I turned 40 today.

I don't feel any older ... but that's probably because I've been feeling old for a while now.

I blame Jordan Spieth.

Jordan Spieth, '09 U.S. Junior Am Champ

I've been covering Jordan -- the teenager from Dallas who won the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur, finished in the top-20 in the PGA Tour's 2010 HP Byron Nelson Championship and who made a run at a top-25 finish again there this year -- for more than three years now. I first saw him play at a 2009 AJGA event at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands.

He was 14 or 15 years old back then, and he had serious game. Skinny as a rail but flexible as rubber, he pounded the ball 280+ and seemed to have almost complete control of his irons. Plus he made nearly every putt he looked at that weekend.

It wasn't his golf game that stuck with me in the weeks that followed, however. What really impressed me that first time I covered him was his composure. He lost in a playoff that year, so he had to be upset about it.

A couple minutes after the playoff ended, he sat on stone wall near the 18th green at the beautiful Jack Nicklaus Course at Carlton Woods and answered questions from a couple reporters. He was polite, thoughtful and very humble. He congratulated the kid who beat him and said he'd only work harder to win next year. (He finished 2nd again in 2010 but closed out his AJGA career by winning the HP Boys Championship at Carlton Woods in Feburary of this year.)

Not too long after that first interview, I saw him again and asked him to start writing a bi-monthly junior golf column for DFW Links and Houston Links magazines. We did that column together for two years, and it always was fun for me to talk with him, pick his brain and push him to write introspectively about his life, golf, school and whatever else was on his mind.



Spieth gained rock star status at the 2010 Nelson Championship

What bugged me about him -- and still does -- was that he always called me "Mr. Button" when we talked.

That REALLY made me feel old. I hated it, and I still do.

I really don't blame Jordan (well, maybe a little bit). He's such a well-mannered kid, and he is just trying to be respectful ... to his elders. It's an admirable quality. I get that. I just don't like the implication. Which is: I'm old.

It's easy to see he was raised by great parents. His mom, Chris, and father, Shawn, are shining examples of how to raise any child, regardless of atheltic talent.

Still, the fact that Jordan always refers me to Mr. Button ticks me off. I'd tell him time and again to call me Mark, and he would say, "Yes, sir."

Then the next time I saw him, it was: "Hey, Mr. Button."

Mr. Button is my dad.

All of this came back to mind yesterday when I was editing Texas Golf Association president Rob Addington's monthly column for our magazines. Rob wrote about the HP Byron Nelson Junior (which Jordan won three straight times from 2008-2010), and he commented how golf produces such well-mannered, respectful kids who turn into responsible young adults. Rob wrote that he, too, was bugged by the fact that those juniors call him "Mr. Addington" and not "Rob."

So it was nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels old today.

(Sorry, Mr. Addington, errr, I mean, Rob.)

Thanks for reading. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

- Mark Button, Texas Links Magazines