Rain can't dampen Stricker's run

ATLANTA - His first two shots in yesterday's opening round of the Tour Championship came not long after lunch. His third didn't come until dinnertime.

But if you think that such a gap would disturb Steve Stricker, think again. His is a demeanor that was severely tested by a winless stretch of 146 PGA Tour events across nearly seven seasons, so four hours was no worry for this year's feel-good story.

Some would suggest it's a story of fairy tale proportions, but Stricker laughs.

"I don't know if Cinderella is the right word or not, but you know, I feel like I should be here," said Stricker, whose appearance in the $7 million Tour Championship is his first since 2001. That alone makes it noteworthy, but even more remarkable is the fact Stricker is in position to claim the first FedEx Cup and its whopping $10 million top prize.

Suggest to Stricker that such a sum loses luster because it's an annuity and he laughs again.

"It won't change me if I were to win it," said Stricker. "It would just ensure that my kids and my kids' kids are taken care of in their lives. It would be a great problem to have."

If he is to face such a "great" problem, however, the 40-year-old Stricker has to deal with a more pressing one - the hole in which he finds himself at East Lake Golf Club after a waterlogged, yet stunning, start to this finale of the first playoff series in PGA Tour history.

With newly seeded and sodded greens providing a series of 18 dartboards for competitors, the scoring opportunities got even more lip-smacking when a three-hour weather delay included a half-inch of rain. When play resumed, so did the barrage of birdies and while only 10 of the 30 players finished their rounds, they forced scorekeepers to dig deep into their bucket of red numbers.

Tim Clark led the scoring assault with six birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free 8-under-par 62, but while it equaled the course record, it hardly afforded him separation. That's because British Open champ Padraig Harrington fired a 63 and John Rollins came home with a 64. Of those who'll be forced into a restart at 8 this morning, Mark Calcavecchia is 6 under through 16, Hunter Mahan and Woody Austin are 5 under through 17, and Adam Scott (through 13) and Tiger Woods (11) are 4 under.

Woods, as always, commands the greatest scrutiny, because as leader of the FedEx Cup standings, he has the inside track to the $10 million prize. What he said he doesn't have, despite appearances to the contrary, is a clue as to how to handle these new greens, soft and slow that they are.

"I hit them up there and they bounced all over the place and somehow they went in," said Woods of birdie rolls at the first (9 feet), second (18), and third (32) that got him off and running.

Paired with Stricker, who is second in the FedEx Cup standings and would win the $10 million prize with a victory, Woods similarly had to retire to the clubhouse after hitting two shots. When he returned, Woods found the putting surfaces "soft . . . and interesting," but as he glanced at the leaderboard, he also discovered that green lights were at every hole.

"The golf course is set up for scoring. You can really be aggressive and run the ball at the hole," said Harrington, who was 3 under when the rain halted his round at the 13th hole. Though scrambling patrons may not agree, the Irishman termed it "a good rain," because regrouped and refreshed, he came back and roared home with four straight birdies to pull within one of the clubhouse leader.

Others had more work to do on their return, including Phil Mickelson, third in the FedEx Cup standings. Having misfired well left with his opening tee shot to make bogey, the lefthander pulled it a mile right at the par-5 fifth and made double. Five holes into his round, Mickelson trailed by a whopping 11 shots, though he, too, regrouped and with four birdies in a six-hole stretch starting at the par-4 seventh, he was 1 under when play was halted for darkness at 7:09.

Stricker, too, completed his day's work at that time, but on a different note. He was one of five tied for 26th at 1 over, the only players in the field over par on an abbreviated day when the scoring average was 67.224.

His 11 holes could be called the only indifferent effort Stricker has had of late, for in his last eight tournaments he has been top 10 five times and top 25 seven. When the Wisconsin native captured the first of the four playoff events, The Barclays, for his first triumph since January 2001, Stricker not only completed a career revival, he sent waves of good cheer throughout the Tour. He is, his colleagues would argue, among the most liked PGA Tour members.

"The support I've received from players, from the media, from family and friends, from people I don't even know has been overwhelming," said Stricker, who from 2003-05 missed 38 cuts in 69 starts, had but two top 10s, and ranked no better than 151st on the money list.

His swing lacked rhythm, his psyche was free of confidence.

"It's happened to a lot of great players," said Stricker. "The nature of our game is just that. It's volatile. Everybody has them; it's just the depths to which you go, I guess.

"It's something that we've got to deal with."

He dealt with it with such an abundance of dignity that his stature grew in the eyes of his competitors. So when a long and determined comeback was made whole at The Barclays in late August, Stricker spent his week at the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston accepting warm embraces from an endless line of peers. His ribs may have been sore, but the emotional lift was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

Did he know he was that great a guy? He laughed and said, "No, I didn't."

He is.

But so, too, is he in a serious uphill fight to complete a Cinderella story after a soggy day of favorable scoring at East Lake GC.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.