MADISON — Steve Stricker, host of the American Family Insurance Championship, sat down with the Journal Sentinel for a question-and-answer session in advance of the 2026 tournament.
The tournament is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and this year marks the second year of the team format. The championship, a PGA Tour Champions event, will be held June 5-7 at TPC Wisconsin.
Here are some highlights from Stricker’s interview:
This is the second year of a team event at TPC Wisconsin. What were some takeaways from Year 1?
Stricker: I didn’t hear really any negative things. Maybe a couple of course setup things that we heard, but other than that, the format the players loved, the fans loved the different format, a change of pace, something different. A lot of low scores, which is fun for fans to see.
And you can tell that the players like it – not only that I’ve heard that but they’re showing up. Got a good field again this year. Hopefully the weather cooperates for us and we put out another amazing event and raise a lot of money for the charities. That’s why we’re all here.
How was the change in format received by the PGA Tour?
Stricker: The Tour loved it. They’re open to it. They’re all about entertainment, and if the sponsor is good with it and the fans are good with it, the Tour was good with it. They loved the idea of it. There have been team events on Tour before, so that part is nothing new, but they’ve gone away. So, it was our desire to bring that back. And it fits this course very well. It’s a good course to have a partner on. There’s a lot of risk-reward out there. You put all that together and it made for a very nice event.
And it shows, too; there was another event that Stewart Cink put on, another Champions Tour event in Atlanta this year [Mitsubishi Electric Classic], that was Stableford System [scoring]. So there’s opportunities there to switch it up and the players like that, to have something different.
Jim Furyk was named the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captain in late April. Did the PGA of America give you a call?
Stricker: I did not. I did not talk to the PGA of America at all. I had a couple phone calls with reporters that were curious about the same thing, but never had any conversation with the PGA of America.
You had said after captaining the Ryder Cup in 2021 that you didn’t want to do it again, but Europe has had Luke Donald captain the last two Cups and he’ll captain for a third time in 2027. Is it something you’d consider?
Stricker: It’s hard to say. It’s all speculation, I guess. It would have been; I probably would have welcomed it to try to do it again. Overseas, I would have liked to try to do. But, it takes a lot of time out of your life, too, and at this point in time it’s probably not a good thing for me to be involved in as a captain.
But, yeah, my heart and desire lies with that Ryder Cup because it’s so much fun. The experience we had here at Whistling Straits was a gas and to be a part of it again would be cool. But again, maybe it’s just better left to be alone with that and not do it again.
It appears LIV Golf is coming to an end. Is there a place for players who are eligible for PGA Tour Champions to return, like Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed on the PGA Tour?
Stricker: There’s two ways of looking at it, right? Sure, to have the guys that are 50 now, or close to it, like Lee Westwood, [Ian] Poulter, Pat Perez, some other guys [Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson], they would be hits here on the Champions Tour. This tour could use that. I look at it from that standpoint. Then I look at it from the other standpoint of like well, they did leave. And I think each case is going to be taken differently from what I understand. I really don’t know.
I look at it both ways and I’m not sure which way is right. I mean, if I’m a tournament director I would love to have those guys and we’re in this business right here [with the AmFam Championship]. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have Poulter and Westwood and Pat Perez and some other guys there, too. It would only help our event, you know? But I also know that there are probably consequence for them if they want to come back.
Currently, the AmFam Championship stands alone in terms of professional golf events in Wisconsin. Is it a little disappointing that the state appears to have been skipped over?
Stricker: The PGA [Championship] moving to May has kind of messed up golf in the northern part of the country for the PGA Championship, for that major. They’re going to have to concentrate on the center of the country and south for that to work.
Yeah, I mean, golf in Wisconsin is still really, really strong. We’ve got a lot of great golf courses. I don’t think you have to have a major championship all the time to bring it to the forefront or to the spotlight in the country. People know how good it is here. I talk to a lot of different amateurs that come to play the courses up at Kohler or in the center of our state with some of the great [ones] at Sand Valley, SentryWorld. They’re all over the place. So, people who know the golf world, they know how good it is here.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Steve Stricker Q&A | Would he captain the Ryder Cup again?
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
