updated 5:21 p.m. ET July 21, 2007

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland - The worst part was having to beg for work. Steve Stricker did it because that’s what failed players do if they don’t want to end up working behind the counter at the local country club.

The routine was the same every week.

Pick up the phone and call sponsors. If that doesn’t work, tournament directors are next on the speed dial.

Explain your credentials. Remind them that you were once the next big thing before your thing started to go bad. If they still balk, tell them you have a growing family and really need to make a living.

If you’re lucky, one will let you in. If you’re real lucky, you’ll have such a good week that the next one will be forced to let you in.

Getting in the British Open wasn’t the goal. Playing in the final group on Sunday was merely a dream.

An invitation to the Chrysler Classic was just fine.

“That’s the hard part, when you don’t have really much of a status,” Stricker said. “You’re begging your way into tournaments, and you never knew when you were going to play.”

It helped that the guy doing the begging was known as perhaps the ultimate nice guy on the PGA Tour. But niceness only gets you so far, and there comes a time when you either have to deliver on the course or start making plans for being off of it.

Stricker did just that, taking advantage of a few special invitations early last year and playing so well that he not only regained his tour card but was named comeback player of the year.

That got him in the majors, including the British Open after a four-year absence. And a sparkling 7-under 64 Saturday got him into the final group in the final round with Sergio Garcia.

“Obviously this is why all of us are here,” Stricker said. “These four tournaments throughout the year are ultimate goals for everyone to win.”

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Stricker’s story of success and failure in golf is a familiar one, but unlike most players he’s remarkably candid in talking about both the doubts that afflicted him about his swing and his desire to play.

He had turned out to be more shooting star than rising star.

With his wife lugging the bag, Stricker won twice in 1996 and everything came easy. He was on the President’s Cup team, and even the celebrated debut of Tiger Woods did nothing to dent his confidence.

But there were flaws in his game. Stricker rarely hit a driver until his junior year in college, but on the tour it was a club he both needed and fought with.

He was smiling on the outside but beating himself up inside as the ball kept going sideways.

“I never showed my anger a lot outwardly,” Stricker said. “But I wasn’t giving myself any breaks, and I really wasn’t that confident during those times.”

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