HAVEN, Wis. -- Playing before appreciative fans in his home state of Wisconsin, Steve Stricker wondered for a time on Sunday if he might be playing in his last major championship.
Hip surgery late last year curtailed his schedule in 2015, and the 12-time PGA Tour winner dropped from 41st in the world to 138th.
But he made the cut at Whistling Straits and shot 70 on Sunday to finish at 284, 4 under par. He plans to take the rest of the year off, perhaps returning in December for the unofficial Shark Shootout.
"I'm not going to give up trying,'' said Stricker, 48, who tied for 30th. "I'm going to continue to try to get in these majors, but I don't know, this could be my last. It hurts when you don't play in some of those events. When you're watching the [WGC] Bridgestone a couple of weeks ago, that's one of my favorite tournaments throughout the year. Some of the other majors that you play on a regular basis, and all of a sudden you're not in.
"But I chose this path and I knew this was probably going to happen at some point in time that you slowly fade away out of that category and that exemption area. So I'm still committed to what I'm doing, and that's playing a limited schedule, and I'm still enjoying that very much.''
Stricker played just nine times this year, with his best finish a tie for 27th at Colonial. He missed two cuts.
He will be one of Jay Haas' assistant captains for the Presidents Cup and is fully exempt through the 2016-17 season on the PGA Tour.
"I feel really good about what's going to happen next year,'' he said. "Hopefully play a little bit more and get into a little bit of a rhythm more than I had this year.''