How Steve Stricker once finished second to Tiger Woods at Doral after giving him a putting lesson that week

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The only WGC title of Steve Stricker’s career came back in 2001, but he may only have himself to blame after finishing second to Tiger Woods at Doral 12 years later.

Of course, Tiger Woods had a phenomenal record on the Blue Monster course during his career.

Woods won four times in 11 starts at the venue, which will return to the PGA Tour for the first time in a decade this week and host the Cadillac Championship.

He finished in the top 10 nine times.

How Steve Stricker helped Tiger Woods secure victory at Doral in 2013

Stricker’s only top three finish at Doral came in 2013, when he finished second to his good friend.

It turned out that Stricker had helped Woods on his putting – specifically, his posture – on the Wednesday before the tournament began.

Photo by Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Woods had gone into the week having finished tied for 37th on his previous start, at the Honda Classic.

Woods went on to thank Stricker during the trophy presentation. He was subsequently asked whether he believed he would have won had he not received that advice.

“I would like to say I probably would have, but …” he said, as reported by ESPN. “I’ve been putting at home and it just still hadn’t felt right. I still was a little bit off. He basically got me in the same position that I was at Torrey. So once he put me in there where I felt comfortable, I said, ‘Well, this is not too foreign. This is what I was a month or so ago.’ And I started rolling it and it felt really, really good.”