Less than five years ago he lost his US Tour card. His career was in a freefall and he had plunged to No. 337 in the world. He cries every time he wins,  like he did in Los Angelges last Sunday evening, because he remembers what it’s to be below ground zero.

Now he’s flying high having given himself the reality check that saved his career. In fact for someone who might have been an extra in Lost he has done more than rescue himself – he’s no No 2 in the world. He said after winning the Northern Trust Open at Riviera : “I went to Tour school in 2005 and I didn't make it.

“It was a humbling experience, and I just decided I needed to bear down and fix a couple things that were really bothering me. “And I took it upon myself really to do that. I think that was really the turnaround. I didn't listen to anybody else, I didn't listen to psychologists or my swing coach or anybody else, it was me who decided what I needed to do and what needed to be fixed.

“ I think once I took hold of that responsibility on my own, I think that's when it started to turn.” Stricker never did flash and never will. He spends the winter practicing in a heated trailer on his property and taught himself to keep his driver in play.

From there, he vowed to not just get his job back, but to live up to the potential he saw within himself. “Six years ago, if I would have told anybody (about his goal) they would have said, ’You're crazy‘. But I put a lot of hard work into it. And so to be where I am now just means a lot,” he said. Stricker’s one of the closest players on Tour to Tiger Woods.

They were perfect as a team at last year’s Presidents Cup and have played a lot of golf together. It wasn’t surprising that he deferred when asked about taking over as No. 1. “We all know who the best player in the world is,” he said. “He does what he does, and I do the things that I do, and that's what I've gotten down to is I just try to do what I'm good at, and that's sometimes not the flashiest thing in the world.

“ It may be grinding it out, making putts or getting it up-and-down, but it's my way. It's my style, I guess.”

Problem is, for all that Stricker’s rise and rise is a fantastic story, that small-town style of his won’t fill the void that has been left by Woods.

You couldn’t wish to meet a nicer person on the Tour but by his own admission he’s a grinder and will always remain thus.

Which is where Phil Mickelson was supposed to come in.

Except the only headlines he has made relate to his use of a prehistoric Ping wedge and the furore that surrounded the club he used to get around the new rules on square grooves.

And it didn’t even help him at Torrey Pines. Scott McCarron may or may not have called him a cheater, exactly, but the spirit of the game didn’t need Lefty finding a loophole in the laws.

He didn’t use it at Rivera but just like the week before, he finished nowhere.

Now some mud may stick – because enough of it has been thrown – while Michelson has to start answering some questions fast: like is he going to step up to the plate or not.

Nobody can challenge the argument that golf is bigger than one person but any sport needs personalities and Mickelson is certainly one of those.

Stricker, sadly, is not. Nice guys, like him, do sometimes win but while Woods had become anything but a nice guy last season as he threw clubs here, there and just about everywhere he is required viewing.

As can be Mickelson. When he’s up for it.

Stricker sticks to what he knows and it works for him. Good for him, too. But effectively the best player in the world until Tiger (if ever) gets back?

Dull, dull, dull.

And so if Mickelson can’t or won’t do it, then we have to hope that Rory McIlroy does. Now, he’s got the certain something, that element of excitement that Stricker doesn’t have and what’s more doesn’t really want.

Golf will go on, Woods or not, Mickelson playing like the gambler he can be or not.

But sport needs stars. Right now, in golf, not many of them are twinkling even if Steve Stricker is glowing.