Steve Stricker went from desperation to disappointment, a wild swing in emotions that ultimately indicates a successful season.

Consider his toughest adjustment.

``It was weird to change your focus from trying to get into tournaments to trying to get on the Ryder Cup team,'' he said.

Having failed to make it through Q-school, the only status Stricker had at the start of the year was as a past champion. That only got him into three tournaments the first 15 weeks of the season. Four months later, he did well enough in limited opportunities to finish 21st in the Ryder Cup standings and get serious consideration from Tom Lehman as a captain's pick.

Like others who got passed over, the disappointment has grown stronger as the Ryder Cup approaches. But at least Stricker has some perspective on how far he has come.

``I couldn't be that upset, not with the year I've had,'' Stricker said.

His year isn't over. Stricker shot four rounds in the 60s and finished 10th in the Canadian Open. Not only was that his third consecutive top 10, he moved up to No. 36 on the money list with just over US$1.6 million, nearly as much as he earned the last four years combined. An even stronger indicator of his play is that Stricker ranks fifth in scoring average.

Stricker's last victory was the Accenture Match Play Championship in Australia at the start of the 2001 season. He felt his game sliding a year later, and it fell off the map the next two years. The harder he worked, the more it seemed he went backward. The low point was not turning in his application for Q-school in 2004, then falling out of the top 150 by one spot in the final tournament.

``Going back to Q-school was a shot in the gut, a real wake-up call,'' Stricker said.

He only made it to the final stage last year, but he was headed in the right direction. He finally broke through with a third-place finish in Houston, then followed that with a tie for sixth in the U.S. Open and a tie for second a week later at the Booz Allen Classic.

He wasn't eligible for any of the majors at the start of the year, but qualified for two _ tops 10s in the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship _ and couldn't qualify for the British Open because the 36-hole qualifier was rained out.

What also might have spurred him on was having another mouth to feed.

Stricker's wife, Nicki, gave birth to another daughter (Isabella) on May 10. She learned she was pregnant about the time he was getting for the second stage of Q-school. Their other daughter was born in August 1998, the year he finished 13th on the money list and was runner-up to Vijay Singh in the PGA Championship at Sahalee.

``Maybe we need more kids,'' he said with a laugh.

Stricker and his wife joked during the off-season that he should try to get comeback player of the year, which would mean he at least earned his card for the '07 season. That now seems a lock.

And at 36th on the money list, the Tour Championship isn't out of the question.