It's not easy to qualify for the Masters Tournament. If you throw out the active former champions who have lifetime exemptions, the five amateurs each year and the top 16 finishers and ties from the previous year's tournament who earned automatic return trips, that leaves only about 60 spots in the field each year.

Steve Stricker, the PGA Tour's comeback player of the year for 2006, is making his first appearance since 2002. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

Compare that with a normal spring or summer field on the PGA Tour, which numbers 156.

So when Steve Stricker made the elite field at Augusta National Golf Club this year for the first time since 2002, he knew his game was really back.

Stricker, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, played so poorly from 2002 to 2004 that he lost his exempt status starting with the 2005 season. He got it back for 2007 after a 2006 season that earned him the tour's comeback player of the year award.

"I relish this a little bit more," Stricker said of his exempt status. "I appreciate it a little bit more because of the position I was in prior to last year. I do relish this position."

It was a trip back to the tour's qualifying school in late 2005 that started Stricker back up the ladder to exempt status.

"Going to tour school kind of got me fired up," Stricker said. "I don't know what happened. I just decided deep down that I needed to work on it a lot harder. It was a check your ego at the door type thing.

"Even though I'd won three times on tour, there's no guarantees out here," he said. "If you start playing poorly, it creeps up on you, and I couldn't get out of that position, so you end up going to tour school. It's a place you don't ever want to go back to. It was kind of a wake-up call, I think."

Stricker didn't get his exempt status back at tour school that year. What he did get back was his desire.

"I showed some signs then; I felt like I was progressing," Stricker said.

The progress came from his hard work at the end of the 2005 season and during the break before the 2006 season, where he had limited status.

Steve Stricker, the PGA Tour's comeback player of the year for 2006, is making his first appearance since 2002. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

"I guess I rededicated myself," Stricker said. "I didn't want to do anything else with my life. This is what I was meant to do. I put more into figuring out why I wasn't playing so well and tried to do the more positive things."

In 2006, his new attitude helped him post a tie for 14th at Pebble Beach in his first start of the season. He got in that tournament - the season's fifth event - only because of his limited status as a former tour winner.

It wasn't until his fourth start of the season - the 16th full-field event on the tour - that Stricker started making his move, finishing third in Houston. Soon after, he qualified for the U.S. Open and finished in a tie for sixth place to earn his trip to this year's Masters. The next week, he tied for second at the Booz Allen Classic.

Stricker had four more top-10 finishes in his final nine events, which pushed him to 34th on the season-ending money list.

"I got off to a good start last year and built that confidence all through the year," Stricker said.

Stricker is known as one of the tour's top putters (he ranked sixth on the tour last year), but it hasn't led to many low scores at Augusta National.

In six starts from 1996 to 2002, he missed three cuts and had one top-10 finish, in 2001.

"I finished 10th that year, and I remember putting well," Stricker said. "Other than that, my record is not that good. I like those greens, but you have to put yourself in the right spots on the greens."

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.