Stricker finished with a 4-under 68 on the final day at Muirfield Village to finish at 16-under-par 272, moving to number four in the world in the process.
The chasing pack did their absolute best to run the 44-year-old down in favourable scoring conditions on the Jack Nicklaus designed course but he refused to yield, playing near impeccable golf.
Stricker started with a three shot advantage but rather than try to protect it and coast to victory he stomped the field by going out in a 6-under par front nine 30.
A two-and-a-half hour weather delay then tried to halt his progress but a 2-over 38 on the difficult back nine was good enough to take the title.
"It was a little bit of a struggle after the rain delay and at that point I was just trying not to make a mistake," Stricker said.
"I hung tough and made some crucial putts when I had to. It's truly an honour to win Jack's tournament."
Queenslander John Senden was the best placed Australian when a 4-under 68 on the final day pushed him to 8-under 280 for the week and a tie for seventh.
Senden made the perfect start by rolling in a two-and-a-half-metre putt on the first hole for birdie.
He then saw his name shoot up the leaderboard thanks to a nice 13-foot putt for eagle on the fifth hole.
Two holes later he came agonisingly close to another eagle when his 23-foot putt missed by an inch but the subsequent birdie had him inside the top three at 8-under par.
Despite birdies on the ninth, 11th and 13th holes sadly his charge stalled on the par-three eighth when he dumped his tee shot into the bunker and could not get up and down.
Further bogeys on 12 and 18 cost him any chance of a higher finish.
Rod Pampling, who came into the week with consecutive top 10 finishes, struggled on the final day to a 7-over 79, dropping 43 places and leaving him at 1-over for the week and tied 51st.
It was even worse for Marc Leishman, who could not match his Saturday heroics where he shot a 6-under 66, instead carding a disappointing 9-over 81 to drop 54 places and finish 62nd at 3-over-par.
Aaron Baddeley finished in a tie for 45th at even par while Nick O'Hern was a shot further back tied with Pampling.
- AAP
Tags: sport, golf, united-states First posted June 6, 2011 10:39:00
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