Play less, but play better. Not a bad formula for a golfer as long as it works.

It’s definitely worked for Steve Stricker this season. Seeking more family time Stricker cut his PGA Tour schedule almost in half but that didn’t reduce his skill level. On Saturday the University of Illinois alum from Madison, WI., posted a 7-under-par 64 at Conway Farms to move into second place in the BMW Championship.

Even Stricker has been surprised by the results and wouldn’t be surprised if other PGA Tour player scale down their schedules in light of his success.

“I thought about it a lot of years,’’ he said after moving within one stroke of leader Jim Furyk with 18 holes to go in the $8 million tourney. “Doing it was the hard part. I had no expectations. I didn’t plan to play much in the playoffs, but then I finished second (at the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago in Boston) and got to thinking `I’ve got a chance to win this thing.’’’

Indeed he does.

He went to Boston in hopes of winning a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team. He accomplished that goal, so he came to Chicago and – after a few days deliberation – decided to skip a hunting trip and go to The Tour Championship next week in Atlanta as well.

Thanks to his hot round on Saturday Stricker is on the brink of moving into the top five in the FedEx Cup standings. If he does that in Sunday’s final round he’ll control his own destiny next week. Any player in the top five going into Atlanta will get the coveted $10 million bonus if he wins there.

That’s a ways off, but Stricker went on the prowl Saturday. Furyk and Brandt Snedeker led after two rounds and Stricker trailed them by six strokes but still had hope.

“I had a number in mind, which I don’t typically do,’’ said Stricker, who set 8-under-63 as his target in good scoring conditions on Saturday. He missed by a stroke but his score still had the desired effect. It pulled him closer to the lead.

The key to Saturday’s good score was the 99-yard sand wedge that Stricker put straight in the hole for an eagle at No. 15.

“I heard the clank, but it was a shock to see it go in,’’ said Stricker. “Holing that shot was something I really needed to get back into it.’’

He gave one of those shots back at the par-3 17th when he hooked his tee shot into the bleachers left of the green, but he got up and down from a green-side bunker for birdie on the finishing hole. That got him within striking distance of Furyk, who ignited the tournament with his 59 on Friday.

“That was an incredible round,’’ said Stricker, “and then (early starter Matt) Kuchar got 61 today. I knew the conditions were going to be a bit easier but it really didn’t have much influence. I was just trying to get to 13-under.’’

Paired with Furyk in the final round, Stricker has developed a reason for why his reduced schedule is paying off.

“It’s because I have a good balance in life, and I’m comfortable with the decisions I’ve me,’’ he said.

Life is good for Kevin Streelman this week.

On Sunday Chicago’s only homegrown PGA Tour player enjoyed a Bears’ game and steak dinner with some old high school buddies. On Friday the plan was to watch a high school football game between Wheaton South, Streelman’s alma mater, and arch-rival Wheaton North. Each night in between were spent playing video games with retired Bear Brian Urlacher and short commutes to the golf course from Urlacher’s house four minutes away.

All that relaxation has apparently benefitted Streelman’s golf game. The long-time Wheaton resident coped with windy, colder conditions in Friday’s second round of the BMW Championship just fine, tacking a 70 to his 66 of Thursday to stay contention midway through the $8 million tournament at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

He’ll enter the weekend in a four-way tie for fourth place, trailing co-leaders Brandt Snedeker and Jim Furyk by five strokes and third-place Zach Johnson by two.

“I’m driving it great, hitting some nice punch shots and really rolling the ball well,’’ said Streelman. “Knowing that I’m in for next week (The Tour Championship in Atlanta), I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m just going to free-wheel it and see what happens. I really feel comfortable, especially in this city – my favorite city in the world. I love the people’’

The feeling is apparently mutual. The crowds have been behind him from the outset.

“All the screams, Wheaton South screams. The support’s been awesome,’’ he admitted.

Streelman came into the third leg of the four-event FedEx Cup Playoffs ranked No. 16 of 70 survivors. He’s a shoo-in to make it into the top 30 qualifiers for Atlanta, given his current 6-under-par standing at Conway Farms.

His score in the second round didn’t match that of his first, but the change in conditions had something to do with that – especially the wind.

“It got me on 11,’’ he said about hitting his tee shot into the water on the par-3 hole.

With the wind in his face Streelman’s shot was barely wet. He found the ball sitting on the rocks bordering a pond. He might have played it from there, but quickly thought better of it.

“The corner of the ball was sitting on solid rock,’’ he said. “That ball could have gone anywhere. It was best to take my medicine.’’

Streelman went back to the front tee and hit a wedge shot fat, leaving him lying three 30 yards short of the green. From there he hit a great chip to within two feet, settled for a double bogey that dropped him from 6-under to 4-under and moved on. He retrieved the two shots lost on that hole with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15.

Already this year Streelman has accumulated $2.9 million in tournament winnings and claimed his first win on the PGA Tour, at the Tampa Bay Championship. His winnings will climb dramatically in these last two big-money events of the season and scoring figures to be better in Saturday’s third round than it was on Friday for all the players.

“Tomorrow the winds should be calmer and it’ll be a little warmer,’’ said Streelman. “The wind will be coming back from the south. It’ll turn in completely the opposite direction and some of the par-5s that were playing super short will play into the wind and some of the par-4s that were playing extremely difficult will be a bit easier. It’ll be a birdie-fest. That should be fun for the fans.’’

Steve Stricker posted a solid 66 in the first round of the BMW Championship on Thursday, but he knew he was just a side show.

Playing partner Brandt Snedeker put on a putting display that was hard to match, and Stricker found it a challenge to focus on his own game instead of becoming more of a spectator.

“I watched a great round,’’ said Stricker, himself no slouch in the putting department. “Watching Snedeker pour them in from all over the place is always fun. He’s probably the best putter I’ve ever seen.’’

There were times in his career that other players gave Stricker such accolades. This season, though, he opted to step back a bit. He played a limited schedule, but the success he had in the tournament he did play encouraged him to juggle his plans this month.

He added the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston to his schedule in hopes of earning an automatic berth on the U.S. team for the President’s Cup matches later this month in Dublin, Ohio. After securing the President’s Cup berth he added the BMW Championship to stay sharp for that team event against a team of International stars.

At that point he had no intention of playing in next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Stricker had planned to go elk hunting instead but, after giving it more thought, he changed his schedule again. He’ll got to East Lake hoping for the same start there that he had at Conway Farms.

“I just hung in there,’’ he said. “There’s a lot of birdie holes out there. I didn’t hit it the greatest, but I managed my game well.’

That will be more of a premium in the second round, when the weather forecast suggests the Lake Forest course will present a more difficult challenge. Stricker will start the day in a four-way tie for third place, three shots behind Snedeker with England’s Justin Rose, the U.S. Open champion, rounding out the threesome.

That trio drew great crowd support on Thursday, in part because Stricker – a University of Illinois alum from nearby Madison, WI. is a gallery favorite and Snedeker was hot.

“There were a lot of people out there,’’ said Stricker. “I got a lot of shout-outs from Wisconsin and Illinois, but I think the crowd was getting ahead because of who was behind us.’’

The Stricker-Snedeker-Rose threesome played one group in front of top threesome in the FedEx Cup standings – Henrik Stenson, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

Forget that shocking tie for 65th place finish that Tiger Woods posted in the Deutsche Bank Classic in Boston two weeks ago. That knocked the world’s No. 1-ranked player from first to second in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings, but that blip is a distant memory now.

Woods didn’t have his best stuff on Thursday in the first round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms either, but he still signed in for a 5-under-par 66. A number like that never hurts, and it could have been much lower.

“I certainly wasted a lot of shots out there,’’ said Woods. “I missed three short ones ( putts from inside five feet) and I played the par-5s stupendously. I’m not exactly happy. I didn’t get much out of that round.’’

Still, Woods went head-to-head with the Nos. 1 and 3 players in the FedEx Cup standings and whipped them both. Leader Henrik Stenson shot 72 and third-place Adam Scott 67.

Woods, the only player to win the FedEx Cup twice, had seven birdies on his scorecard, the round ending when a 23-footer dropped for the last bird at No. 9. Woods started play at No. 10, birdied that hole and then had five birdies against two bogeys before that last long one dropped.

Usually the par-5s are easy pickings, but Woods played them in even par. He didn’t see the course until Wednesday’s pro-am, and most that round was spent plotting strategy with caddie

Conway Farms got its real first test from Woods on Thursday. He success in Chicago has been legendary. The Western Golf Assn. staged its biggest tournament at Cog Hill, in Lemont, for 20 years, ending in 2011. Woods won the Western Open there three times and the BMW Championship on the same layout in 2007 and 2009.

The PGA of America brought its PGA Championship to Medinah in 1999 and 2006. Woods won both. Now he’s in position to win at Conway Farms as well. He enters Friday’s second round in a four-way tie for third, three strokes behind leader and defending FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker.

Numbers at least as good as Thursday’s will probably be needed if Woods is to stay with the leaders. Conway presented little problems in the first round, even with the wind kicking up and the temperature dropping when Woods was on his second nine.

“(The wind) was the only defense it had,’’ said Woods. “But it was still warm most of the day, so the ball was traveling and the greens were soft. Some of the holes we were hitting 3-wood just over 300 yards. The course played short.’’

The PGA Tour hasn’t visited the north suburbs in 41 years, when the Western Open was staged at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield. That’s surprising, given the golf enthusiasm demonstrated annually in the area and the wide area of quality courses available.

Other golf tours did make appearances. The U.S. Women’s Open was played at Merit Club in Libertyville in 2000. The PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour was a fixture at The Glen Club in Glenview through 2007. The Champions Tour had regular stops at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove in the 1990s and finally returned this June at North Shore Country Club, also in Glenview.

The PGA Tour, the biggest and best in the world, was always a no-show after Jim Jamieson’s final putt dropped in his six-stroke victory in the 1972 Western. Finally the draught is going to end. This week the PGA Tour returns on a course that didn’t even exist when Jamieson won.

Conway Farms, a private facility in Lake Forest, will open its gates on Monday for the BMW Championship and the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup Playoffs point list will battle for $8 million beginning on Thursday.

The Western Golf Assn., based in north suburban Golf, staged its biggest Chicago tournaments at Cog Hill in Lemont the last two decades but opted for a fresh look this time in an effort to improve fundraising for its Evans Scholars Foundation. The tourney will also be played at Conway in 2015, assuming the sponsorship agreement with the automaker is extended.

BMW needs plenty of space to showcase its products during the tournament, and Cog Hill offered much more of than than Conway Farms will, but the Lake Forest location has re-invigorated the event and intrigued the players. Most of them won’t have seen the course until Monday because Conway Farms’ start as a golf course wasn’t all that long ago.

It only opened on Aug. 3, 1991 but it didn’t take long for the Tom Fazio-designed layout to gain the respect of the top players. The best college players checked it out at the men’s NCAA Championship in 1997 and the Big Ten Championship in 2006. The best juniors were there for the 1998 U.S. Junior Amateur and the American Junior Golf Association’s Canon Cup in both 2002 and 2006.

Luke Donald, at one time the world’s No. 1-ranked player and one of the 70 competing this week, started playing at Conway when he was a student-athlete at Northwestern and he’s now a Conway member.

Some other professionals played it in competition at two U.S. Open qualifiers – a local elimination in 2007 and a sectional qualifier in 2008. Mainly, though, the Lake Forest masterpiece has been a haven for amateurs. Most recently it was the site for the 2009 Western Amateur and the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur.

This week, though, Conway Farms moves into a new era. The BMW Championship will be the first PGA Tour event held on the 7,216-yard par-71 layout.

Course architect Fazio doesn’t know how the PGA Tour stars will react to his fourth Chicago creation, but he’s comfortable with his finished product.

“If you could give a class on golf course architecture you’d use Conway Farms,’’ said Fazio, who collaborated with his uncle, George Fazio, on the creation of Butler National in Oak Brook – the all-male club that hosted the Western Open from 1974-1990—and was sole architect for both Aurora’s Stonebridge Country Club, a stop for tournaments on both the Ladies PGA and Champions tours in past years, and The Glen Club.

“There were very few restrictions, a lot of land to work with (209 acres) and the owners were committed to a qualify golf experience,’’ said Fazio. “It was a textbook, fun way to create a golf course.’’

Tournament director Vince Pellegrino believes the course will be ideal for both players and spectators because of that.

“It’s not going to be the most difficult course they play, but they won’t tear it up – and it’s not bad for TV and for the people on the grounds to see birdies and eagles,’’ he said. “We encourage that. That’s OK, but it’ll be a good challenge for the best players in the world.’’

Conway Farms’ creation started with three golf-minded families who purchased the property on what was old Conway Road in 1956. It was all farmland until Fazio was hired. His creation includes two great short par-4s – Nos. 7 and 15. They may be the most memorable holes, but No. 17 is a par-3 that’s hard to forget with its downhill fairway and long-range views of the area and the par-5 finishing hole is a fun adventure with a creek running from the left side, then across the fairway and then behind the green.

The Conway membership –it’s by invitation only — has welcomed tournament play on its walking-only course. Chief operating officer Todd Marsh and director of golf Jeff Mory have been on hand almost from the beginning and the 255 regular members are serious about their golf. Marsh says 169 have single digit handicaps.

“That may put us in the top five clubs in America,’’ said Marsh. “Our members are passionate about their golf. We may have the busiest practice facility in the Midwest because they take their golf seriously.’’

“We have known that Conway Farms is a world-class golf club,’’ said Conway president Dave McDonough, “and we’re excited to know the world is going to realize it as well.’’

The biggest reason the top golfers on the PGA Tour will be at Conway Farms in Lake Forest this week isn’t because of the $8 million in prize money that’ll be on the line. The Western Golf Assn. conducts its BMW Championship to raise money for its Evans Scholars Foundation.

While the 72-hole tournament doesn’t start until Thursday, the preliminary events are just as important to the Foundation. The top players will be participating in two pro-ams that are big fund-raisers. Amateurs’ entry fees go to the Scholarship fund, which has sent over 9,000 caddies to college since legendary amateur golfer Chick Evans created the Foundation in 1930.

First event of BMW Championship Week will be the CDW (Computer Discount Warehouse) Pro-Am, which tees off shotgun style at 12:30 p.m. on Monday after informal practice rounds provide players their first look at a course about to host its first PGA Tour event. Most of the pros participating will be ranked from Nos. 53-70 in the FedEx Cup point standings. Most of the top 52 will be in the bigger, day-long Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am on Wednesday, the day before the 72-hole tournament tees off.

Proceeds from the week’s festivities will help provide full tuition and housing scholarships for 240 Evans Scholars this year. An Evans Scholarship is valued at more than $70,000 over four years, so the WGA is facing an ongoing financial challenge.

While caddies remain a big part of the game, golf has changed over the years and the WGA has changed with it.

“Back in the day caddie programs were thriving,’’ said John Kaczkowski, president and chief executive officer of the WGA. “Then the influx of golf carts caused caddie programs to diminish.’’

Still, the WGA is planning to increase its Scholars to 920 annually. It recently revived a partnership agreement with a 20th university, Notre Dame, and initiated a program designed to introduce girls from disadvantaged families to the benefits of caddying.

“We endorse caddies. We think caddie programs are still important to the game of golf,’’ said Kaczkowski, and plenty of golf clubs – most of them private — agree.

It remains a big deal to get an Evans Scholarship, and funding them comes from a variety of sources, starting with the WGA’s 383 members clubs across the country. More than 26,000 of those clubs’ members contribute money to the Evans Scholars Par Club. With the WGA having offices in the Chicago suburbs of both Golf and Oak Brook, it’s not surprising that 70 of the WGA’s member clubs and one-third of its Par Club members are from the Chicago area. More than $11 million is raised annually from the donations of Par Club members, including Evans Scholars Alumni.

Jeff Harrison, the WGA’s vice president-education, said 715 students applied for Evans Scholarships last year. Applicants are judged on caddie record, academic record, financial need, character and leadership. They must put in at least two years – usually it’s at least four – as a caddie and hold above a B average in college preparatory classes in high school.

Financial need for the applicants varies, but Harrison said the average family income of the 2013 recipients was $60,000. Applications are screened and finalists attend one of five selection meetings, held from November through March, where they are interviewed by WGA directors, Evans Scholars alumni, golf officials and special guests. The location of these meetings varies, and over 100 are in the selection audience at some of them. The audience votes, and the applicants are informed of the results via mail within a week after their interview session. Getting selected is a cause for joyous celebration.

The WGA has Scholarship House facilities at 14 universities and partnerships with six other schools. Among them is a special one at Northwestern, which hosted the WGA’s new Caddie Academy this summer. Twelve high school girls from disadvantaged families lived at the Evans Scholars house on the NU campus while working as caddies at six North Shore clubs.

Four Evans Scholars supervised the six-week program, taking the girls to the clubs Tuesday-Sunday and conducting mentoring sessions at night. On Mondays the girls had supervised outings or field trips.

“The biggest obstacle to caddying is geography,’’ said Kaczkowski. “If you grow up where there’s no caddie programs, how will you caddie? We want to remove geography from the equation.’’