BRADENTON, Fla. – It was Thursday afternoon, the second session of the inaugural World Champions Cup, and Billy Andrade wanted a second opinion on a tricky putt he faced on the undulating final green at The Concession Club.

This being a team event, Andrade summoned in his partner to take a look. Coming from the back of the green, as if emerging from an Iowa cornfield, stepped one of the greatest putters on the planet, Steve Stricker, to offer his insight. An experience comparable to enrolling in a class to write suspense thrillers and finding out Stephen King will be your instructor.

Having Stricker by his side for the first two days of this inaugural PGA TOUR Champions team event was just one of many perks that Andrade has been happy to soak in. After a day off on Saturday, the inaugural three-team competition resumes on Sunday with two six-match Singles sessions.

With half the points dispersed and half remaining on the table, the competition is razor-thin close between Team International (111.5), Team USA (111) and Team Europe (101.5).

Andrade, not surprisingly, is having the time of his golfing life. He is turning 60 next month and is one of a handful of players at Concession who never had the chance to be part of a team competing for his country at a Ryder Cup, or a Presidents Cup.

“Walking into the (team) house this week, seeing all the bags with our names on them ... watching that, I never knew that I was missing that much of a piece of my golf life,” said Brett Quigley, who joins Andrade, his fellow Rhode Islander, as a team rookie on the U.S. squad this week. “But seeing that, it makes it just a little more special."

Andrade won four times in his PGA TOUR career. His best chance to make a U.S. Ryder Cup team would have been in 1991, but regulations impeded him. Andrade had a nice year in '91, winning two times (The Northern Trust and Booz Allen Classic) and finishing 14th in earnings. Because he had not completed four seasons on TOUR, however, Andrade was not allowed to collect Ryder Cup qualifying points. So he was not a part of the U.S. side that won a memorable bout at Kiawah Island that at the time was dubbed “The War By The Shore.” (A similar rule kept Jack Nicklaus from competing in his first Ryder Cup until he was 29.)

For Andrade, this week has been a terrific bonus, in several ways. For one, he initially signed on to be an assistant to U.S. captain Jim Furyk. But Furyk’s back has troubled him for a while, and last week, he sent Andrade a text that still gives Andrade chills.

All three captains this week (Furyk, Europe’s Darren Clarke and Internationals’ Ernie Els) were scheduled to play as well as captain teams, but Furyk, physically, was not ready to go. The text from Furyk to Andrade read, “You’ve got to play.” Though he feels badly for his captain, a good friend who competed 16 times in Presidents and Ryder Cups (and is the current Presidents Cup captain), Andrade could not wait to experience this event as a player.

“That was probably the coolest moment,” Andrade said, “though I immediately thought, ‘Oh, s---, I’ve got to help these guys.'”

Andrade and Stricker have played fine together. Facing Robert Karlsson/Miguel Angel Jimenez (Europe) and Els/K.J. Choi (Internationals) in each of the two days, the U.S. side won their opening session (Six-Ball) Thursday morning and rallied on Friday afternoon to shoot five-under in a nodified alternate-shot game (Sixsomes) to tie Els and Choi in the session with 11 points.

Stricker, a winner of three Champions Tour majors this season (he was runner-up in a fourth), has appreciated the pairing as well. When Stricker needed help with his own 6-footer for par on Friday afternoon – miss it, and the U.S. would walk away with zero points on the hole – Stricker called in Andrade. Stricker looked at the putt from both sides of the hole and thought it fell off to the right. No, Andrade countered, it’s dead straight. So Stricker went right at it, and buried it, as Stricker does. He considered it a good payback for leaving Andrade with a difficult chip in the alternate-shot format.

“He's been a dear friend for a long time,” Stricker said of Andrade. “We've never played a team event together, so it was a lot of fun.”

Andrade has enjoyed everything about the week. He’s always been a fierce competitor, so that competition is great, but just as important to him is his time hanging with his team off the course in practice rounds, at dinners, and swapping late-night stories. Andrade’s wife, Jody, is a pastor in the Atlanta area, and doesn’t get to travel with her husband as much as she once did, but she is here this week, walking with his group, sitting greenside and sharing the camaraderie with the U.S. team’s wives.

For Andrade, this is something he waited a long, long time to experience. He figured his time had come and gone.

“Yeah, it never happened for me,” Andrade said standing off the final green late Friday afternoon. “I’ve always felt that I’m a really good team player, and I just loved this team format stuff. I’ve always ... not ‘regretted it’ totally, but just wish I could have played in one of those team events.

“To get a second chance like this? It’s unbelievably cool. To play with Strick for two days, we gelled, he’s such a wonderful player, and great guy, we’ve been friends for such a long time. We’ve had a great time. I think this event is going to get better and better. It’s really a cool event.”

Certainly one worth his wait. Quigley feels similarly. At 53, he is younger than Andrade, but thought just getting announced on the first tee Thursday was an experience that adds a different level to his golf career. He can’t help but think it would have been great to do this earlier.

“To hear your name called with ‘United States of America’ ... it’s just really really cool,” said Quigley, who has played this week alongside the steady hand of David Toms.

Light-heartedly, he said, “I should have practiced a little more.”