Steve Alker chases Schwab Cup Championship defence
Steve Alker holds the 2023 Schwab Cup trophy following his win last year – image PGA Tour
The 2024 PGA Tour Champions reaches its climax this week with the staging of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, essentially the Tour Championship for the leading 36 players in the Schwab Cup standings for the season.
The US$3 million event with US$528,000 to the winner is being played at the Phoenix Country Club in Phoenix Arizona, the venue for the past six years, and will see 35 players teeing it up, seven of them Australasians with New Zealand’s Steve Alker sure to start as one of the favourites given he is the defending champion.
Alker has had three starts in the event for his win last year, a 3rd place in 2022 and a runner-up finish in his rookie PGA Tour Champions season in 2021.
Australians in the event are Richard Green, Greg Chalmers, Mark Hensby, Rod Pampling, Stuart Appleby and Cameron Percy with Percy, Chalmers and Appleby making their first appearance in the event.
Ernie Els currently leads the Schwab Cup standings but his lead is a slim one over Alker.
