Steve Alker’s amazing run continues in Phoenix
Steve Alker – photo Getty Images
Steve Alker’s 7th PGA Tour Champions victory in Phoenix this past weekend at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship to finish the 2023 season as the runner-up in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, further highlights what a remarkable 27 months it has been for the 52-year-old New Zealander since first joining the tour for the over fifties in August of 2021.
Nobody, not even Alker himself I would think, could have imagined the level of success he has reached in such a short time and, in many cases, against and ahead of players who were considerably more credentialed before they too embarked on a career amongst the over fifties.
Alker began the final round of the final Charles Schwab Cup event of the season with a four-shot lead but as is so often the case that sort of lead can quickly disappear despite the manner in which he had been playing over the first 54 holes.
He would though hold off strong challenges from Stephen Ames and Ernie Els to win by one to claim the US$528,000 first prize and the US$500,000 bonus for finishing runner-up in the season long series.
“You know, just trying to get my swing together a little bit, it wasn’t quite there today,” said Alker after the win when asked about a birdie at the 9th to settle things down after a struggling start to his final round. “But the putt was huge and just kind of settled me down I hit a great tee shot on 10 and kind of felt good after that. I made it exciting here at 18, but that wasn’t the plan, I tell you.”
“Another multiple-win season,” said Alker when asked if he could have imagined his success when embarking on this journey.
“I didn’t get it done this year. but Stricker had an amazing year, he was phenomenal, so we were chasing him all year. But to get second after going first last year, that means a lot just to keep the consistency. And I get a couple of wins, it’s nice. The guys are just getting better out here and just pushing harder, so you’ve just got to try a little bit better every year.”
The Charles Schwab Cup had already been claimed even before last week’s first shot was hit in anger with Steve Stricker so far in front of his rivals that even the forced withdrawal due to an illness to his father could not prevent him from claiming the trophy.
For Alker however, it followed a 2022 season in which he had won the Charles Schwab Cup and finished 3rd behind Padraig Harrington in the 2022 version of this week’s event.
The most stunning aspect of Alker’s success on the PGA Tour Champions is the turnaround of what had been a relatively mediocre regular tour career into one of the most successful in the early stages of a PGA Tour Champions career.
In August of 2021 Alker, like so many other hopefuls turning the age of 50, threw his hat in the ring at the Boeing Classic in Washington State in the hope of pre-qualifying for the event. He managed to do that by earning one of the only four spots available that week.
Not only did he secure a start he took full advantage by finishing 7th behind Rod Pampling and guaranteed himself a start the following week. In a total of ten starts in the remainder of the 2021 season, Alker recorded nine top tens including a win and the rest as they say is history.
Alker now owns 7 PGA Tour Champions titles, and has accrued US$7.3 million in earnings in just 27 months and, although some US$27 million behind the all-time PGA Tour Champions money leader, Bernhard Langer, given Alker has played just 53 events compared to the 340 by the German golfer he is making considerable headway on the now 66-year-old Langer.
But, it is not only the number of wins for Alker, it has been his amazing consistency recording 31 top-five finishes in his 53 starts.
Alker turned professional in 1995 and won a small tournament in the Pacific Islands before winning the Queensland Open late that year. This writer happened to be the on-course commentator for the ABC’s coverage of that event at Windaroo Lakes south of Brisbane and so impressed was I with the immaculately tidy game of the then 24-year-old I figured a highly successful career lay ahead.
Alker has admittedly been successful but he struggled to reach the elite level. After the then almost obligatory couple of years in Europe he headed to North America where he played in Canada and on the then Buy.Com Tour before graduating to the PGA Tour in 2003.
Unable to retain his playing privileges Alker returned to the Nationwide Tour (name change in 2003) before heading back to Europe in 2007 and returning to the USA in 2010 for good after a win at the co-sanctioned NZPGA Championship in Christchurch. He regained his PGA Tour playing rights for 2014 but again it was short-lived and he played out his regular tour career on the Web.Com and Korn Ferry Tour.
By playing competitively until he turned 50 in August of 2021 he was tournament sharp when the opportunity arose to qualify for a PGA Tour Champions event and he has subsequently become one of the dominant figures since his arrival along with the likes of Bernhard Langer, Padraig Harrington, and Steve Stricker.
Alker possesses a very simple but technically sound and effective golf swing in which very little that can’t be fixed in a hurry can go wrong and this along with his fitness and health has worked wonders for him at this level.
It is hard to imagine that this level of success can not continue for several more years to come for the affable now Arizona-based man from Hamilton in New Zealand’s Waikato province.
