ing
the
Spotlight
by ARTHUR UTLEY
After limited PGA Tour success , Steven Alker has burst onto the stage as a Senior major champion
USGA
HIS IS WHAT STEVEN ALKER did on the PGA Tour Champions in the nine months after shooting a course-record tying , 9-under-par 63 on the Country Club of Virginia ’ s James River Course in the first round of the 2021 Dominion Energy Charity Classic .
At the time , Alker was playing in his eighth Champions Tour tournament . He had to Monday qualify for his first senior tournament , but by the time he arrived in Richmond for his first Schwab Cup playoff event , Alker had finished in the top 10 of his first six tournaments , and media folk were digging deep to learn more about him .
Alker tied for fourth in the DECC . Two weeks later he picked up his first Champions Tour victory in the second playoff event , the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton , Fla . He finished second in the Schwab Cup Championship to end the season .
The 2022 season began with Alker finishing second at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai . He collected his second Champions Tour victory , the Rapiscan Systems Classic , in early April .
More and more players , spectators and media were paying attention to the 51-year-old who was born in New Zealand , resides in Arizona and had had limited success in his professional career .
Alker won again a month later at the Insperity Invitational and ascended to No . 1 in the Schwab Cup standings . At the end of May he shot a final-round , 8-under-par 63 to come from behind and win his first major , the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship .
To sum it up : In the 10 months between October and the end of July , Alker won four times in 21 starts . He finished in the top 10 in 18 of those starts . Eleven times , he finished in the top three . During a five-tournament stretch , he won , tied for second , won , tied for third and won .
Through the Senior Open Championship , where he finished T3 , Alker led the PGA Tour Champions in scoring , ball striking , all around , greens in regulation , victories and earnings ( more than $ 2 million ).
vsga . org S EPTEMBER / O CTOBER 2022 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 23