STEVEN Alker joined the PGA Tour Champions two and half years ago following a modest PGA Tour career. And he’s been on a roll ever since. The 52-year-old Kiwi now has eight PGA Tour Champions titles (as of press time), performed strongly in the inaugural World Champions Cup in December against major stars like Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker, then won the 2024 season opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Alker sat down with IG shortly before his Mitsubishi win in Hawaii.
You won twice in 2023, what are your goals for this season?
Yeah, I think it’s just a matter of staying hungry and trying to chase those victories. Sometimes you just don’t know when they’re going to come. You feel like your game’s coming around and you’re in a really good place like I was a few times in 2023 and you don’t get wins. I got a lot of second place finishes last season. I think you’ve just got to stay patient, you’ve got to keep plodding away, and just keep focusing on putting yourself in a position to win, and if you do that enough times I feel like the wins are going to come.
I’ve just got to keep working on the things that are going well for me, on and off the golf course as far as golf and fitness and I think the small improvements and small gains here and there-that’s what I like. The small things makes a big difference in the end. Certain times of the year, like at major championships, those small things will come into play and work themselves out.
How do you improve in those small areas?
When I go back to 2022, looking at my stats…everything is top 5. That was a really good year and I look at it as a benchmark (4 wins). Hopefully I can get above that benchmark. In 2023, my wedge game wasn’t quite as good-but my length had come in handy. With length, it’s all about maintaining. A mile an hour here and there. The key is that right now I know I’m long enough to compete out here. As I get older if I can maintain that distance, that’s what’s important.
Speaking of maintaining, Bernhard Langer has done a great job of it. What have you learned from him?
Whenever we’re playing together it’s hard not to watch Bernhard play. Sometimes I’ll catch myself watching him too closely and then I go ‘come on’, we’ve got to focus on our own game now.’ If he’s not playing well, he puts the time in. Even when he’s playing well, he’s still working on his putting and short game all the time. And he’s always working on his fitness.
He was there at the end to congratulate me when I won the Schwab Cup in 2022. Ernie was there as well. These guys are Hall of Famers. It’s not until after you have a great year that you sit down and realise how good it was, and have those guys congratulate you that you realise it was extra special.
You were the leading point-earner for Team International at the inaugural World Champions Cup in December. What was that experience like for you?
Everyone on the team made my wife and I feel welcome and encouraged us. It’s nerve wracking in those team events. To have that first tee memories with the guys and leading the team out, that’s what was extra special for me. Ernie told me on Saturday night “I’m sending you out first in Sunday singles, let’s put some points up on the board early.” I thought, ok, I better get it done.
You then took down the PGA Tour Champions player of the year Steve Stricker
It did feel good. You want to win your sessions. To beat Stricker was great. To have a team event be so close and to have it come down to the last hole was amazing. To put points on the board first and let the guys behind me see that, was a heck of a lot of fun.
You were a journeyman for decades, now you’re winning at a high rate against major champions, what do you chalk up your success to?
You can’t zero it down to one thing. A major contributing factor was I’ve kept my game in shape and I kept playing, and my body was in good shape. And I think the biggest thing was being inspired and wanting to play on the PGA Tour Champions and having a second chance. It’s a chance to do it properly, try and make something of this career. As long as I grinded on the Korn Ferry and only played three years on the PGA Tour, and played the European tour-all of that grinding that got me to this position, I just thought ‘well come on, this is another chance.’ I really, really wanted to come out and do well and compete with these Champions Tour guys.
Alker has taken his game to a new level since joining the over-50’s tour.
Has there been a moment of validation out here for you amongst the superstars like Fred Couples?
I think ultimately it was that first win. When I first came out I Monday-qualified. I kept top ‘ten-ing’, and just kept playing my way in. That first win at TimberTech proved to me that maybe I belong out here. It sounds cocky and I don’t like to sound that way. Then I got 2nd to Mickelson in the Schwab Cup Championship and that just kind of fueled 2022 (4 wins). You never know what you’re going to come out with in that first full year. I started in Hawaii on a course I hadn’t seen. To come out and lose in a playoff to Miguel Angel Jimenez told me I felt validated and that I got a comfort factor, hopefully earned respect and then it snowballed that year.
A year ago, you lost your caddie Sam Workman to cancer, what did he mean?
We built this relationship going from the bottom of the bottom. From struggling on the Korn Ferry, missing cuts to getting on the Champions Tour and winning majors.
Then winning the Schwab Cup. We went from lows to highs. It was special times for both of us. His passing was so sudden. We got to know his family and still stay in touch. That was a tough couple of months. He was a great man.
Your son Ben caddied last year for one week at the Insperity Invitational and you won. How did that feel?
I don’t even know how that came together (laughs). I think my wife Tanya put us together that week. I always thought it would be nice for my son to caddie for me in an event and I think he had an off week from school. I just thought, ‘well why not? Let’s give it a shot.’ Ben had no golf experience at all, but he had a great attitude. I just taught him the simple stuff like just getting a yardage book and he kept up. I chose the clubs and it was just a great experience. It was an amazing father/son time. We had so many friends out there and winning that championship having my son on the bag, you can’t really ask much more than that, it was extra special.
Alker opens 2024 with a win in Hawaii
Following his interview with Inside Golf’s Garrett Johnston, Steven Alker continued on his winning ways with a victory at the PGA Tour’s season opening event in Hawaii.
Alker totaled a tournament-record equaling 25-under par, a score which included a last day 63 a round in which the Kiwi hit all 18 greens in regulation.
It was his eighth PGA Tour Champions victory.
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