Steven Alker Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

5 things you need to know ahead of the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup finale

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:38:05 +0000

By Jay Coffin
The PGA Tour Champions reaches its finale this week as it looks to crown two champions — the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and the season-long winner of the Charles Schwab Cup.
The 72-hole Charles Schwab Cup Championship is back at Phoenix Country Club this year, where 33 players are in the field. Although it’s possible for the winner of the event to also win the season-long title, this is not set up like the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup where the winner takes all. Points are distributed throughout the year and then have a heavier weight during the three playoffs events.
Here are five things you need to know ahead of the festivities:

Only two men have a chance to win the season-long points
The top six on Charles Schwab Cup points are a who’s who in senior golf but only Steven Alker and Padraig Harrington have a chance to take home the top prize and the $1 million bonus.
And really, Harrington has to win the tournament in order to have any chance of surpassing Alker, who holds a 617,980-point lead in the standings. If Alker finishes outside the top five then Harrington will win with a tournament victory. There are various other scenarios based on the number of ties ahead, but that’s the general idea of what needs to happen for Harrington to have a chance.
Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker, Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jimenez are Nos. 3-6 on the points list but there aren’t enough points available by winning the event that could have them catch Alker.

A breakdown of Alker and Harrington
Alker, a 51-year-old from New Zealand, Monday qualified last year to get into his first Champions event and then rattled off six consecutive top-10 finishes to solidify his status. He’s now won five total senior events, including four this season — Rapiscan Systems Classic, Insperity Invitational, KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
His consistency has been simply amazing. He’s played in 22 events and aside from the four victories has 17 top-10 finishes and 20 top-25 finishes. Yes, he’s only finished outside the top 25 twice all year.
Harrington has played four less events than Alker, which undoubtedly has kept him from being closer in the Schwab Cup standings. The 51-year-old Irishman has three victories, 12 top-10s and has finished inside the top 25 in 17 of 18 events. He won the US Senior Open, Dick’s Sporting Good Open and the Ascension Charity Classic.
Kelly won three times this year but was not as consistent overall. Stricker won four times but only played in 12 events because he battled illness early in the season.

Bernhard Langer holds the Charles Schwab Cup and Phil Mickelson holds the tournament trophy on the 18th green after the final round of the 2021 PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. Ben Jared

Who won last year?
With so much noise surrounding Phil Mickelson and his LIV Golf exploits this year, it’s easy to forget that he actually won the overall tournament by making three late birdies to shoot a final-round 65 to clip Alker by one shot. Mickelson obviously was not eligible to play in any PGA Tour-sanctioned events once he made the jump to the LIV series, meaning, of course, that he was not allowed to defend his title this week in the desert.
Langer did not play particularly well that week last year and finished in 17th-place but it was enough for him to capture his record sixth overall Schwab Cup season title.

Speaking of Langer
The 65-year-old machine continues to roll, winning the TimberTech Championship last week in Boca Raton, Florida, for his second victory of the year and his 44th overall on the PGA Tour Champions.
He is now only one victory away from tying Hale Irwin’s 45 total senior titles.
Langer has been playing on the tour since 2007 and notched at least one victory in each of his 15 seasons. He’s captured five tournaments or more in a year on three occasions, with a high of seven in 2017. He won 42 times on the European Tour (second all-time), with three PGA Tour victories, including two Masters.
This year he won’t win the overall Schwab Cup title, but he can certainly tie Irwin’s record with a tournament victory and add a third victory to his season total.

Anything else?
We mentioned the bonus structure earlier and it’s not nearly as deep or as lucrative as the PGA Tour but a nice parting gift awaits those finishing inside the top five on the final Schwab Cup points list.
The winner will take home a cool $1 million, second place will earn $500,000, third place will collect $300,000, fourth will receive $200,000 and fifth place will earn $100,000.

The post 5 things you need to know ahead of the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup finale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

After calming message from cancer-suffering wife, Jerry Kelly captures Senior Players for second time in 3 years

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 11:43:38 +0000

Jerry Kelly. Sam Greenwood

By Dave Shedloski
The Senior Players trophy is going back to Wisconsin. Again.

Thanks to three birdies in his final six holes on Sunday at Firestone Country Club, Jerry Kelly pulled away from playing partner Steve Stricker and Schwab Cup leader Steven Alker to capture his second Bridgestone Senior Players Championship in three years. Kelly, 55, won for the 10th time on the PGA Tour Champions and now has finished 1-2-1 in the last three years at Firestone’s South Course.

“It feels great. The first major is awesome, but the second one, even more validation,” said Kelly, who beat fellow Madison resident and close friend Stricker — the defending champion — by two strokes after closing with a two-under 68. His 11-under 269 total was four strokes better than any previous aggregate total at Firestone and eight strokes lower than his winning score in 2020.

Alker finished three back after a bogey at 18 to tie for third with Ernie Els at eight-under 272, marking the Kiwi’s seventh top-three finish in his last eight starts, including a victory in the Senior PGA Championship. Alker shot 69 while Els had a 68 before leaving for the Open Championship at St Andrews.

MORE: The top 100 players at St Andrews rated

Kelly, who shared the 54-hole lead with Alex Cejka, didn’t make a birdie on Sunday until he converted a four-footer at the par-4 13th after hitting what he called “one of the best shots of my life”. From behind trees in the right rough, Kelly sliced a 3-iron utility from 214 yards that he thought was coming in too hot, but the ball hit into the hill and checked up near the hole.

“That kind of opened the door. That was the turning point for me,” Kelly said. “Any tournament you just see, oh, there it was, there’s the break or there’s the shot or there’s the putt. There’s always something that separates. You’ve just got to feed off of it.”

Equally important was that Stricker, who had forged into the lead by going three-under in his first 11 holes, bogeyed the 13th from the greenside bunker for a two-shot swing. Kelly then sank a 15-footer from the front fringe at the 16th to break a tie with Alker after Stricker missed from a similar line. A 10-footer for birdie at the 17th sealed Kelly’s second win in his last four starts.

Stricker also closed with a 68. Cejka had a 73 to end up T-5.

Tracy Wilcox

The victory was especially satisfying for Kelly for several reasons. First, he earned a berth in the Players, one of his favorite events. “That was a big piece of the desire in winning this tournament,” he admitted.

Second, and more importantly, it came with his wife Carol in the gallery even as she continues to undergo treatments for kidney cancer. She also offered her husband some sage advice as they arrived at the course Sunday that enabled him to remain patient.

“Just the fact that she’s here this week,” Kelly said. “The golf course is that special and she’s like, ‘You know what, I want to be there for you. I love that golf course, it’s really cool just to be out there.’

“This is a different world once you step inside these gates over here. It’s an awesome spot,” added Kelly, who is comfortable at Firestone, saying it reminds him Maple Bluff Country Club, his home course in Wisconsin. “I love it that she can appreciate that and that she wanted to come here. She gave me the words stepping out of the car, she just said it doesn’t matter what happens, I want to see the attitude up the entire time. The lid was on the hole for a long time, and I was rolling my eyes, but I was doing it with a smile on my face. That was keeping me in a positive frame of mind knowing that it would come to me because of that. That was all her with that attitude.

“To come out on top is pretty cool.”

The post After calming message from cancer-suffering wife, Jerry Kelly captures Senior Players for second time in 3 years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns’ bromance gets tested, an all-time Jordan Spieth-Michael Greller moment, and the biggest Cinderella story in sports

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 07:24:18 +0000

By Alex Myers

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we still can’t get our left ear unclogged after going to the pool for the first time this year. I’ve had some ear wax issues in the past and the water just made it worse. Huh? What’s that? Too much information? Sorry, I can’t hear you. Anyway, here’s what else has us talking after a fun Memorial Day weekend.

WE’RE BUYING

Sam Burns: Talk about the floodgates opening, what a season this guy is having. After finally grabbing his first PGA Tour title last May, Burns has now won three more times, including on Sunday at Colonial, where he took down the reigning King of the floodgates opening, Scottie Scheffler. And Burns did it in a playoff after a two- hour wait that included a gym session. “Just one of those things where you don’t know if you’re going to get the opportunity, but when coach calls your name, you’ve got to be ready to play, and I think we did a really good job of being ready.” He sure did:

Unbelievably clutch.@SamBurns66 drained the 38-footer from off the green to win @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/DaQmWt5MRe

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 29, 2022

The guy has a real knack for making bombs in playoffs. For winning the Charles Schwab Challenge, the 25-year-old also got a pretty dope car to ride off into the sunset with:

And apparently he drove that bad boy right to a Buc-ee’s to celebrate:

Of course Sam went to @bucees after the W. Man of the people!

(? @Samburns66) pic.twitter.com/1YFiFsOLfo

— Caddie Network (@CaddieNetwork) May 30, 2022

You could really do some damage there with $1.6 million. Anyway, Burns is back into the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking with his fourth career win. What a stud. Speaking of studs …

Gordon Sargent: How about this Vanderbilt freshman who won the NCAA individual title? Gordon really turned heads on the final hole of regulation with a booming drive that registered 194mph ball speed.

Gordon Sargent dropping ??? at the #USJuniorAm. pic.twitter.com/Rr2IuA3XYY

— Vanderbilt Men's Golf (@VandyMGolf) July 21, 2021

Crazy. Remember a few years ago when we were told then Texas A&M prospect Cameron Champ was a unicorn with speeds like that? Well, not anymore. These powerful young guns are coming. And they’re coming fast.

Steven Alker: This is truly the most remarkable golf story of the past year. Heck, I’d go as far as to say it’s the biggest Cinderella story going in all of sports. But it’s gone largely under the radar because Steven Alker plays on the PGA Tour Champions, and, well, he’s Steven Alker. Hardly anyone had even heard of this journeyman from New Zealand when he Monday qualified for his first senior event last summer after turning 50, but since then he’s become the tour’s dominant force with four wins in 19 starts, including three in his last five after capturing a first major at the Senior PGA Championship.

How is this possible for a guy who had zero top-10s and 47 missed cuts in 80 career PGA Tour starts? “Just perseverance,” Alker said. “That’s all I can say. Just perseverance with a capital P.” Better late than never, huh? Seriously, they should make a movie about this guy.

This house: Check out this golf pad that’s basically one giant enclosed mini-golf course (start with the second photo):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zillow Gone Wild ? (@zillowgonewild)

You want to improve your putting? But this place. Who needs a dining room these days anyway?

WE’RE SELLING

Harold Varner III’s back nine: HV3 is one of the easiest guys to root for in sports, and we really, really hope that first PGA Tour title comes. Heck, he could be another floodgates guy considering his other victories in Australia and Saudi Arabia. But there’s no sugar coating the fact that this was one of the biggest back-nine meltdowns in history.

Four putts from 19 feet.

A triple bogey for Harold Varner III to fall out of the lead. pic.twitter.com/MXkRk7XVIM

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 29, 2022

After taking a share of the lead (and that can’t be a coincidence) with pars on 10 and 11, Varner went triple bogey, double bogey, triple bogey on his next three holes. He added one more double bogey at No. 18 to shoot a back-nine 45 and not even finish in the top 25. Yikes.

Ryan Fox’s final hole: Of regulation, that is. The New Zealander was a -5000 live “lock” at sports books when arriving at the par-5 18th at the DP World Tour Dutch Open with a three-stroke lead, but a disastrous double bogey (and a later birdie by Victor Perez) put him in a playoff with Perez that Fox ultimately lost. Ouch. Although, not as ouch as the pain anyone who actually bet on him in that spot is feeling.

Also, we should mention that we’re buying Perez’s putting as the Frenchman made four bombs over the final six holes, including the final nail in Fox’s tournament coffin on the fourth extra hole. So, again, a LOT had to happen for Fox not to win this thing. Of course, that’s golf, folks.

This pin placement: Many years ago, I set up a Google news alert for stories involving golf crime. Well, this didn’t show up in one of those alerts (I can’t figure out how to turn them off), but it should have. Because this pin placement at an Iowa high school state championship is a straight up golf crime. Have a look:

Today at the Girls 3A State Golf Tournament at The River Valley Golf Course in Adel, the average score on hole 18 was a quadruple bogey.

No, the golfers weren't bad, but this had to have been the most unfair pin placement I've ever seen. This slope gave the athletes no chance. pic.twitter.com/F7OyqIjbkO

— Jake Brend (@JakeBrendTV) May 28, 2022

Those poor girls had no chance. Just sick, sick stuff. Whoever is responsible should do jail time.

Scottie Scheffler: The guy hadn’t made a bogey all week at Colonial until his 53rd hole. He then blew a two-shot lead on Sunday while making two. What a fool! Of course, we’re kidding. The World No. 1 showed that he’s human over the weekend, but he’s still clearly the World No. 1. And how about that hustle to make it to his sister-in-law’s wedding?

A photo finish.

Scottie Scheffler went straight from the playoff to his sister-in-law’s wedding. pic.twitter.com/GjRcMoSXVp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 30, 2022

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Muirfield Village for the Memorial, AKA Jack’s Tournament, AKA that tournament where players post pics of their milkshakes all week. If I could choose any tournament to attend that I haven’t been to, it would be this one. And yes, that’s solely based on said milkshakes. But wait, there’s more! The US Women’s Open is at Pine Needles, a course I was lucky enough to play a couple years ago. What a great spot. I can’t wait to watch both — preferably with an inferior milkshake in hand.

It’s a good week to figure that out https://t.co/C8o0ExHkOg

— max homa (@maxhoma23) May 30, 2022

Random tournament fact: Technically, Patrick Cantlay is the defending champ at Muirfield Village, but we all know Jon Rahm would have won if he hadn’t tested positive for COVID. And since Rahm won by three shots the year before, well, yeah, he’s the guy to beat. “The way I played there the last two years it should be at least six,” Rahm joked of a potential staggered leaderboard this week like the PGA Tour uses for the Tour Championship. “Maybe more.” No argument here, Jon.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Cheers to an eventful 3 weeks on the road. Might have ended with an MC but hey, at least I still get to bring this home ? pic.twitter.com/rJjoCsxd8p

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) May 28, 2022

Indeed, you do, JT. And cheers to you for even playing at Colonial.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

This might be the all-time best video of Jordan Spieth interacting with caddie Michael Greller—and that’s saying something:

"I just don't see it Jordan." ? @JordanSpieth sees the game differently than all of us. pic.twitter.com/PCqL7Yikk9

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2022

Greller trying to call him off a crazy shot. Jordan persisting. Michael apologising to give his guy confidence. Jordan pulling off an insane Jordan shot. Just an instant classic.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

First, there was your standard WAG PDA between Sam Burns and his wife, Caroline:

pic.twitter.com/NMIKK5gGJU

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 29, 2022

Good stuff. But then we got Burns gushing about his good friend Scheffler: “Yeah, we’re probably best friends. But at the same time I can assure you, he wanted to beat me more than anybody else and I wanted to beat him more than anybody else, and it just happened to be the two of us at the end. Yeah, it’s going to be a fun story that we’ll get to have for the rest of our careers, and fortunately I got the better end of it this time, but hopefully we’re at the beginning of these situations in the future.”

Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler. Tom Pennington

And Scheffler responding:

Awww. Nothing — not even that sweet Firebird Trans Am — can get between these guys.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It would have been more fun if we had to do it for 18 holes. I kind of joked with him at the end, he ruined all the fun making a 40-footer.” — Scottie Scheffler on his BFF.

More
Sensational finish at Dubai Golf Trophy
The best weekend in UAE Golf
Olivia Jackson makes a little bit of history
Your players to watch at the LIV Golf opener in London
All you need to know for the LIV Golf Invitational Series opener
Dustin Johnson to headline LIV Golf field in London
Stellar line-up set for Newcastle
The Gulf Club: The latest golf news from around the UAE

The post Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns’ bromance gets tested, an all-time Jordan Spieth-Michael Greller moment, and the biggest Cinderella story in sports appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The mastery (and mystery) of Steven Alker continues with his victory in the Senior PGA Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 30 May 2022 10:05:29 +0000

Steven Alker. Stacy Revere

By John Strege
The magical mystery tour continued for Steven Alker on Sunday, when the man who came from nowhere added a major championship to his inexplicably remarkable PGA Tour Champions run.

Alker, 50, came from four shots down at the start of the final round, shot an eight-under 63 at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship by three, his third win in his last five starts and his fourth in 19 starts as a senior.

The mystery is how this journeyman, a native New Zealander who had never found a home in professional golf, turned 50, played his way onto the senior tour and immediately became a dominant player. Paul Goydos wants to know, too, asking where he’s been the past 50 years.

“Just perseverance,” a euphoric Alker said. “That’s all I can say. Just perseverance with a capital P.”

Magical is the only way to describe his ascension that reached a pinnacle with this victory and the $630,000 first-prize cash. He has finished in the top 10 in 16 of his 19 starts, nine of them top-three finishes. Moreover, in his last five starts, he has finished first, tied for second, first, tied for third and first.

“Lot of things,” Alker said, attempting to explain his meteoric rise. “Support, and the game coming around, people helping me just to get me in shape, caddie, everybody. It’s been a great run. I’m just enjoying playing out here. It’s been so much fun.

“I can’t put my finger on one thing exactly. I look back and I go, geez, did I really have the game or did I have the attitude? I think right now, I’ve matured and it’s a second wind. That’s the biggest thing, I’ve had these 18 months, two years, 50s coming up, so let’s stay in shape. Let’s keep playing. We have a second career. Let’s go for it. Let’s go.”

The past had been a perennial grind for Alker. He made 86 PGA Tour starts without a top 10 and missed the cut in 47 of them. He made 80 European Tour starts and missed the cut in 42, with only a single top 10. He had 304 starts on what now is called the Korn Ferry Tour, though he played it when it was the Nike Tour, the Buy.com Tour, the Nationwide Tour and the Web.com Tour. He did win four times, but missed the cut in nearly half those starts.

The history in the wake of his senior debut is ancient and now largely forgotten, though Stephen Ames remembers.

“I watched Steven play on the European Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, and all of the sudden out here, wow,” the runner-up Ames said. “It’s fantastic, great to see. Any person that’s an un-name player coming out, getting a name for himself the way he’s been doing, it is phenomenal.”

Alkers completed 72 holes in 16-under par 268. He birdied the 15th and 16th holes to go two ahead, a lead that increased to three when Ames bogeyed the 17th. Ames, who shared the 36-hole lead and was the 54-hole leader, shot 70 in the final round and finished second. The seemingly ageless Bernhard Langer, 64, who briefly shared the lead with both Alker and Ames on the back nine, made three consecutive bogeys, then a double bogey on 18 to shoot 71 and fall to third place.

You might also like:
Justin Thomas chills with the Wanamaker
All the prize money breakdown from the Charles Schwab Challenge
WATCH: Dubai golfer’s insane par save
Shiv Kapur hails Asian Tour opportunities thanks to LIV Golf and Saudi Golf
Bland to play LIV Golf, even if it means ban
Rickie Fowler considers LIV Golf options
Stellar line-up set for Newcastle
Laura Davies dusts off the clubs for Belgian Ladies Open
Koivisto claims Jabra Ladies Open title in France
Hillier joins hole-in-one party on France
Carmen sings on Ladies European Tour

The post The mastery (and mystery) of Steven Alker continues with his victory in the Senior PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Steven Alker wins TimberTech Championship, continues outlandish start to senior career

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 07 Nov 2021 22:10:31 +0000

Tracy Wilcox
Steven Alker’s final-round 68 was enough to win by two and claim his first career PGA Tour Champions title.

By Dave Shedloski
The unexpected, inexplicable rise of Steven Alker from PGA Tour Champions outsider to a force in senior golf was completed Sunday in Boca Raton, Fla., when the 50-year-old New Zealand native won the TimberTech Championship by two strokes over reigning U.S. Senior Open champion Jim Furyk and fast-closing Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Biding his time on the Korn Ferry Tour until he turned 50 on July 28, doing the “hard yards” as he put it, Alker had been a frequent visitor to Champions Tour leader boards. Finally, he converted for his first win since he registered the last of his four Korn Ferry titles at the 2014 Cleveland Open.

“I guess it’s just been building,” said Alker, who made his senior debut after Monday qualifying at the Boeing Classic in mid-August and ran off six straight top-10 finishes to repeatedly earn a start in the succeeding event. “I’ve been having chances and … you have a bunch of top-10s and you get in the thick of it and just try to get a W. Not that the top-10s aren’t any good. It’s just that you get that win, and just glad I hung on today.”

Nursing a one-stroke lead heading to the par-5 home hole at The Old Course at Broken Sound, Alker finished off a four-under 68 in style with one last birdie to rally past second-round co-leaders Furyk and Tim Petrovic. Alker, who played only three seasons on the PGA Tour and never finished better than 17th, posted 17-under 199.

Furyk, seeking to cut significantly into Bernhard Langer’s lead in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race, sputtered on the putting greens and closed with a 71. Jimenez had seven birdies in a 66 for low round of the day.

Petrovic struggled to a 74 after an early birdie had staked him to a two-stroke lead and ended up five back at 212. He tied for fourth with Ernie Els, who shot 71.

With a final-round 69, Langer was T-11 and remained in front in the points standings heading into next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the last start on the extended senior schedule spread over two years because of the coronavirus pandemic. The season finale is in Phoenix, Ariz., at Phoenix Country Club, and Langer will be trying to win the Charles Schwab Cup for a sixth time.

“I would have loved to have won this event and then really made it probably a two-man race with Bernhard and I,” Furyk said. “Now there’s a lot more work to do.”

After qualifying for the three-event playoff in just seven starts, Alker needed a strong showing at the opener, the Dominion Energy Charity Classic two weeks ago, and his T-4 enabled him to advance to the TimberTech Championship. He enters the 36-man Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 22nd place after starting on the outside at 46th in the points race.

With a check for $305,000, the Kiwi has earned $896,207— more than he made in his PGA Tour career—in just nine tournaments since he qualified for the Boeing Classic outside Seattle in late August for his PGA Tour Champions debut.

Needless to say, he has surpassed his own expectations.

“I thought, well, if I can come out and do many some Mondays, Tuesdays, do some events and try to qualify and get some events under my belt, that would be great,” he said. “To be standing here and talking to you guys with a win, it’s amazing.”

Amazing, indeed.

The post Steven Alker wins TimberTech Championship, continues outlandish start to senior career appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

An incredible Cinderella story is making Phil Mickelson take a backseat (if for one round) on the PGA Tour Champions

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 22:48:50 +0000

Ben Jared
Steven Alker had no status on the PGA Tour Champions when he turned 50 in July but somehow played his way into the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

By Ryan Herrington
You’ll be forgiven if you don’t quickly put a face with the name of Steven Alker, the leader after the first round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

The New Zealander played just three full seasons on the PGA Tour spread (2003, 2015 and 2017), and the last of his 86 starts came at the 2017 Wyndham Championship. Prior to turning 50 in July and being eligible to play on the PGA Tour Champions, Alker was competing on the Korn Ferry Tour, making 29 starts in the 2020-21 season with just one top-10 finish to show for it.

And yet with an opening-round bogey-free 63 at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Alker is the surprise leader of the first event in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, a spot most assumed would be held by Phil Mickelson. The tournament’s defending champion has won three of his four starts on the senior circuit, but surprisingly could only muster an opening 71 and sits eight shots back of Alker in a tie for 31st.

That Alker would find himself in this spot is a pretty amazing story of great play at an opportune time. Upon turning 50, Alker had no status on the PGA Tour Champions. He earned a spot into the field at the Boeing Classic in August via a Monday qualifier and went on to finish T-7 that week in Washington state. The top-10 finish got him a spot in the next event, the Ally Challenge, in which he finished third and once again got into the next week’s event. Alker did this four more times, playing in seven tournaments overall, breaking 70 in 13 of 21 rounds and earning $499,707. That was enough to get to 55th place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings and qualify for the Dominion.

“Well, it’s a new chapter for me coming from Korn Ferry and playing with those young guys; big, strong, hitting it forever. So in places I was competitive out there, but I’m kind of maybe a little more competitive out here,” Alker said on Friday after grabbing his first lead after any round on the PGA Tour Champions. “But as I said, my game’s just coming around at the right time. You’ve still got to play golf and shoot the scores. These guys, they’re good so you’ve got to shoot some good scores. It’s just a combination of game coming together and just really wanting to play out here.”

While his best career finish in the PGA Tour was 17th at the 2003 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, Alker did win four times on the Korn Ferry Tour. Whether he can hang around the leader board through the weekend in Virginia isn’t entirely certain, but he looks likely to play his way into the next CSC Playoff event, where he has to be in the top 54 in the points list to advance.

That said, Alker is thinking bigger.

“Every guy wants to win out here, it’s huge,” he said. “I haven’t won for a while, but we’ve got two days to go. Out here I find with the three days, you’ve got to get a hot start, otherwise you’re kind of on the back foot of it. Only two to go. It’s kind of like playing the weekend really now, just keep going at it.”

The post An incredible Cinderella story is making Phil Mickelson take a backseat (if for one round) on the PGA Tour Champions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.