Steven Alker won back-to-back weeks on the PGA Tour Champions, and he didn’t need a playoff to do it on Sunday at the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Mich.
The New Zealander shot 4-under-par 68 to win by three strokes at 15-under 201 in the three-round event at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club.
Alker, 55, won his third event of the season and first in regulation after playoff wins at the Cologuard Classic in March in Tucson, Ariz., and last weekend at the Rogers Charity Classic in Calgary, Alberta.
“… To have these back-to-back weeks is super special,” Alker said. “It’s just nice to get it done down the stretch.”
The last player to win consecutive starts on the 50-and-older tour was Zach Johnson (Principal Charity Classic on June 14 and the Kaulig Companies Championship on July 12). Stewart Cink was the most recent player to capture back-to-back tournaments on the tour slate (Hoag Classic on March 29 and Senior PGA Championship on April 19).
Alker’s 13th career win on the PGA Tour Champions helps him contend in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings. He entered the week at No. 4 as he tries to add to titles won in 2022 and 2024. Cink is atop the standings as he goes for his second straight season title.
“Whenever you have multiple-win seasons, you’re doing pretty good out here,” Alker said. “It’s just getting harder and harder to win, especially with Zach (Johnson) and Stewart (Cink) playing so well. To get back-to-back, yep, it’s amazing. And to get it here is even more special. But I think momentum is huge in this game and what I’ve done the last couple weeks has definitely helped that.”
Alker started the day in second place, two shots behind Michael Block. Alker birdied Nos. 3 and 7, then bogeyed the par-3 No. 8 before a birdie run at Nos. 12-15. Asked the length of the final birdie at No. 15, he quipped, “I don’t know, 120 maybe?”
“It was probably a good 60 feet,” he continued. “It was coming across, it was down. Just trying to two-putt, two-putt and get out of there, but that was a bonus, gave me a buffer. It was nice.”
So much of a buffer that a bogey at No. 18 was hardly damaging for Alker.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen shot the low round of the day, an 8-under 64, to climb 19 spots and finish alone in second place, three strokes behind Alker at 12-under 204. Goosen’s round featured five birdies on the front nine for a 31 before he made birdies at Nos. 10-12 and 16, with a lone bogey at the par-4 No. 15.
“I made everything on the greens, and then suddenly when I had a close birdie chance on, was it 13? Missed a short one on 14, too,” Goosen said of two pars on those holes. “So suddenly putter went cold on me there for a few holes, unfortunately.
“Yeah, I mean, yesterday I was like feeling like walking off the golf course. It’s a funny old game, one day you want to give it up and the next day you have a chance.”
Block shot 2-over 74 and fell into a tie for third at 11 under with Cink (67 on Sunday) and Australia’s Greg Chalmers (69).
Block, 50, said he learned in his fifth start on the tour that he “can get a little better.”
“Steven Alker showed me a couple things I need to do,” Block said. “He did what I do on the first and second day and he does it on the final day. I need to learn how to do that. I played a little bit different golf than I did the first two days because I was nervous, I had never been there before. So, it was a learning experience for me.”