Looking back, Steven Alker's Senior US PGA win is inexplicable
Steven Alker reflects on a career of two halves after he came from four strokes behind to claim the Senior US PGA Championship.
With all due respect to Steven Alker he was a bit of a nobody in the first half of his career, but on the PGA Tour Champions he is the man who seemingly comes from nowhere to win.
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It was looking as if we were going to be writing about the enduring brilliance of Bernhard Langer again but 50-year-old Alker had other plans.
He came from four shots down at the start of the final round at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor and fired an 8-under 63 to claim the Senior US PGA.
To put that in to perspective, he has now won three times in his last five starts and it's his fourth in 19 starts since joining the senior circuit.
"Just perseverance," Alker told the media afterwards when asked how he has done it. "That's all I can say. Just perseverance with a capital P."
Throughout his career, he's needed a lot of that.
12/9/2020: Alker wins on Outlaw Tour
5/29/2022: Alker wins Senior PGA Championship#MondayMotivation to keep grinding pic.twitter.com/A7hKU1axlk— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 30, 2022
According to the PGA Tour official site, he's made 86 starts and never recorded a single top-10, missing 47 cuts.
On the now defunct European Tour, he's 80 starts and missed cuts in 42. He did have one top-10.
He's also grinded it out on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour when it was known as the Nike Tour, Buy.Com Tour and the Web.com Tour.
Alker did win four times there, but he'll tell you it's not the same.
He added: "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."
Last five starts for Steven Alker ...
Win
2nd
Win
T3
Win pic.twitter.com/uQcqLX6urM— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 29, 2022
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Final leaderboard
S. Alker -16
S. Ames -13
B. Langer -10
K.J. Choi, M. Jimenez, M. Weird, P. Goydos -9
M. Hensby, B. Gay, S. Bertsch, C. Montgomerie, B. Jobe -8
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