Steven Alker’s eighth win on the PGA Tour Champions

``Where the hell have you been all this time?’'

Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai - Final Round
KAILUA KONA, HAWAII - JANUARY 20: Steven Alker of New Zealand poses with the trophy after winning the PGA TOUR Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Club on January 20, 2024 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

That was the question raised by television commentator Lanny Wadkins after Steven Alker of New Zealand won for the eighth time on the PGA Tour Champions earlier this month.

Alker’s victory came in Hawaii which was the first tournament of the year for players aged at least 50.

Alker, 52, equalled the tournament’s record score of 25 under par set by Loren Roberts in 2006. It was also Alker’s second win in a row on the PGA Tour Champions, having won the tour’s final event last year.

Alker has been a revelation since joining the PGA Tour Champions, winning the season-long competition in 2022 and finishing second last year.

Earlier in his career he missed 21 cuts in 21 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour a little more than a decade ago (2010) and never made an impact on the PGA Tour, failing to record a top 10 finish.

In the final round of the Hawaiian event, Alker did not miss a single green in regulation. His ball-striking was clinical and he won with a new set of irons. He made seven birdies and an eagle.

After the win Alker was asked exactly when he became so comfortable playing against a roster of major winners and Hall of Famers on the PGA Tour Champions.

“I’m trying not to get comfortable, to be honest,” Alker said with a smile.

“Especially with the company we’re keeping (alluding to third-placed Steve Stricker and the long-hitting runner-up Harrison Frazar, with whom he played on the last day of the tournament).

“I try not to get comfortable. To answer your question though ... when you get that second win, it’s okay, I can do this, and try to keep going from there.”

Alker began the final round leading Stricker and Frazar by two. Alker just kept charging in the final round, leaving no openings. He did come close one time, but he recovered and would not be caught afterward to take home a first prize of $US340,000 which is about $NZ556,00.

Alker made the most of a massive break on the 556-yard, par five seventh hole, where he pushed a second shot from 218 yards with “a scrappy four iron” that caromed twice off a cart path, then bounded toward jagged lava rocks right of the green. Bernhard Langer once made a 10 on the hole, so it can happen.

But it was almost as if the lava rocks spit out Alker's ball, and it bounded across the green before stopping just short of the left fringe, some 40 feet from the flagstick.

The fortuitous break was magnified when Alker stepped up and ran in the monstrous putt for eagle.

“Obviously I got a little bit lucky,” said Alker, who was blocked from seeing the bouncing ball after he struck it.

“Someone said it came off the lava rocks, or something happened up there. I didn’t see it. I hit a scrappy four iron and it ended up nice, and I made the putt.

“That was a big swing there. And I hit a beautiful shot into eight (a 204-yard par three, where Alker hit it to six feet) and made that one. I felt good after that. I hit some good tee shots from then on, and got into more of a groove.”

Did he ever. Stricker knew he had a tall task ahead of him trying to chase down Alker, who these days is swinging the club beautifully and making very few unforced errors.

Stricker said: “I would have needed something pretty special to catch Steve today.