Steven Alker (-25) gave no chance to his opponents and became the first winner of the season on the PGA Champions Tour, the American circuit for seniors, this past night. The 52-year-old New Zealander successfully closed a brilliant week in which he was able to lead from start to finish the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, earning a cheque worth 340,000 dollars.
On Thursday, at the start of the tournament, he managed to place himself as co-leader alongside Vijay Singh, but with his 63 yesterday he climbed to the top of the leaderboard alone, a position he maintained this Saturday with another brilliant round of 63 strokes, with an eagle and seven birdies, without fault. Alker closes the tournament with only one bogey in 54 holes, leading by four strokes over Harrison Frazar (-21) and by five over Steve Stricker (-20), the true dominator of the tour last season.
Steven Alker is making everything!
He leads by three with six to play @MEC_Golf 💪 pic.twitter.com/gsQXxINhXK
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) January 21, 2024
It is the eighth victory of Steven on the Champions Tour (curiously, he was not able to achieve any top 10 in the more than 80 tournaments he played on the PGA Tour). In his first year on the circuit, 2021, he won a tournament (the TimberTech Championship). In 2022 he won four times (the Rapiscan Systems Classic, the Insperity Invitational, the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, his only major, and the Dominion Energy Charity Classic), and last year he added two more victories to his record (he re-edited the title in the Insperity Invitational and won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the tournament that closed the course).
What are the odds?!
After a lucky bounce off the cart path AND lava, Steven Alker makes a ridiculous eagle.
He leads by three @MEC_Golf. pic.twitter.com/U1wLW3sitR
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) January 21, 2024
For the Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez (-9), this start of the season has not been the dream one. After winning this Hawaiian event three times, he had to settle for a tied 18th place. However, he did so by closing his participation with a very good round of 66 strokes, with six birdies and without fault, to climb three positions in the table. The Chubb Classic, where he has won twice, will be the next appointment on the calendar, from 16 to 18 February in Naples, Florida.
