Boca Raton, FL – Steven Alker isn’t the most well-known golfer on the PGA Tour Champions, but that’s about to change. The New Zealand native won the TimberTech Championship at Broken Sound Club on Sunday with the kind of superlative golf he has displayed since turning 50 in late July. Alker birdied two of the last four holes to outduel Jim Furyk and win by two shots over Furyk and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Alker finished at 17-under 199 after a final-round 68. It was Alker’s first victory since 2014, but not surprising – it was his eighth top-10 finish in nine starts since becoming eligible for the PGA Tour Champions. “It’s just been building,” Alker said. “I’ve been having chances. 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 want to get that win, and just glad I got one today.”
Alker isn’t a household name – not even among professional golfers. But he may be the next professional golfer to strike gold on the second-chance tour. “I didn’t know much about him, either,” Furyk said. “He doesn’t really seem to have any weaknesses. I told him on the 18th green I was really happy for him. “To kind of come from really no status out here on the Champions Tour to making the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in only nine or 10 events, that’s playing some good golf. He’s been knocking on the door and in the top-10 each and every week. Eventually you do that enough, you win a tournament.”
Ernie Els shot 71 and tied for fourth with Petrovic at 12-under 204. K.J. Choi (67) and Kirk Triplett (70) tied for sixth place. Bernhard Langer finished T11 to maintain his lead in the playoff standings. Langer leads Furyk by 337,727 points entering next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.
Charitable donations: Once again, Abdol Moaberry made a donation to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation through his Moaberry Family Foundation based on the number of birdies and eagles made by winner Steven Alker. The check was for $41,000 — $5,000 for an eagle and $2,000 for each of his 18 birdies. Azek Cares Foundation also made a pair of $5,000 donations to foundations selected by Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh after they were successful in the TimberTech Recycling Chipping Challenge. Furyk and Singh each made a chip into a recycling bin during the pro-am. Furyk’s donation went to One Tree Planted and Singh’s went to the ARC of St. Johns.
