Steven Alker

He worked as a petroleum engineer before embarking on his career as a professional golfer. He suffered from reactive arthritis from 1999-2002, which manifests itself as inflammation (heat, pain, and swelling) in the joints. Despite that condition, which can affect a professional golfer, he earned his PGA Tour card in 2003 after finishing fourth on the 2002 Nationwide Tour. He joined The European Tour after finishing 20th at the 2006 Qualifying School Final Stage, winning seven times worldwide, with tournament victories in America, Australia, Canada, Fiji, and Tahiti.
Member of the Korn Ferry Tour in 2002, 2004-06, and 2009-16. Member of the PGA Tour in 2003 and 2015.
Has played in 62 events on the PGA Tour up to the end of 2015, making 26 cuts and 6 top-25 finishes. His best finish was 17th at the 2003 Buick Invitational; he earned $623,168.
On the Korn Ferry Tour played in a total of 225 events up to now, winning 4 times, finishing runner-up 3 times, and making the cut in 112 events. He earned $1,190,375; his best year was 2002, when he finished fourth on the Money List with $247,008.
He played full-time on the European Tour in 1998, 2007, and '08, playing in 77 events. He finished in the top 10 twice; his best finish was a T-3rd in the 2007 KLM Open.
2012 Notes: Made the cut in eight of 22 Korn Ferry Tour starts. Finished in a tie for fourth at the inaugural Chile Classic, thanks to bogey-free rounds three of the four days. Wound up six strokes back of winner Paul Haley II.
2013 Notes: Made the cut in nine of 17 Web.Com starts, with a victory and three top-25 finishes. He won for the first time since 2009 when he captured the Utah Championship in a playoff against Ashley Hall.
2014 Notes: Made the cut in 10 of 18 Web.Com starts with a victory at the Cleveland Open. Also runner-up at the Albertsons Boise Open, he had three top-10s. He finished 10th on the money list with $249,536, the most money won in the ten years he has played the Korn Ferry Tour. The figure was enough to get his PGA Tour card for 2015.
2015 Notes: Made the cut in 9 of 22 starts on the PGA Tour but failed to record a top-10 finish. They ended the season ranked 177th in the FedExCup and 185th on the money list. He only had 2 top-25 finishes and opened with a 5-under 65 en route to a T-22nd finish at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, representing his season's best finish. They had a hole-in-one on the 14th hole (Monterey Peninsula CC) during the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am but failed to make the 54-hole cut at the event. He made all four cuts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but the best finish was only a T-16th. He finished 36th on the Finals' money list, 11 spots outside the cutoff to get one of the 25 available Finals cards, $5,924 shy.
2016 Notes: Played in 18 Korn Ferry Tour events making 12 cuts with two top-ten finishes. He was 6th at the Colombia Championship, and in the Finals, was 8th at the Albertsons Boise Open. He was 29th in the final priority-ranking order after securing his PGA Tour card with two top-20 finishes during the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
2017 Notes: Played in 23 PGA Tour events making 12 cuts with just one top-25 finish. He was 186th in the FedExCup rankings to lose his Tour card, which forced him back to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Unfortunately, his best finish was t-57th, which meant back to the Korn Ferry Tour.
2018 Notes: Played in 18 Korn Ferry Tour events making 12 cuts with four top-25 finishes. His best finish was T-16th at the Lincoln Land Championship.
2019 Notes: Played in 20 Korn Ferry Tour events making 12 cuts with four top-ten finishes. He was T-4th at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic with a final round 66. With opening rounds of 65-64 at the Dormie Network Classic, shot 69-70, finishing T-4th six shots back of winner InJun Zhang. They held a share of the 54-hole lead at the Lincoln Land Championship, shot a final-round 69 to finish T-8th, and were three shots back of the Zhang/Wu playoff. Was T-10th at the Price Cutter Charity. Finished the season at 49th on the Regular Season points list and T-62nd in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
2020/21 Notes: Played in 29 Korn Ferry Tour events making 14 cuts and one top-ten a T-5th in the 2021 Utah Championship. He was 111th on the points list, but that didn't matter because halfway through the 2021 season, he turned 50 and was able to Monday qualify for his first event at the Boeing Classic on the PGA Tour Champions. With rounds of 67-73-67, he finished T-7th three shots back of winner Rod Pampling. That got him into the next event, the Ally Challenge, and he finished 3rd, two shots behind winner Joe Durant. He did it again in his next event, finishing T-9th at the Ascension Charity Classic. At the Sanford International, he rang up his fourth consecutive top-ten with a T-7th finish 4 shots back of the Clarke/Choi/Flesch playoff. In his next event, he finished T-5th at the Pure Insurance Championship 2 shots back of the Choi/Cejka/Langer playoff. He got a sixth consecutive top-ten at the XConstellation Furyk & Friends, finishing T-7th. The streak ended at the SAS Championship when he finished T-16th. But at the Dominion Energy Charity, he led after a first-round 63 and finished with a T-4th, earning him a spot in the second Charles Schwab Cup Playoff event, moving from 55th to 46th in the standings. There he got his first victory, with rounds of 68-63-68. He finished two shots ahead of Jim Furyk and Miguel Angel Jimenez. With his win, Alker jumped from 46th to 22nd in the Charles Schwab Cup standings to earn a spot in the 2021 Charles Schwab Cup Championship. After earning the last place in the field with his win, Alker carded back-to-back birdies on the final two holes of the tournament to finish 2nd a shot back of winner Phil Mickelson at the 2021 Charles Schwab Cup Championship. It was a stunning three months of golf as he finished in the top ten in nine of his ten starts. In that span he went from a Monday Qualifier to a winner on the Champions Tour. As a comparison, Alker played in 86 PGA Tour events between 2003 and 2017. He won $841,849. In 304 Korn Ferry Tour events between 2001 and 2020, he won $1,4777,017. But in ten events over three months, Alker earned $1,146,207 and became a star on the Champions Tour.
2022 Notes: Played in 23 PGA Tour Champions events, finishing in the top 10 18 times. He won the Schwab Rankings and led the tour in earnings with $3,544,425. He led the standings for the final 21 weeks of the 27-week season. He showed that the previous year was not an anomaly in his first start of the year. At the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, he finished 2nd after losing to Miguel Angel Jimenez on the second playoff hole. He marked his 10th top-10 in 11 starts on PGA Tour Champions, going 1st-2nd-2nd in his last three starts. At his next start, the Chubb Classic had rounds of 71-65-71 to finishing T-5th. After finishing T-20th at the Cologuard Classic and T-15th at the Hoag Classic, he went on another streak. He captured his second win in his last seven starts at the Rapiscan Systems Classic, setting the 54-hole tournament scoring record (198) and margin of victory record (6). His second-round 62 was the lowest 18-hole score in tournament history. The following week he finished runner-up at the ClubCorp Classic after being the 36-hole leader and losing in a sudden-death playoff to Scott Parel. The next week he won for the third time at the Insperity Invitational with rounds of 67-65-66 for a four-shot win over Steve Stricker and Brandt Jobe. At his first Champions Tour major, the Regions Tradition shot a final round 72 to finish T-3rd, seven shots back of winner Steve Stricker. In his second major at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship shot a final round 63 to win by three shots over Stephen Ames. The next week he got his sixth consecutive top-3 finish on PGA Tour Champions with a T-3rd at the Principal Charity Classic. Co-led entering the final round after posting 67-64 and closed with 69 to finish two shots back of the Jerry Kelly/Kirk Triplett playoff. In the following three majors, he was T-11th at the U.S. Senior Open, T-3rd at the Bridgestone Senior Players, and T-3rd at the Senior Open. He notched top-3 finishes in four of the five senior majors in 2022. His pace slowed a bit until he finished 2nd at the SAS Championship, six shots back of champion Fred Couples. At the Dominion Energy Charity Classic the next week, he birdied three of his last four holes to beat K.J. Choi by a shot. In returning to the Timber Tech Championship, the site of his first Champions win finished T-6th. At the season-ending Charles Schwab Championships, finished 3rd at 19 under par. He led or co-led after each of the first two rounds and went the first 65 holes of the 72-hole event without a bogey or worse. But Padraig Harrington finished with rounds of 62-65 to claim the championship.
2023 Notes: The year started sadly when Alker's caddie Sam Workman passed away on February 6th. The two had been a team since 2019, when Alker played on the Korn Ferry Tour. The two started the season finishing T-2nd at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, six shots back of winner Steve Stricker. Soon after, Workman was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and a week after Alker found out, Workman died. Alker finished T-8th at the Chubb Classic and then 2nd at the Galleri Classic, four shots back of winner David Toms. That marked his 12th top-2 in his first 36 starts on PGA Tour Champions. In defense of his Insperity Invitational title, Steven's son Ben debuted on Alker's bag as several of Workman's family members, and Workman's friends were on hand for the tournament. Alker didn't miss a beat as he defended his title with Ben on the bag, winning by four shots over Steve Stricker. Missed the cut at the PGA Championship.